A rattling good yarn and a suspenseful whodunit, based on real historical events, that brings sixteen-year-old Sherlock Holmes together with Karl Marx and his brilliant daughter Eleanor to solve a cascading series of murders at a Bohemian Spa. Karl Marx Private Eye is a page turner filled with tricky clues, colorful detectives, and an exotic setting. Written in a brilliant parody of Arthur Conan Doyle, this cozy historical mystery will keep readers guessing until it's shocking final pages.
What People Are Saying
“’Every murder is a parable,’ quips Jim Feast’s Eleanor Marx. Indeed. Feast’s hyperreal historical collage manages to feel equal parts Columbo and Perec, and to graft Nicholas Meyer’s The Seven-Per-Cent Solution into Max Ernst’s Une Semaine de Bonté. I’m already greedy for another of these ripping father-daughter whodunits.” Jonathan Lethem, author of The Arrest and The Feral Detective
“In Karl Marx Private Eye, Jim Feast not only engages us intellectually, but as the readers unravel the mysteries, there’s a good laugh every few pages and gorgeous descriptions of the hotel, the clothing, and the food of the time. It’s a very witty, fast-moving story with a terrific ending. If you like detective fiction, you’ll love this book.” Barbara Henning, author of Just Like That and Digigram
“Feast writes with a poet’s pen, a humorist’s wit, and a Dashiell Hammett knack for detective fiction. When a series of dastardly crimes are committed amidst Bohemia’s health spas for the rich, you don’t need a Hercule Poirot when you have the improbable team of Karl Marx and a teenage Sherlock Holmes on the case. Luscious writing that evokes the politics and culture of the era.” Peter Werbe, author of Summer on Fire: A Detroit Novel and member of the Fifth Estate magazine editorial collective
About the Author
Jim Feast helped found the action-oriented literary group the Unbearables, known for such events as a protest against the commodification of the Beats at NYU's Kerouac Conference; annual readings with poets spread out across the Brooklyn Bridge; and a blindfold tour of the Whitney Museum. In the early 1980s, he met and married Nhi Chung, author of Among the Boat People. She introduced him to Chinatown movie theaters, which played the path-breaking Hong Kong noir detective films of those days, giving him a new way to look at the murder mystery. Feast has worked for Fairchild Publications and later taught at Kingsborough Community College. He edited seven books by Ralph Nader, including his three novels, and worked with Barney Rosset on his autobiography. He lives in Brooklyn, NY.