Chamblee54

Kinky Friedman is the person his cat thinks he is. It is tough to tell what a feline actually thinks, or if it indeed does engage in humanoid musing, but you have to admit that is a good opening line for a book report. If the kinkstah can turn a Hawaiin travelogue into a detective novel, then a slack blogger can turn a blog post about that volume into an exploration of the feline mind.
Steppin On A Rainbow starts off with Mr. Friedman, or a name sharing character, in a Manhattan apartment. His wannabe gf is on vacation, shielding her dogs from ethnic cuisine. One friend is ghost writing a book for Howard Stern, while another is working on a book in Israel. Drunken Irish Poet McGovern is in Hawaii, working on a food book, Eat Drink and Be Kinky.
The fun starts when Kinky gets a couple of phone calls. One of the dogs, owned by wgf, has died. Wgf comes home, to seeking comfort and a Jewish detective to insult. The second call has the disturbing news that McGovern has turned up missing.
McGovern once had a chat with a Japanese tourist. The JT asked where the world trade center was. McGovern said that your people were able to find Pearl Harbor. The book is set in 1999, when the world was y2k atwitter. The reality of 2001 was a figment of someone’s imagination. Whether this imagination belonged to an Arab quadrillionaire, the CIA, the Bush family, or all of the above, is an issue for sounder minds to ponder.
So the story unwinds. McGovern does not show up. A billionaire friend pays the way for a search party to go to Hawaii. The players are the moneyman, Kinky, Stephanie (wgf,) and her two surviving dogs. Kinky is liberally insulted, limericks are told, alcohol is consumed, Hawaiian history is discussed, and yapping dogs make noise. And McGovern is probably a shark’s breakfast.
The story, or lack of same, goes on for 45 chapters, and 271 pages. It is great fun, with sparkling dialog and pithy insights. The trouble is, McGovern is still missing. It isn’t until the last few pages, when the story comes to an end. Chamblee54 tries to be a spoiler free zone. The ending is totally improbable, even by Kinky Friedman standards. You don’t read this blog detective stories to wallow in reality.