Manslaughter — Parnell Hall

Having survived a murderously uncomfortable New England holiday in the much-praised Cozy, private eye Stanley Hastings returns to more familiar New York urban turf with his twisted logic and droll style effectually intact. With Joe Balfour -- a client who did time 25 years ago for killing a man in a barroom brawl -- Stanley embarks on an ingeniously plotted and frequently hilarious excursion that will confront him continually with embarrassments: like the arrest of his client for the murder of a notorious blackmailer who's been found in his Upper East Side apartment with a carving knife in his back. And before he cracks the case, Stanley will be breaking and entering, contaminating crime scenes, concealing evidence (or else planting it), framing two innocent men for two different homicides, aiding an extortionist, hanging out in a topless bar, blackmailing a few attorneys, and outwitting the cops.