Poolside with Brett — David D'Aguanno

Private detective Brett Cornell believes that he's never had it so good. He's been on a winning streak playing poker in private games being held in the back room of one of his favorite night spots. He's recently been "discovered" by an exotic-looking beauty who specializes in home-made adult films. In addition, he's been hired to track down a certain missing husband and bring him back home to his anxious wife. His life, however, takes a sudden turn for the worse when he opens the trunk of his car one evening and finds the missing husband's murdered corpse stashed away inside of it. Set in the late 1980s, "Poolside with Brett" is the first in a series of novels featuring the tough and crass "unscrupulous bastard" himself -- a rude, wise-cracking private detective who happens to be a hugely successful ladies' man, thanks largely to what he immodestly refers to as his "Adonis-like features." In a tale involving murder, blackmail, an unexpected suicide, and other assorted acts of violence and deceit, Brett learns the hard way that there's a steep price to be paid for being such an unscrupulous bastard -- and readers may very well feel that he gets exactly what he deserves, and more!