If you think your job is dangerous, try showing up for work
and discovering a dead body. Then be under suspicion for
the crime. What a way to start a day! That's what happens
to Nicholas Palihnic when he's hired by an insurance
company to find a stolen painting. And it goes downhill
from there, if you can believe that. But then, since
Nicholas is related to Garth Carson, taxidermy collector,
it should be no surprise that trouble will cling to him and
his signature tweed suit as it does to Garth and his
stuffed creatures.
Everyone is tripping and scrambling over each other,
Nicholas and the painting. But who can blame them? There
are millions at stake. When you think you know who to trust
and who's the rightful owner of the painting, bam, you're
wrong and back to square one. The players are numerous and
come and go in the blink of an eye. My favorites are the
hockey playing brothers who remind me of a more active,
talkative and, yes, modern version of Larry, Darryl and
Darryl. And as for figuring out where the painting is, I
thought I had it a few times, but Wiprud fooled me again
with his artful suspenseful writing.
CROOKED is a funny, quirky mystery with just the tiniest
bit of romance. Nicholas is lovable and seems to be able to
charm his way into any woman's heart. But has he met his
match with Mel? Hopefully, after Wiprud's re-release of
SLEEP WITH THE FISHES he'll continue Nicholas' story.
Nicholas Palihnic is a natty, tweed-suited hustler who
knows every nook and cranny of New York–and a thousand
ways to break a girl’s heart. Beatrice Belarus is a
Manhattan art dealer with an insatiable appetite for money–
and for anyone who gets in her way. And a painting titled
Trampoline Nude, 1972 has neither nudity nor a trampoline.
But when Nicholas is hired by an insurance company to find
the recently stolen painting, a murdered art thief points
him to a trove of gold buried beneath Manhattan–and
suddenly all roads are leading back to Beatrice. As
fortune hunters, lovers, and other strangers gather around
him, there’s one thing Nicholas must remember above all
else: in this business, it’s better to be crooked than
dead....