Die Laughing

August 7, 2023
Weinberger’s fourth whodunit featuring elderly Jewish P.I. Amos Parisman (after 2022’s The Kindness of Strangers) is his best yet. Parisman lands a high-profile client when he’s retained by Benny Wolf, who, along with his comedy partner, Al Pupik, was once one of the “kings of late-night television.” Someone has shot and bludgeoned Pupik to death in his own home, and the LAPD is discounting the possibility of a burglary gone wrong,instead focusing on Wolf, whose partnership with the dead man ended over a decade earlier. Wolf, who’s struggling with memory issues, believes the police are motivated by a past grudge against him, and hopes Parisman can catch the real murderer. Meanwhile, Parisman has placed his dementia-stricken wife, Loretta, in a care facility, a choice he still wrestles with as he finds solace in another woman’s arms, rationalizing that he can’t really “cheat on someone who’s forgotten what planet she’s on.” The plot never lags, and Weinberger enriches the proceedings by wringing pathos out of Parisman’s love and concern for Loretta. Fans of Roger Simon’s Moses Wine series will enjoy themselves.