The Straight Man

by Roger L. Simon

First published 2001

Moses Wine sits in his psychiatrist's office, his life falling apart. The Tulip Computer Corporation fired him from his security job. His children ignore him. His detective career has stalled. The shrink has an unusual prescription: take on a new case. A comedian who worked as the straight man in America's top comedy duo has plunged from a building to his death. The official verdict is suicide, but the dead man's wife believes someone murdered her husband. Moses follows the investigation from Los Angeles beach communities to the South Bronx. He encounters dangerous criminals, seductive women, and bizarre suspects. The case pulls him deeper into a world where nothing is as it seems. Moses discovers that solving this mystery might cure his depression, but it could also get him killed.

Genres: mystery, crime, thriller, detective

Vibes: dark, suspenseful, thought-provoking

Tropes: fish-out-of-water, unreliable-narrator

Setting: Los Angeles, South Bronx

Period: 20th-century

240 pages · Paperback · UNKNO

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