God Bless John Wayne – Kinky Friedman

©1995, Simon & Schuster, New York

Now, I’ve read Kinky’s work. As a matter of fact, this is the eighth of his novels starring fictional versions of himself and his friends solving mysterious cases. I intend to read more (have several on the TBR shelf). I think that when I reach the last of his novels, I’ll be semi-sad that he chose to retire from writing PI novels recently. Yes, this is the same guy who spent several years traveling with the “Texas Jewboys” on the country-western scene. It’s also the one who stirred up Texas politics in the last gubernatorial election by throwing his black cowboy hat into the ring.

What I like about Friedman’s writing is that he doesn’t take himself—or anything much—too seriously. He weaves a readable tale that is fun and easy to read.

In God Bless John Wayne, the Kinkster finds himself in New York (where the lion’s share of his stories are set), and gets sucked into helping his friend Ratso (the New York Ratso, not the Washington one) find his birth mother. What he finds is a string of dead people—some long dead (like the lawyer who brokered the adoption in the first place), some known to be dead (like Ratso’s adoptive father), some accidentally dead (like the friend in Ratso’s apartment), and some intentionally dead (like the son of the lawyer—another lawyer with the peculiar name of Hamburger).

Kinky enlists the help of several of the Village irregulars who have been helpful in solving previous cases, as well as a couple of new faces, to track down the long lost mother. One problem that he faces is that his very own ‘Watson’ is now his client as well as missing one day and turning up in a bad place the next.

Kinky uses page after page of pun and innuendo to keep his readers involved in the story line. That will turn many potential readers away, but will appeal to a vast number of mystery fans and lovers of a dry wit. God Bless John Wayne is a fun walk on the cold streets of New York in the winter (with a quick jaunt to Florida for relief). I give it four out of five reading glasses.

—Benjamin Potter, September 17, 2008