Friday, February 20, 2015

What is David Handler reading?

Featured at Writers Read: David Handler, author of Phantom Angel: A Mystery.

His entry begins:
I love to comb through used bookstores. There’s a terrific one near my home on the Connecticut shoreline called the Book Barn. I was pawing around in the murder and mayhem section there recently when I came across an old 50-cent Dell paperback from the early 1960s entitled Alfred Hitchcock Presents: 14 of My Favorites in Suspense. I grabbed it. The reason I did is because one of those 14 favorites of his happened to be "The Birds," the 1952 short story by the great Daphne du Maurier that was the basis for Hitchcock’s breathtakingly brilliant 1963 movie. I love the movie. I love Daphne du Maurier’s writing. And yet, for some reason, I’d never come across the story before.

I just read it this morning. Have you ever read it? Oh, you...[read on]
About Phantom Angel, from the publisher:
A wickedly funny private eye novel set in the dark underbelly of New York City, where the worlds of Broadway and organized crime meet

When it comes to tracking down teen runaways, there is no private investigator in New York City better than streetwise Benji Golden. But his newest client is Morrie Frankel, the last of the great Broadway showmen. Morrie’s current extravaganza, a lavish $65 million musical adaptation of Emily Bronte’s Wuthering Heights, is the biggest unfolding disaster the Great White Way has ever seen. Rumor has it, if he doesn’t find a deep-pocketed “angel,” or investor, soon, he might go down and take the production with him.

Morrie thought he had found such an investor in hedge fund billionaire R.J. Farnell, who promised to keep the teetering production afloat. But Farnell and his $12 million have vanished. Benji tracks Farnell to his girlfriend, Jonquil Beausoleil, who turns the investigation on its head. When Morrie is found gunned down on 42nd Street, Benji finds himself smack in the middle of a high-profile murder investigation, and he’ll have to pierce through a lot of Broadway gossip before he can find the killer.

Phantom Angel is the next entertaining installment in David Handler’s newest mystery series, sure to delight both old and new fans of this award--winning, unique voice in crime fiction.
Learn more about the book and author at David Handler's website.

Writers Read: David Handler (October 2011).

Writers Read: David Handler (October 2012).

Writers Read: David Handler (August 2013).

Writers Read: David Handler (March 2014).

Writers Read: David Handler.

--Marshal Zeringue