Who Killed the Fonz?

December 1, 2018
When word reaches Richie Cunningham that Fonzie has died in a motorcycle crash, he travels from 1980s Hollywood to his Wisconsin hometown and finds himself drawn into a mystery involving his late friend and local politics.Richie, now Richard, Cunningham has made a name for himself as a screenwriter in the new Hollywood of the 1970s, though he finds his career stalling, and, as Star Wars is ascendant, he's unable to find funding for his directing debut, an adaptation of Cormac McCarthy's novel Suttree. He has a chance to revive his career by scripting a quickie Star Wars rip-off, but, despite his dwindling bank account, he's reluctant to sell out his dreams. News of Fonzie's death gives him a melancholy reprieve before he makes his decision. Heading to his hometown, staying in the house where he grew up (now occupied by Joanie and Chachi), being resented by his old friends Potsie and Ralph (who think he's a stuck-up Hollywood type), Richard is slowly drawn into a local political campaign and the unsettling sense that he's being watched. As a mystery, it's a fairly basic outing. But as a kind of wish-fulfillment fantasy about going back to your hometown as a fading success and finding a way to restore old ties, the novel is almost shamelessly entertaining. A sharper, darker novel pokes out at moments, as in the way that Potsie and Ralph, still slogging away in a cover band, don't distinguish between Springsteen and Journey. For the most part, it's content to be pleasant, and the amiability is quite pleasing.This gimmick novel is never as tough as you hope it will be but never as soft as you fear.

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February 1, 2019

After a cult hit and an Oscar nomination, Hollywood screenwriter Richard Cunningham is struggling. Downcast, he returns to his Wisconsin hometown, where he hears the tragic news that his best friend from Milwaukee, Arthur Fonzarelli was killed in a motorcycle accident. Attending the funeral, now as a 45-year-old, he feels out of place. Old friends Ralph and Potsie sneer because he's gone Hollywood. But Fonzie always understood him. Then a figure who looks like the Fonz appears and drops hints that Richie should check into his friend's death. It might not have been an accident. The TV comedy Happy Days, which celebrated the 1950s and family life, takes a darker turn in a mystery set in the 1980s. Richie's father is dead, and now with Fonzie gone, a grown-up Richie must face his own mortality and fears about failure, success, and family. VERDICT The mystery is slight in this book by the author of MVP. However, fans of the long-running Happy Days will appreciate the familiarity and nostalgia of a story that captures the spirit and atmosphere of the show.--Lesa Holstine, Evansville Vanderburgh P.L., IN

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December 15, 2018
The year is 1984. Richard Cunningham, an Oscar-nominated screenwriter who's in a severe career slump, learns that a man who was once his closest friend has died. He immediately flies back home to Milwaukee to attend the funeral of Arthur Fonzarelli?the Fonz. In this wildly inventive and entertaining novel, Richie Cunningham, Ralph Malph, Potsie Weber, and the Fonz are not characters in a television show called Happy Days; instead, they are real people, 20 years on from the time when they were kids hanging out at Arnold's Drive-In. Author Boice could have played the story for laughs, but instead he goes a different way, adding a mystery. The Fonz, it turns out, has been murdered, and it's up to Richie and pals to investigate. The mystery element is handled with skill, but this is really a kind of delayed-coming-of-age story in which Richie, forced to rediscover his past, learns that sometimes a childhood hero is just another man. A decent mystery wrapped in nostalgia but carrying a surprisingly poignant message.(Reprinted with permission of Booklist, copyright 2018, American Library Association.)