Buy this book
Books N Bytes participates in affiliate programs including Amazon Associates and Bookshop.org. We may earn a commission when you purchase through our links at no extra cost to you.
Spanking Watson is a Kinky Friedman novel in which the narrator (Kinky Friedman, the actual country musician and the fictional amateur detective version of the same) gets pulled into investigating a series of stalker letters being received by various famous-and-not-famous New York women. The investigation is conducted from his Greenwich Village loft and his cat's presence is consistent.
The Friedman novels are a particular taste. The voice is brash, self-mythologizing, and committed to a kind of comic Jewish-Texan deadpan that either lands or does not. The plot is barely a plot. The pleasure is hanging out with Kinky and his Village Irregulars.
Three stars. Recommended to readers who already know they like Friedman's voice. Not the entry point; the earlier books in the series have stronger plots.
Related reads
If you liked Spanking Watson
The Mile High Club
by Kinky Friedman
A Kinky Friedman mystery. The form running on its own absurdity. For Friedman regulars.
Steppin' on a Rainbow
by Kinky Friedman
Steppin' on a Rainbow by Kinky Friedman review. The 14th Kinky mystery. A Hawaiian setting, an apparently missing friend, and the form running on long-developed energy.
Meanwhile, Back at the Ranch
by Kinky Friedman
Meanwhile, Back at the Ranch by Kinky Friedman review. The 15th Kinky mystery. The Texas setting, Kinky's actual Echo Hill summer-camp ranch, and the form at its most autobiographical.
The Prisoner of Vandam Street
by Kinky Friedman
The Prisoner of Vandam Street by Kinky Friedman review. A late-period Kinky mystery. The country singer turned detective housebound in his Village loft. Pure Friedman register.
The Lincoln Lawyer
by Michael Connelly
The Lincoln Lawyer by Michael Connelly 2005 review. Mickey Haller, a Los Angeles defense attorney who works out of the back of a Lincoln Town Car, takes a case that pulls him into something larger. The novel that launched a series and a film franchise.
Big Little Lies
by Liane Moriarty
Big Little Lies by Liane Moriarty 2014 review. Three mothers at an Australian elementary school converge on a kindergarten Trivia Night where someone will die. The contemporary domestic-suspense novel that defined the late-2010s book-club shelf.
More by this author