Key West (Shames)

Top-notch suspense and "killer" comedy merge in this rollicking national best-seller filled with funky characters, resounding dialogue and inappropriately named "wise" guys. In the grand tradition of Elmore Leonard, Laurence Shames creates an outrageous heavyweight thriller that's heavy on atmosphere and action. Joey Goldman is a low level New York hustler. He's taking a working vacation in South Florida, and looking to score big with a time-share scam. His half-brother Gino Delgatto is a man in need of a fall guy. When they meet in Key West, the term "dysfunctional family" takes on a new meaning. Will one of them succeed, or will the Miami mob find an eye-popping way to dispose of them both? Critically-acclaimed narrator Richard Ferrone brings every character to life-from bad guys in shiny blue suits to Steve the naked landlord-with a crackling intensity you will love.

On best-seller lists all over the country with his witty cynicism and delightfully dark humor, Laurence Shames writes thrillers that his fans endearingly classify as great "Florida noir." In the tradition of Elmore Leonard and Carl Hiaasen, he gives character to the inhabitants of Florida's steamy underbelly. Artist Augie Silver's friends are ostensibly grief-stricken when he drowns in a shipwreck off Scavenger Reef, but most of them are nervous because his body wasn't found. They have too much to gain by his death. Since his demise, the price of his art is skyrocketing. If Augie isn't dead, he soon will be, if his money-hungry "friends" get their way. Listeners will delight in Richard Ferrone's narrative expertise as he perfectly captures the tongue-in-cheek humor, compelling characters, and snappy dialogue that have become the author's trademark. The combination of humor and suspense is irresistible.

Listeners across the country have fallen in love with Laurence Shames' rollicking national best-sellers set in South Florida. Energetic, forceful and unpredictable as a hurricane, Sunburn is filled with off-beat characters, top-notch suspense, and colorful dialogue. When aging Mafia godfather Vincente Delgatto flies to Key West to get a little sun, he decides to write his memoirs. When word of the book hits the street, everyone is in danger, even the octogenarian former enforcer Bert the Shirt and his cranky chihuahua.

When Island Frigate advertising rep Suki Sperakis decides to write an expose on the Key West black market, she is strangled and left for dead in the trunk of a car sinking slowly into the Gulf of Mexico. Soon her only chance at survival rests on the senile Sam Katz and octogenarian ex-mobster Bert the Shirt who must infiltrate the Russian Mafia posing as a gay couple from New York. Will Bert and Sam succeed, or is Suki doomed to once again sleep with the fishes? Richard Ferrone brings every character to life-from the cigar-smoking Island Frigate editor to a man named Pineapple who lives in a fiberglass hotdog-to help make Mangrove Squeeze one of Shames' sharpest, tangiest, and most engaging audiobooks to date. Don't miss these other exciting titles by Laurence Shames: Sunburn, and Florida Straits.

Laurence Shames has attracted enthusiastic fans with his Key West novels, which include Florida Straits, Mangrove Squeeze, Scavenger Reef, and Sunburn. Each of these books is a hilarious mixture of zany crimes and offbeat characters. Welcome to Paradise is his best yet. When Al Marracotta, Mafia boss, takes a week's vacation in Key West, he looks forward to days of sun, sex, and seafood. Alan Tuschman, New Jersey furniture salesman, is a reluctant tourist. He has won a week in Key West for his sales record. But they have something in common: vanity license plates that read BIG AL. So when two goons are sent to ruin Big Al's vacation, it's not long before they target the wrong guy. Between the frustrated henchmen and the baffled Als, each chapter grows loonier than the last. And with the addition of a romantic wild card, the winsome Katy Sansone, the tough guys' schemes are tempered by more tender scenes. Narrator Ron McLarty's fine performance keeps the action moving at a brisk clip.

Popular crime novelist Laurence Shames consistently draws favorable comparisons to Elmore Leonard and Carl Hiaasen. In his Key West tales, Shames paints vivid, hilarious portraits of the sun-splashed "paradise" he calls home. The retired Pete Amsterdam isn't really a private investigator. But he has a license, a gun, and a listing in the phone book-all so he can write-off his wine cellar as an "office." While soaking in his hot tub and rethinking his earlier tennis match, the inevitable blonde in distress comes calling, and Pete is reluctantly pulled into his first case. Feeling trapped by the conventions of detective stories, Pete stumbles his way through the Key West crime scene, hardly realizing the danger he's in. The Naked Detective is vintage Shames-full of the biting wit, absurd scenarios, and quirky characters that recall his earlier works, such as Scavenger Reef and Mangrove Squeeze. Ron McLarty's narration captures the off-beat, colorful island and its inhabitants and brings them fully to life.

Take three speedboats, a disgruntled ghostwriter, and a hit TV show starring a gorgeous but impossible diva and created by a driven genius who may be losing his marbles. Add a fearless and gleefully profane stuntwoman, an ancient Mafioso with a Chihuahua, and a revenge-crazed blonde in gladiator sandals. Stir in a thug with a heart of gold and an inveterate slacker who yearns for glory. Whisk a loopy but tender romance into the mix, turn the whole crew loose in the liberating and seductive sunshine of the Florida Keys-and what do you have? SHOT ON LOCATION, the new and long-awaited Key West novel by Laurence Shames. Hilarious and suspenseful, wisecracking and wise, this is the most intoxicating story yet from the author of such cult classics as FLORIDA STRAITS and SUNBURN. Longtime Shames fans will rejoice at his return to the fictional turf of Key West and the reappearance of some of his most beloved characters. And new readers will find themselves in for a hell of a ride as Hollywood glitz meets Florida funky.