A Stanley Hastings mystery
3 primary works • 18 total works
Book 0
Wrong again.
The fair maiden turned out to be a married mom who wanted Stanley to find out why her teenage daughter was skipping school. Playing truant officer wasn't exactly Stanley's idea of fun, but at least it should be easy.
Fat chance.
Stanley being Stanley, nothing goes right, nothing is as it seems, bodies start to pile up, and faster than you can say 'fall guy', guess who's left holding the bag?
Before the case is resolved, Stanley will be nostalgic for the good old days, when all he had to worry about was a hitman.
Book 0
Book 18
Stanley Hastings finally felt like a real PI, staking out a New Jersey motel to get evidence on a woman’s cheating husband. It should have been a piece of cake. Only the husband wasn’t cheating, someone killed him, and the cops are trying to pin the murder on the man apprehended at the scene, who just happens to be Stanley.
To clear his name, Stanley will wind up jumping bail,impersonating a police officer, staking out a mob boss, and appropriating a murder weapon from a sassy Jersey Girl who keeps trying to distract him by ripping her clothes off.And that’s just for starters . . .
Book 20
Now Richard's in court fighting for his life, and Stanley's out on the firing line trying to dig up some evidence in his favor. It won't be easy. The murdered woman was a law clerk for a prominent judge, and everyone Stanley needs to question is currently tied up in a high-profile Global Banking trial.
As Stanley races back and forth between two courtrooms, searching for the key to the mystery through investigative techniques that could easily get him charged as an accessory, every fact tends to point to Richard's guilt: DNA evidence proves he is the man who had sex with the victim just before she died, eyewitnesses put him at the scene of the crime, and his fingerprints are on the murder weapon.
In desperation, Richard resorts to a series of courtroom tactics so outrageous they would make Perry Mason blush. Before the case is over, everyone in the courtroom will be convinced that not only does Richard Rosenberg have a fool for a client, but the client has a fool for a lawyer.
It's a dangerous safari. The leader is a reckless, gung-ho, great white hunter who delights in leaping from the jeep with a hearty "Come on, gang, let's see where this lion is going!" And a series of bizarre accidents quickly dwindles the group's numbers. Why was the guide's young spotter foolish enough to walk under a sausage fruit tree . . . just as one of the huge sausage fruits fell? How did the leaves of a poisonous plant wind up in a tourist's salad? Are these really accidents?
A stabbing tips the scale. It's murder, and the only policeman in a hundred miles is a park ranger (whose only murder case was that of an ivory poacher shot dead in plain sight).
It's up to Stanley to crack the case . . . if he can just avoid being eaten by a lion.
Interviewing the participants in an all-night card game, Stanley gets a lot of fascinating poker details and the distinct impression that their stories are too good to be true. But it's not until the trial starts that Carbinder's alibi finally folds. And with the onset of the trial comes another murder; the courtroom's in an uproar.
It's all enough to make Stanley wish he'd never entered the hallowed halls of justice. That's when his wife, Alice, the smartest woman Stanley knows, gives him a clue. Since the trial is obviously never going to get to the truth, Stanley should do some sleuthing on his own--and maybe, just maybe, take justice into his own hands.
