Curse of the Missing Puppet Head — Kinky Friedman

Curse of the Missing Puppethead is a murder, crime solving, mystery writing, romantic encounters, friendship and a unique philosophy of life bundled into a wildly entertaining novel by an original and unique talent.
At the most outrageously inopportune moment, the little Negro puppethead - Kinky Friedman's keyholder, talisman and surrogate Pinocchio-like son - goes missing, and the Curse of the Missing Puppethead takes effect.
In a desperate effort to find the missing puppethead, Kinky mounts his most intense and entertaining investigation ever. Anyone and everyone is a suspect in Yorick's disappearance, even the Village Irregulars. When Lexie, a beautiful and exotic escapee from Winnie Katz's Lesbian Dance Class, enters Kinky's life, the curse takes a dramatic and hilarious turn for the worse. Kinky discovers that until he find his big puppethead, his little puppethead will also be missing in action.
As Kinky's personal and professional lives begin to spiral downward, he leaves no rock unturned and no clue unpursued in a furious effort to recover the puppethead. Just when it appears that he may have found the first real clue to Yorick's whereabouts the Curse of the Missing Puppethead shifts into high gear, and Kinky's college friend, Nick "Chinga" Chavin, is falsely charged with the hit-and-run murder of a child. And not just any child, but the young son of Big Jim Cravotta, the Butcher of Staten Island.
While Chinga hides from his pursuers by putting down roots in Kinky's loft, Kinky, aided by Rambam, Ratso, McGovern and the extraordinary characters that make up the Village Irregulars, races to find the real killer before Big Jim finds Chinga.
Vandam Press is proud to be able to make this remarkable novel available to Kinky's old friends and to those readers who are discovering Kinky Friedman for the first time.


"Puppethead is a tour de force. This time, like never before, the irreverent Friedman tap dances on the sun." (John Kelso, Austin American-Statesman)

"Puppethead goes to the head of the class". (Bill Hageman, Chicago Tribune)

"The Kinkster's best yet. No strings attached." (Will Hoover, Honolulu Advertiser)

"A true Texas legend."(President George W. Bush)

"Dear Kinky, I have now read all of your books. More, please. I really need the laughs." (former) President Bill Clinton

"A surefire cure for the blues." New York Times

From the Publisher's Introduction:

The book that you are about to read has been in the Vandam Press vaults for a number of years. It was written, on a dare, at a time when, according to the author, he was “between cases and between contracts”.
Friedman wrote the entire manuscript in an amazing two week period of intense, feverish activity at the New Otani Hotel in Honolulu, Hawaii, during which he lost ten pounds, surviving almost exclusively upon Cuban cigars and Kona coffee. A local doctor was on call, but his services were only required once when Kinky reported feeling light-headed and experiencing blurred vision.
Even without considering the time and circumstances in which this novel was written, it is an amazingly entertaining and elevating work, combining crime solving, romantic encounters, true friendship and an unique philosophy of life into a wildly entertaining novel by an original and exceptional talent.