The Right Stiff (Charlie McGinley)

A nerdy author of pulp detective novels has to solve a real murder before he gets bumped off by the Mob.

Charlie McGinley writes detective novels. At least he did, until writer’s block kicked in. He owes his publisher a book, multiple wives alimony and a loan shark is about to break his thumbs.

Charlie hightails it out of L.A. two steps ahead of the police and his latest ex. On Route 66, he runs into Ben Fox, a mysterious Native American hitchhiker who just happened to know Ernest Hemingway – Charlie’s favorite writer.

Charlie’s life gets even more complicated when he and Ben are dragged into a murder at a shady cryonics lab. Will Charlie be able to avoid the police, Mob hitmen, and his ex-wife, while trying to save an aging beauty queen from being frozen to death?