Crooked

Nicholas Palihnic is a natty, tweed-suited hustler who knows every nook and cranny of New York–and a thousand ways to break a girl’s heart. Beatrice Belarus is a Manhattan art dealer with an insatiable appetite for money–and for anyone who gets in her way. And a painting titled Trampoline Nude, 1972 has neither nudity nor a trampoline. But when Nicholas is hired by an insurance company to find the recently stolen painting, a murdered art thief points him to a trove of gold buried beneath Manhattan–and suddenly all roads are leading back to Beatrice. As fortune hunters, lovers, and other strangers gather around him, there’s one thing Nicholas must remember above all else: in this business, it’s better to be crooked than dead....

BRIAN M. WIPRUD
Age: Wears red tennis shoes
Physical Description: Diabolical & Occasionally Fiendish
Profession: Mystery Author, Outdoor Writer & Photographer
Latest Accomplishments:
*Independent Mystery Bookseller's Association Bestseller
*2002 Lefty Award for Most Humorous Novel
*2003 Barry Award Nominee for Best Paperback Original
Favorite Books: The Squid and I, Chuck Flink
Tubing Badgers for Fun and Profit, Bubbles McCoy
Favorite Movies: "Bowanga! Bowanga!," "Eegah!"
Hobbies: Knife Throwing, Sword Swallowing, Hanging by Fish Hooks
Favorite Lines: "What a gorgeous day. What effulgent sunshine. It was a day of this sort the McGillicuddy brothers murdered their mother with an axe." WC Fields.
Favorite Scotch: Bourbon