The Wheel of Doll, Jonathan Ames
The Wheel of Doll, Jonathan Ames
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The Wheel of Doll
A Novel

Author: Jonathan Ames

Narrator: Jonathan Ames

Unabridged: 6 hr 23 min

Format: Digital Audiobook Download

Published: 09/06/2022

Synopsis

The eponymous and hapless detective Happy Doll returns with a new philosophy and a new case in this second installment of a series "that's a tightly coiled double helix of offbeat humor and unflinching violence" (New York Times Book Review). Although badly scarred and down to his last kidney after the previous caper, Happy Doll is back in business. When a beguiling young woman turns up at his door, it’s Doll’s past that comes knocking. Mary DeAngelo is searching for her estranged mother, Ines Candle—a singular and troubled woman Doll once loved. The last he’d seen her she’d been near-death: arms slit like envelopes. Although she survived the episode, she vanished shortly thereafter. Now, years later, Mary claims Ines is alive and has recently made contact—messaging her on Facebook and calling her from a burner phone—only to disappear once again. Although his psychoanalyst would discourage it, Doll takes the case, desperate to see Ines again. But as the investigation deepens, there are questions he can’t shake. What’s led the flighty Ines to reappear? Is Mary only relaying half the truth? And who is Mary’s strange and mysterious husband?

In this wholly original follow-up to A Man Named Doll, Happy travels through L.A., Washington, Oregon and back again—a journey that gets wilder and woolier with each turn. An irreverent and inventive mystery, The Wheel of Doll is not to be missed. 

About Jonathan Ames

Jonathan Ames is the author of I Pass Like Night; The Extra Man; What’s Not to Love?; My Less Than Secret Life; Wake Up, Sir!; I Love You More Than You Know; The Alcoholic; and The Double Life Is Twice As Good. He’s the creator of the HBO® Original Series Bored to Death and has had two amateur boxing matches, fighting as “The Herring Wonder.” His most recent work is the detective novel A Man Named Doll.

Reviews

Goodreads review by Jonathan on February 08, 2024

Rating: 4.50 I felt compelled to read the second in this series having thoroughly enjoyed A Man Named Doll since Happy Doll is the antithesis of the P.I. stereotype. Instead of the 'hero' that is unscathed from 'battlegrounds', Happy surfaces damaged yet determined and with this book, he's managed to......more

Goodreads review by Tom on April 03, 2023

Such a good series. Riffing on all the classic LA noir again, this was brilliant.......more

Goodreads review by Ross on June 10, 2022

In the second instalment of this series by Jonathan Ames, we find P.I. Happy ‘Hank’ Doll still trying to recover from both the physical and mental scars that he accrued during his previous investigation. He is still sharing his bed with man’s best friend, George, his Chihuahua but is now trying to e......more

Goodreads review by Alex on November 28, 2022

5/5 Outstanding I first read ‘Happy Doll’ and Jonathan Ames last year when Pushkin Vertigo kindly gifted me a copy. I was blown away then by the darkly funny, yet somewhat desperate Happy Doll. Fast forward 18 months, and with another gifted copy, I’m on repeat as again this gritty, almost poignant......more

Goodreads review by Jason on February 24, 2023

Ames’s second LA-based neo-noir starring a one-kidneyed, aspiring Buddhist PI elevates both the series and the genre. Happy Doll is a wonderful creation, an animal-loving, reluctant killer; a man who regrets defending himself, wants to do right in an ugly, seamy world, and values brief moments of be......more

Quotes

Praise for A MAN NAMED DOLL

"I loved this book - it's quirky, edgy, charming, funny and serious, all in one. Very highly recommended."—Lee Child, #1 bestselling author of Blue Moon

"While the macabre seriousness of the crimes and the narrator’s good-nature and sardonic humor might seem to be at odds, Ames makes it work through assured plotting, superb local color, and excellent prose. Readers will happily root for Doll, a good detective and a decent human, in this often funny and grisly outing."—Publishers Weekly, Starred

“A MAN NAMED DOLL is so fun and propulsive I didn’t just read it in one sitting, I read it in what felt like a single breath. Happy Doll is a tremendously likable main character, and the Los Angeles he inhabits is vibrantly alive in every detail. I hope Jonathan Ames has many more adventures planned for the newest P.I. in town.”—Lou Berney, author of the New York Times-bestselling November Road
 
“If Elliott Gould’s Philip Marlowe landed in the middle of Uncut Gems, you’d have something like Jonathan Ames’s A MAN NAMED DOLL, which expertly mines the dark humor, mordant wit and dreamy fatalism of great LA noir. And at its center is a detective with a battered heart and bruised conscience. I’d follow him, and his dog George, anywhere.” Megan Abbott, Edgar Award-winning author of Dare Me

“Readers expecting action won’t be let down, and the sparkling yet unpretentious language gives the whole an extra kick. Recommend to noir fans, action fans, anyone who likes a good read.” Booklist, Starred review
 

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