kinky spanking book (Spanking Watson - Kinky Friedman)

Member Name: pje

Product:	Spanking Watson - Kinky Friedman
Date:	20/07/01 (62 review reads)
Rating:

Advantages: He's a funny guy.

Disadvantages: Slightly misleading title...

Kinky Friedman is a Jewish-cowboy-country-singer-cum-novelist who writes what I call soft-boiled yolky mysteries starring his alter ego Richard Kinky 'Big Dick' Friedman, an amateur sleuth who lives with his cat in a 'loft' in New York City. The apartment directly above his is occupied by Winnie Katz and her lesbian dance class, whose exertions are causing his ceiling to crumble...

When a chunk of plaster lands on his head, leaving him feeling like "Rip Van Winkle on gorilla biscuits", he vents his frustration by writing a threatening note to Winnie. Unfortunately his pal Ratso discovers it. But, thinking quickly, Kinky sees a way to get his own back on Winnie and also discover which of his sidekicks - the circle of friends known as "the"village irregulars" - will make the best Dr. Watson to his Sherlock Holmes.

He tells each of them that he is investigating the death threat and needs their help. The cat doesn't approve.

The five Village Irregulars vying for the mantle of Watson's are:-

• Ratso (Larry Sloman) - Kinky's "flamboyant flea-market friend."
• (Steve) Rambam - a professional private eye.
• Mick Brennan - a photographer and all-round troublemaker.
• McGovern - an Irish poet and intrepid reporter, and
• Stephanie DuPont - the blonde who lives upstairs.

Hey, it's his fantasy life, of course there's a blonde upstairs - what do you expect?

In order to infiltrate the dance class, McGovern arranges a bogus interview with Winnie for "The Times of London"; Brennan tags along to take pictures; Ratso poses as a member of a gay choir; Stephanie pretends to be a lesbian; and Rambam bugs the place. The cat isn't impressed.

Playing Sherlock to five different Watsons, who are all unaware that the others are in on the case, is as tricky as spinning plates.
It can also get qui
te confusing. As the Kinkster himself puts it:
"you become totally paranoid. Then men come and take you away to wig city, where you wind up masturbating like a monkey in the same cell as Napoleon and a man from Uranus. And then, as if that weren't enough, Jesus starts talking to you."

Stephanie comes to suspect Rambam, Rambam suspects Ratso, Brennan suspects McGovern, and, well, you get the picture.
Meanwhile, Winnie really is threatened - by Fred Flintstone...

Oh, and there's the mystery of the Kinkstah's espresso machine - a gift from Joe the Hyena to thank Kinky for saving his daughter from a mugger in a bank. Except that Joe hasn't got a daughter...

Along the way Kinky also explains why the greatest Frenchman
of all time was Joseph Pugol. If you don't know what M. Pugol was famous for you'll have to look it up (or else read the book.)
My lips are sealed, so to speak. ;-) The Kinkster also imbibes plenty of Jameson's Irish Whiskey and talks to his cat a lot.
The cat, of course, says nothing.


I would say that in the pantheon of private investigators, Kinky Friedman falls somewhere between Jim Rockford and Dirk Gently. Not quite as funny as the books of Terry Pratchett or Les Dawson perhaps, but full of chuckles with some belly laughs thrown in.
A good book to read while you're taking a Nixon (and if you can't work out what that means you really will have to read the book.)

Spanking Watson is published by filthy old Faber & Faber, pp216.
Kinky Friedman's 14th novel, will be published in September.

For more information on His Kinkyship check out his web-site:

http://www.kinkyfriedman.com/

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