The Great American Deception

by Scott Stein

Overview

A damsel in distress. A dangerous dame. A metric-ton of coffee...

Private Investigator Frank Harken's worldwide fame has only made him more cynical. And living in a giant mall covering the entire USA only serves to drive him nuts on a daily basis. So when a femme fatale barges in asking Harken to track down her sister, he knows when he's heard an offer too good to be true.

Puzzled by the sudden arrival of Arjay, a sentient coffee-making robot he never ordered, Frank shrugs and rolls with the caffeinated punches. But as the intrepid duo dig deeper into the missing dame's disappearance, they uncover a deadly plot that could take down the best part of a society gone bananas...

Can the world-weary PI and his barista-bot foil the dastardly scheme to rob Americans of their entertainment?

The Great American Deception is a sci-fi comedy satire. If you like quirky characters, cultural mashups, and original wordplay, then you'll love Scott Stein's futuristic send-up.

Buy The Great American Deception to brew up a laugh-out-loud mystery today!

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781946501219
Publisher:	Tiny Fox Press LLC
Publication date:	05/05/2020
Series:	Great American , #1
Pages:	232
Product dimensions:	5.50(w) x 8.25(h) x 0.53(d)

Editorial Reviews

★ 03/23/2020

Stein (Mean Martin Manning) delivers a madcap sci-fi take on the hard-boiled detective genre in this fun, near-future romp that’s chock-full of rapid-fire wit, tongue-in-cheek literary allusions, and playful futuristic absurdity. Arjay, a sentient, top-of-the-line coffee machine with an excess of pep, tags along on the cases of old-school PI Frank Harken within the luxurious but dystopian confines of the Great American—a giant, autonomous, U.S.-coast-spanning shopping mall. Though the grumpy gumshoe is not always thrilled by Arjay’s presence, he can’t deny that the bot makes a “damn fine” cup of coffee. When one of the Great American’s inhabitants, Pretty Lovely, hires Harken to find her sister, kidnapped heiress Winsome Smiles, Harken and Arjay are plunged into Great American’s underbelly, where they encounter genre staples including mobsters and incompetent cops. Stein keeps the stakes high and the laughs coming, juxtaposing the gritty mystery and dystopian setting with Arjay’s perky narration to excellent effect. Sure to appeal to fans of Douglas Adams, this zany, uproarious mystery is a constant delight. (May)

Publishers Weekly

"Stein keeps the stakes high and the laughs coming, juxtaposing the gritty mystery and dystopian setting with Arjay’s perky narration to excellent effect. Sure to appeal to fans of Douglas Adams, this zany, uproarious mystery is a constant delight." — Publishers Weekly (starred review)

“Get ready for some super great fun! The Great American Deception is a hilarious (and deeply disturbing) voyage through a futuristic netherworld of caffeinated robots and diet pizza. Somewhere—possibly nowhere—Douglas Adams is sighing pleasurably with a combination of approval and afterlife indigestion.” — Gary Shteyngart, author of Little Failure and Lake Success

“The Great American Deception is such fun to read! Both funny and insightful, this Scott Stein original sends up the conventions and conceits of contemporary life in a daffy, cultural mash-up.” — Paula Marantz Cohen, author of Suzanne Davis Gets a Life and Beatrice Bunson’s Guide to Romeo and Juliet

“The Great American Deception is by far the most enjoyable novel told from the point of view of a futuristic coffee machine I have ever read!” — Ben Schwartz, actor and writer

"A laugh-out-loud detective noir that reads like Twin Peaks meets Futurama. Even the footnotes are hilarious!" -Jacopo della Quercia, author of The Great Abraham Lincoln Pocket Watch Conspiracy and co-author of MacTrump

“An amusing SF private eye/coffee spoof, chock-full of silicon circuits, served with laughs. This coffee tale offers good taste (to the last drop).” — Kirkus Reviews

From the Publisher

2020-02-06
In a giant, futuristic mall, a coffee machine with artificial intelligence excitedly narrates the exploits of its new owner, a retro-style, hard-boiled gumshoe.

Stein’s (Lost, 2019) satirical SF detective yarn at least initially owes much to Douglas Adams before the material finds its own humorous tone. The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy fans may recall Adams’ ancillary detail of robotic home appliances with “Real People Personalities,” often annoying, single-minded entities. And coffee machines were among those conveniences so accessorized. Arjay, the first-person (or first-gadget?) narrator here, is such a device, an ever upbeat, persistent, and talkative “top of the line” coffee maker. Arjay gets delivered to Frank Harken, a private eye of the old school, whose beat is the Great American, a fortresslike, coast-to-coast shopping/dining/entertainment/residential mall (shades of Somtow Sucharitkul’s Mallworld).The mall is a consumer paradise and haven for the elite in an otherwise ill-described (but doubtlessly unpleasant) future United States. Because of a prime directive to serve coffee in any circumstance, Arjay is mobile, resourceful, multilimbed, and filled with extra goodies such as laser cutters. The AI becomes sidekick to bemused tough-guy Harken. The chipper appliance recounts their initial case together, a missing custom-dentistry heiress named Winsome Smiles, connected to shady characters and now apparently kidnapped. Arjay’s enthusiastic narration takes readers through not only the standard private investigator clichés (mobsters, clueless authorities, duplicitous dames), but also bizarre boutiques and services (“legstentions”), literary references encompassing The Princess Bride and Edgar Allan Poe, and—in a very Hitchhiker touch—reams of persnickety Arjay non sequitur footnotes. (Sample: “Assassins were notoriously inconsiderate.”) A nice feat for Stein is that he still remains faithful, even in the jokey milieu, to the twisty conventions of a decent gumshoe mystery. And a certain readership demographic will appreciate that he keeps a lid on Quentin Tarantino–type violence and never flavors the brew with gratuitous sex or sleaze. This coffee tale offers good taste (to the last drop).

An amusing SF private eye/coffee spoof chock-full of silicon circuits and served with laughs.

Kirkus Reviews