The Man Who Died Laughing - Paperback

by David Handler (Author)

First in the Edgar Award-winning series from "a novelist whose champagne-fizzy mysteries tickle the brain, heart, and funny bone in equal measure" (AJ Finn, #1 New York Times-bestselling author).

Stewart Hoag's first novel made him the toast of New York. Everyone in Manhattan wanted to be his friend, and he traveled the cocktail circuit supported by Merilee, his wife, and Lulu, his basset hound. But when writer's block sunk his second novel, his friends, money, and wife all disappeared. Only Lulu stuck by him. The only opportunity left is ghostwriting--an undignified profession that still beats dental school.

Hoagy's first client is Sonny Day, an aging comic who was the king of slapstick three decades ago. Since he and his partner had a falling out in the late 1950s, Day has grown embittered and poor, until the only thing left for him to do is write a memoir. Hoagy and Lulu fly to Hollywood expecting a few months of sunshine and easy living. Instead they find Day's corpse, and a murder rap with Hoagy's name on it.

Author Biography

David Handler (b. 1952) is the critically acclaimed author of several bestselling mystery series. He began his career as a New York City reporter, and wrote his first two novels--Kiddo (1987) and Boss (1988)--about his Los Angeles childhood. In 1988 he published The Man Who Died Laughing, the first of a series of mysteries starring ghostwriter Stuart Hoag and his faithful basset hound Lulu. Handler wrote eight of the novels, winning both Edgar and American Mystery awards for The Man Who Would Be F. Scott Fitzgerald (1990).

The Cold Blue Blood (2001) introduced a new series character, New York film critic Mitch Berger, who fights his reclusive nature to solve crimes with the help of police Lieutenant Desiree Mitry. Handler has published eleven novels starring the pair. He lives and writes in Old Lyme, Connecticut.