The Girl with Kaleidoscope Eyes by David Handler

Reviewed by Kristin

Stewart Hoag had a runaway bestselling debut novel, a beautiful wife, and all the attendant fame, but that was before.  These days Hoagy is much more likely to be ghosting celebrity memoirs, stumbling over murder cases, and trying to make ends meet.  As difficult as it may be, he still has to pay New York rent on a fifth floor walk-up as well as keep his faithful basset hound Lulu fed in the manner to which she is accustomed.

Richard Aintree wrote an American classic and then disappeared for twenty years.  Rumors abound:  Is Richard dead?  In hiding?  If he’s still alive, why hasn’t anyone heard from him in all this time?

Hoagy used to be close—very close—to Reggie Aintree, Richard’s younger daughter.  When Richard’s other daughter Monette receives a typewritten letter purporting to be from her father, Hoagy is called onto the case to determine the authenticity.  After Richard’s disappearance, Monette wrote a tell-all book about her father, claiming childhood abuse and aptly naming the book Father Didn’t Know Best.  Thrust into fame, Monette launched herself into the public eye as a domestic diva, publishing self-help books that earned her millions.

Hoagy and Lulu have quite the mystery to solve.  When they land in LA Hoagy borrows a vintage 1947 Indian Chief Roadmaster from an old prop master friend.  Lulu jumps into the sidecar, and off they go.  Before long, a body turns up in Monette’s palatial mansion with someone looming over it with a smoking gun.  With sisters, husbands, boyfriends, teenagers, maids, gardeners and paparazzi filling the estate, suspects abound.

I am not a dog person, but I have to admit that Lulu made the book.  Hoagy is a charming and likeable guy, but I liked him even more because he has an animal sidekick.  No, Lulu did not solve the crime or have dialogue in her head, known only to the reader, but she was a pleasant addition.  In a mystery novel, you can usually figure out where a character falls on the good guy/bad guy spectrum by the way they treat the cat, dog, parrot, or other small creature.  Of course, this may be telling in real life as well.

I picked up this volume without realizing that David Handler had written eight previous mysteries featuring Stewart Hoag and Lulu, although the last one was published in 1997, twenty years before The Girl with Kaleidoscope Eyes.  The latest installment must have been successful, because the tenth book in the series is arriving in August 2018:  The Man Who Couldn’t Miss.