Impossible Bliss

by Lee Sheldon

Overview

A golfer disappearing into thin air from a sand trap is more than new police chief Dan Shepard bargained for when he left the big city for the supposedly quiet resort town of Carmel, California.

"Let me get this straight," Shepard said. "Not only does the victim vanish from the scene of the crime, and wind up someplace he really can't be, but somewhere along the way he changed his socks?"

As if that problem wasn't enough, Shepard also has to contend with the constant interference of an irascible amateur sleuth, Herman de Portola Bliss. Bliss is an artist with no talent for painting, but an unerring eye for clues, and an even greater talent for getting into trouble.

As the case twists and turns its way along the shores of scenic Monterey Bay, the mismatched pair finds themselves drawn into an edgy partnership confronted with more than one dead body. Even Bliss may not be good enough for this one.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780595780877
Publisher:	iUniverse, Incorporated
Publication date:	11/08/2004
Sold by:	Barnes & Noble
Format:	eBook
Pages:	240
File size:	482 KB

Editorial Reviews

In his first mystery novel, Sheldon presents an "impossible crime" worthy in its "impossibility" of John Dickson Carr himself. On the seventh hole of the Carmel Bay Country Club, during his usual Wednesday morning foursome, lawyer Alex Wagner hits his ball into a low bunker. He appears to loft it nicely out onto the green where it ends up in the cup. To the surprise of his three golf buddies, Wagner doesn't climb out of the sand trap to gloat over his miraculous shot. When they finally look in the bunker, the man is gone. Later his body turns up in the bay miles away. A potential witness to this vanishing act is artist Herman de Portola Bliss, a notorious public nuisance, who was painting near the seventh hole at the time. Taking charge of the investigation, Dan Shepard, the easygoing new chief of the Carmel City (Calif.) police department, finds himself reluctantly playing Watson to Bliss, who has a natural gift for detective work. While some people want Wagner's murderer found, others don't. Since Shepard is new to the area, everyone keeps a dubious eye on the chief's performance, and Bliss doesn't make his job easier. A witty and graceful style, an unusual cast of characters and a mystery that baffles up to the last page bode well for future puzzlers from Sheldon. If this isn't the start of a series, it should be. (POD) FYI: The author is also a TV producer (Charlie's Angels; Star Trek: The Next Generation) and a computer-game designer (Wild, Wild West: The Steel Assassin; The Riddle of Master Lu). He has twice been nominated for Edgar Awards.

Publishers Weekly