The Hotel Detective
Pages: 329
|Published: 1 Jan 1994
Description
“Cleverly crafted and enormously enjoyable. ”—Ellery Queen Mystery Magazine
When the security director of the posh Hotel California abruptly departs, assistant manager Am Caulfield steps into the role. The newbie hotel detective is quickly overwhelmed when a murder-mystery weekend descends on the hotel at the same time as a Bob Johnson convention (yes, the attendees are all named Bob Johnson)—and that’s before a bra thief strikes, a contractor leaps to his death, and two more dead bodies turn up.
Mayhem has checked in to the Hotel California. So, as it turns out, has a murderer. Like the little Dutch boy, Am must try and plug one leak after another. Will he be able to get the job done before yet another hotel guest checks out forever?
Revised and updated edition
Also available in a new paperback edition upon release
A Q&A with Author Alan Russell
Q: It has been a long time since the Hotel Detective books were released. What prompted their rerelease?
A: I wrote the books as a young man, and many readers fell in love with the series. For more than twenty years people have been asking me, “When is the next Hotel Detective book coming out? ”
Q: And when is the next Hotel Detective book coming out?
A: If this rerelease of the first two books proves popular, my hope would be to release the third book in the series by 2020.
Q: What about this series do readers like?
A: I wrote these books while I was a general manager at a resort hotel in La Jolla. Not coincidentally, the mysteries take place at an oceanfront resort in La Jolla. I think readers love getting an “inn-side” look at the operations of a hotel.
Q: Reviewers have said these are a “departure” from your usual novels.
A: Although I often use humor in my novels, the hotel novels were written with the express purpose of making readers laugh. If you don’t have a sense of humor, you shouldn’t read these books.
Q: Is it difficult writing comedic novels?
A: I would like to think I have a natural bent for doing it. That said, humor is very subjective. Over the years there have been very few mysteries written for laughs. It is a tough nut to crack.
Q: You apparently succeeded, though. These books received starred reviews, and you won the Lefty, a prestigious award given to the best comedic mystery.
A: It’s nice having an outlet for my warped sense of humor.
Q: You are best known for your Gideon and Sirius novels. Are these series in any way similar, and do you think your Gideon and Sirius readers would like these books?
A: Readers who appreciate Gideon’s wisecracks would probably like Am Caulfield, the main character in the Hotel Detective novels. Am’s humor is more situational, but in both men gallows humor runs deep.
When the security director of the posh Hotel California abruptly departs, assistant manager Am Caulfield steps into the role. The newbie hotel detective is quickly overwhelmed when a murder-mystery weekend descends on the hotel at the same time as a Bob Johnson convention (yes, the attendees are all named Bob Johnson)—and that’s before a bra thief strikes, a contractor leaps to his death, and two more dead bodies turn up.
Mayhem has checked in to the Hotel California. So, as it turns out, has a murderer. Like the little Dutch boy, Am must try and plug one leak after another. Will he be able to get the job done before yet another hotel guest checks out forever?
Revised and updated edition
Also available in a new paperback edition upon release
A Q&A with Author Alan Russell
Q: It has been a long time since the Hotel Detective books were released. What prompted their rerelease?
A: I wrote the books as a young man, and many readers fell in love with the series. For more than twenty years people have been asking me, “When is the next Hotel Detective book coming out? ”
Q: And when is the next Hotel Detective book coming out?
A: If this rerelease of the first two books proves popular, my hope would be to release the third book in the series by 2020.
Q: What about this series do readers like?
A: I wrote these books while I was a general manager at a resort hotel in La Jolla. Not coincidentally, the mysteries take place at an oceanfront resort in La Jolla. I think readers love getting an “inn-side” look at the operations of a hotel.
Q: Reviewers have said these are a “departure” from your usual novels.
A: Although I often use humor in my novels, the hotel novels were written with the express purpose of making readers laugh. If you don’t have a sense of humor, you shouldn’t read these books.
Q: Is it difficult writing comedic novels?
A: I would like to think I have a natural bent for doing it. That said, humor is very subjective. Over the years there have been very few mysteries written for laughs. It is a tough nut to crack.
Q: You apparently succeeded, though. These books received starred reviews, and you won the Lefty, a prestigious award given to the best comedic mystery.
A: It’s nice having an outlet for my warped sense of humor.
Q: You are best known for your Gideon and Sirius novels. Are these series in any way similar, and do you think your Gideon and Sirius readers would like these books?
A: Readers who appreciate Gideon’s wisecracks would probably like Am Caulfield, the main character in the Hotel Detective novels. Am’s humor is more situational, but in both men gallows humor runs deep.
