BLISS: A Lenny Bliss Mystery - Hardcover

Sloan, Bob

3.47

15 ratings by Goodreads

9780684822501: BLISS: A Lenny Bliss Mystery

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 0684822504 ISBN 13: 9780684822501

Publisher: Scribner, 1996

View all copies of this ISBN edition:

In the midst of Lenny Bliss' marriage falling apart, a prostitute is murdered, and Bliss becomes obsessed with the case, which leads the NYPD detective into the dark world of the Russian mob

"synopsis" may belong to another edition of this title.

From Kirkus Reviews:

Detective Lenny Bliss, NYPD Homicide, can't buy a break. His neglected wife Rachel Davis has started to pull in club audiences for her comedy routines based on his sad-sack grind; his daughters understudy their mother by trying out their jokes about the Cereal Killer and the De-Ranged Killer on him; his octoroon partner Ward's jazzy crime-scene patter gives him nightmares. And now Ward's riding high, because the murder of St. Petersburg dentist Elena Koroshekvesy, last seen turning tricks in the Big Apple, and the taunting phone calls Bliss has been getting from whoever killed another prostitute and left her body in an obliging dumpster, are nasty enough material for Ward's cruelest cracks. But Bliss isn't the only one who's feeling the pinch. Performance artist Johnny Tolstoy, the pimp who strangled Elena, feels as if he's just killed the goose that laid the golden eggs. Elena's replacement, the angelic waitress Tatyana, turns out to have ideas of her own about their partnership. So does Brighton Beach kingpin Sascha the Bear, who expects a hefty percentage of Tatyana's take. Johnny may just have to slice his way out of these troubles. . . . Sloan's first mystery (following Dad's Own Cookbook, not reviewed) is jocular, neurotic, and depressive--not by turns, but all at once. It's like watching a psychotic standup comic self- destruct on the analyst's couch. -- Copyright �1996, Kirkus Associates, LP. All rights reserved.

From Publishers Weekly:

Like its villain, this first in a projected series has big ideas but lacks the discipline or the knowledge to achieve them. New York homicide detective Lenny Bliss has the murders of two Russian-born hookers to solve. He's a hangdog kind of a guy, like Stuart Kaminsky's Lieberman, only a little younger and a little less cynical. The dead hookers are both victims of blundering, delusional Johnny Tolstoy, an occasional pimp and aspiring stand-up comic who runs afoul of the Russian mobsters who control the Brighton Beach area of Brooklyn. The first dead girl is a dentist with two children, who was working nights to raise the cash to return home. Tolstoy kills the women, pretty much senselessly, and then tries to incorporate his sinister tendencies into his stand-up routine. Bliss's wife, Rachel, is also bitten by the funny bug, and Sloan subjects readers to bits of her act, an abysmal routine lamenting the pitfalls of being a cop's mate. Forsaking all suspense, Sloan hands us Tolstoy in the second chapter. Worse, while Bliss is good for a few quiet chuckles, his wife is relentlessly, mindnumbingly unfunny. Sloan offers a handful of decent lines, an agreeably subtle notion of pathos and no apparent ability to sustain wit beyond the first few punchlines or plot beyond the third chapter.
Copyright 1996 Reed Business Information, Inc.

"About this title" may belong to another edition of this title.