Bliss Jumps the Gun: A Lenny Bliss mystery

New York City homicide detective Lenny Bliss’s biggest mistake wasn’t bungee-jumping off the Brooklyn Bridge. The mistake was handing his gun to the previous jumper, a young Chinese girl: she’s gone. Bliss’s wife has a successful career as a stand-up comic (often using him for material), but for Bliss work is serious. A young Off-Broadway actor has been found dead on stage; Bliss’s partner, Ward, is out of commission, reeling from having been shot by a druggie –and now an unstable young woman has disappeared with Bliss’s gun. Bob Sloan’s street-smart plot, full of jump-cut scenes and colorful New York atmosphere, follows Bliss as he frantically tries to track down Li-Jung while also investigating murder suspects. Why are the dead man’s very rich parents acting strangely? What motives are the other members of the theater troupe hiding–the poetic Wolf, haunted by Vietnam memories; the director Katrina, with her obsessive videotaping; the seductive Constance, who harbors a secret and seems bent on distracting Bliss from his job? Meantime Li-Jung, a walking time bomb of rage and loneliness, waits for the right moment to use her unexpected new power. When a nothing-to-lose ex-cop picks her up in his cab and sees a way to make some blackmail money, events come together fast in a tense and satisfying conclusion.