Michael Z. Lewin


A little gardening, anyone?


FAMILY PLANNING

"Mordantly funny, beguiling in the extreme," said Booklist when this second novel about the Lunghi family of private detectives was published in 1999.

When I began to write about the three generations of Lunghis, I’d never heard of any PI stories involving a family of detectives. Neither had Carol Harper reviewing the first novel, FAMILY BUSINESS. In Deadly Pleasures she wrote, “I can think of no other series, anywhere, which features a family which owns and works from a private investigation firm.”

Being different doesn’t necessarily make it good, of course, but a lot of people do like the series. John Coleman in the Times in London, for one: “How these [plot elements] are connected and what the brilliantly characterised Lunghis, from the Old Man down to the school kids, separately get up to is very much the extremely funny Lewin’s business. Totally beguiling, with the lightest of dry touches.”

There were other nice reviews in the US and UK, but you get the idea. No blood and guts, but I work hard trying to make what seems light-hearted have darker undertones, if you care to listen for them.

So far (August 2004) there are two Lunghi novels and eight Lunghi stories. The first six stories are collected in THE RELUCTANT DETECTIVE with the two newest ones due before long in Ellery Queen's Mystery Magazine and Alfred Hitchcock's Mystery Magazine.


SELECTED WORKS
Click on the title for more information.

CD
TAKE-OUTS
Songs, stories and discussion featuring Michael Z. Lewin, Liza Cody and Peter Lovesey
Latest novel
EYE OPENER
After an absence of more than a decade, Indy private eye Albert Samson returns to find that he never noticed a lot of things going on around him.
Novels
FAMILY PLANNING
A follow up to FAMILY BUSINESS, the three generations of the Lunghi family run a private detective agency in Bath, England. Ever seen PIing run as a family business? I don't think so.
HARD LINE
The second of the Lt Leroy Powder novels.
CUTTING LOOSE
A young woman pursues her best friend's killer in 19th Century US and England
UNDERDOG
A homeless "entrepreneur" in Indianapolis gets more than he bargains for when he sees an opportunity...
Short stories
THE RELUCTANT DETECTIVE and Other Stories
Stories written over a period of twenty years or so, along with an introduction - by me - about writing stories and an extensive bibliography of my crime writing.
ROVER'S TALES
Stories told by Rover, a canine crusader.



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