The Fat Innkeeper

The hospitable Am Caulfield is beset by more hostility in this amusing sequel to The Hotel Detective. Now house detective at San Diego's Hotel California, Am is enduring new Japanese owners, staff peccadilloes, bizarre conventions and a murder or two. Dr. Kingsbury, a guest who has made a career of debunking fraudulent New Age mentalists--some of whom are attending a Union of Near Death Experiences Retreat at the hotel--has been poisoned. Am joins forces (and karma) with comely reporter Marisa Donnelly to dig into Kingsbury's less-than-estimable past. At the same time, the house dick struggles to keep the portly new manager, Hiroshi, from imposing Japanese efficiency on the hotel's eccentric ambience. East finally meets West after Hiroshi falls for Am's beloved station wagon, a surfer's woody that runs well only near the ocean, and the hotel detective and the fat innkeeper become allies in tracking the killer. Russell and his readers have great fun as he contrasts Californian and Japanese philosophies, and likable Am bumbles along, holding true to his ex-surfer's outlook on life. (Apr.)