The Fat Innkeeper

April 3, 1995
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.

April 1, 1995
Phlegmatic Hotel California security director Am Caulfield resents the Japanese who purchased the historic oceanfront property and transformed his job. A beached whale in front of the hotel and a murder within exacerbate the already problematic communications between Caulfield and his Japanese boss. Life in the ritzy hotel cosmos continues, though, when Caulfield sabotages a swingers' "swap meat," digs into the background of the murder victim, and interrogates conventioneers who have had near-death experiences. The protagonist's banter, while not always humorous, remains light-handed, especially in scenes involving Japanese circumspection. From the author of The Forest Prime Evil (LJ 3/1/92); for larger collections.

April 1, 1995
A nearly overwhelming assortment of unrelated themes--the influx of Japanese conglomerates into the U.S., mate-swapping societies, near-death experiences, the odd quirks of the hotel-motel business--almost derails this mystery set in picturesque La Jolla, California. Fortunately, hero Am Caulfield, former surfer and hotel assistant general manager who's been demoted to hotel security dick, is charming, witty, and appealing enough to skim the waves of a disarrayed plot that goes off in a million different directions. When Dr. Kingsbury, physician, scientist, and magician, turns up dead during a conference of UNDER (the Union of Near-Death Experiences Retreat) at Am's Hotel California, Am and a tough but alluring female news reporter team up to find out who killed the good doctor. Meanwhile, Am has to figure out how to get a smelly dead whale off the hotel's beach, keep a swinging singles group from performing sex acts in the hotel hallways, and deal with the eccentric and demanding clientele that makes up the hotel's guest list. Entertaining if out of control. ((Reviewed Apr. 1, 1995))(Reprinted with permission of Booklist, copyright 1995, American Library Association.)