Green Light for Murder

A mad director, off his meds, is making a movie about how he murders the producers who ruined his career. The movie is in his mind. The murders are real. Tommy Veasy, a pot-smoking homicide detective--our hero--who writes poetry to help him solve cases and ward off despair, thinks he sees a pattern in these seemingly accidental deaths. His colleagues think he's being dramatic. But the bodies keep piling up. The staff of a syndicated TV show in its tenth year, formerly an international hit but now only being aired in Montenegro and Botswana, worries about how they will maintain their Hollywood lifestyles when they become unemployable. How will the producer finance his two-hooker-a-weekend habit? How will the staff writer pay private school tuition, an underwater mortgage, tennis club dues, the housekeeper, the gardener, cable TV bills, the couples' therapist, et al.? Not a big problem: the mad director has planted a bomb in the office phone and is frantically trying to set it off. And meanwhile, a home invader keeps invading the wrong homes, to everyone's perplexity. In other words: it's just another day in paradise.

"Interesting characters abound, and the writing style is fascinating, almost script style, but reined in enough to be called a novel with lots of dialogue. In this blackest of screwball comedies, Gould gives new meaning to the idea of Hollywood backstabbing." --Booklist "Author/screenwriter Gould (Cocktail; Fort Apache, The Bronx) casts a jaundiced eye on Hollywood in this madcap first in a series.... Filled with an insider's knowledge of the backstabbing, cutthroat, libidinous one-upmanship of the film industry, this book will appeal to those with a taste for slapstick humor and cartoonish characters." --Publishers Weekly "This series debut from novelist (The Serial Killer's Daughter; Double Bang) and screenwriter (Cocktail; Streets of Gold) Gould ... will keep readers turning the pages. A story that reaches far beyond the last page and will leave readers wanting the next book. A nice pick for patrons who like their sleuths and procedurals on the unconventional side." --Library Journal (starred review) "Here's a police procedural that will make you laugh out loud. As always, Gould...creates incredibly memorable and distinctive characters. Heywood is one of the smartest guys I know and an incredible observer. I'm looking forward to the next thing that comes out of this man's mind." - Killer Nashville Book of the Day "Green Light for Murder is offbeat and inventive. It is also hysterically funny--a sort of literary burlesque whose dialogue packs wallop after wallop. Let's hope Veasy and his roach clip return soon." - Chapter 16 blog

Heywood Gould was born in the Bronx and raised in Brooklyn. The first seventeen years of his life were dedicated to sports and self-abuse. He no longer plays sports.