David Handler

"This is confection in the guise of a mystery novel; it goes down easy as a milkshake."—Sarah Weinman, The New York Times Book Review

A 1955 Rolls-Royce Silver Cloud is a fantastically expensive car, especially in the pristine condition of the one owned by Muriel Cantrell. Living in a luxury apartment building on Central Park West, the delicate, sweet 75-year-old woman is a neighbor of Merilee Nash, the beautiful movie

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"Every year, the Gant family performs an annual ritual desecrating the tomb of Aurora Bing. The Gants have held a grudge against the legendary silent film star for almost eighty years, but for Shem Gant and his son, things have become personal. Aurora's only grandchild, Hubie Swope, has shut down Shem's notoriously rowdy beachfront bar, and refuses to allow The Pit to reopen until Shem undertakes expensive upgrades. This means war. And when The Pit...

The next clever, witty, and touching installment in the Edgar award-winning Stewart Hoag mystery series finds the beloved ghostwriter-sleuth and his faithful neurotic basset hound, Lulu, back in 1990's New York City, investigating a bestselling author's stolen manuscript and three murders linked to the crime. Washed-up celebrity ghostwriter Stewart "Hoagy" Hoag has finally rediscovered his voice and is making progress on what he hopes will be his...

The historic New England village of Dorset has actually elected a living, breathing woman as its First Selectman. And, now she's about to undertake the Historic District's biggest public works project in a generation- the widening and re-grading of Dorset Street. The job has needed doing for ages but the previous First Selectman, Bob Paffin, always opposed it. So did a lot of Dorset's blue-blooded old guard. The long put-off dig uncovers a body buried...

Hoagy discovers a rock god's deadly side is more than an act. From the first time they played on the Ed Sullivan Show, Us was the hottest band on earth. For more than a decade, the group tore through the charts and indulged in an endless cycle of drugs, women, and violence, until two musicians died, the drummer by drugs, the guitarist by a crazed gunman. Once the band was finished, lead singer Tristam Scarr retreated to the English countryside, hiding...

A killer with a novelist's touch wants Hoagy to be his editor. The author calls himself the Answer Man. He introduces himself to Stewart Hoag, onetime literary darling of the New York scene, with a letter begging for help with his first novel. Hoagy usually ignores such requests, but the Answer Man's sample chapter grabs his attention. It is a chilling, first-person story about a man who picks up a girl in a pet shop, takes her home, and savagely...

A famous director, mired in a nasty divorce, hires Hoagy to salvage his name. In Matthew Wax's films, politicians are honest, parents are respected, and nice guys finish first.  Wax has been Hollywood's most beloved director for decades, and his personal life seemed as squeaky-clean as the world of his films. But when he and his wife, leading lady Pennyroyal Brim, file for divorce, the mud starts to fly. She accuses him of bedroom tyranny, sexual...

Down on his luck, a writer takes a ghostwriting job for a troubled comedian. 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...

"In the next novel in David Handler's Edgar award-winning series, Stewart "Hoagy" Hoag and his beloved basset hound, Lulu, investigate a murder in a fabled Connecticut summer playhouse. Hollywood ghostwriter Stewart "Hoagy" Hoag has chronicled the rise, fall, and triumphant return of many a celebrity. At last he's enjoying his own, very welcome second act. After hitting a creative slump following the success of his debut novel, Hoagy has found inspiration...