Jimmy McShane
Created by William Kotzwinkle
A goofy, feel-good little fantasy
featuring former MP and happy-go-lucky Manhattan private eye JIMMY
McSHANE. Jimmy's a New York kid, born and bred in Hell's Kitchen,
where he learned the fine art of lockpicking from Willy the Wire.
He splits an office with his inamorata, Dr. Ann Henderson, a New
Age chiropractor.
While working on a case involving some pretty pricey antiques and the murder of Tommy Rennseler, a Manhattan dealer, he gets tangled up with the victim's beautiful daughter and "The Game of Thirty," an ancient Egyptian board game played by Pharaohs with dice made from bone whose moves seem to parallel, and then to forecast, his investigation.
The players in this version of the game apparently have chosen Manhattan as their board, and have moved Rennseler's piece to the square of "Rebirth."t. With a little help from Ann, he sets about the task of finding the other player. Along the way, he also runs into Chinese hitmen, pornographers, diamond merchants, cobra venom, smugglers, a little ritual disembowelment and pedophiles.
Quirky, whimsical stuff from the man who brought us such off the wall tales as The Fan Man, Doctor Rat, and The Bear Went Over the Mountain. he's also repsonsible for Trouble in Bugland a collection of five Inspector Mantis mysteries that plant Holmes and Watson in a magical world of bugs, and a couple of books about Walter the Farting Dog, but he'll probably be forever doomed to be remembered for writing the novelization of E.T. The Extra-Terrestrial, which sold a few zillion copies back around 1982.
UNDER OATH
NOVELS
Report respectfully submitted by Dale Stoyer and Kevin Burton Smith.
