Benji Golden

Benji Golden works in his family's struggling mom-and-pop business above a twenty-four-hour diner on Broadway and West 103rd Street. Golden Legal Services, a private detective agency, was started by Benji's hero-cop father. The business is now run by Benji's mother, who used to be the only Jewish pole dancer in New York City, and is staffed by Lovely Rita, an eye-popping computer wizard and a former lap dancer. Baby-faced Benji, who is exactly one-quarter inch shy of five-foot-six, weighs a buck thirty-seven, and answers to the nickname "Bunny"-specializes in tracking down teen runaways. One day, when a lawyer in fancy shoes arrives from Park Avenue's classiest law firm offering a job and lots of money, Benji and his mother can't say no. Bruce Weiner is a senior at prestigious Canterbury College. A client of the firm has bestowed a considerable inheritance on Bruce, but Bruce has gone missing, and it's up to Benji to find him. One murder later, Benji finds himself on a dangerous investigation that will take him to the highly secretive core of the most powerful city on earth. Runaway Man delivers all that a David Handler novel promises: smart humor, a thrilling and sexy story, and characters you won't soon forget.

A wickedly funny private eye novel set in the dark underbelly of New York City, where the worlds of Broadway and organized crime meet. When it comes to tracking down teen runaways, there is no private investigator in New York City better than streetwise Benji Golden. But, his newest client is Morrie Frankel, the last of the great Broadway showmen. Morrie's current extravaganza, a lavish $65 million musical adaptation of Emily Bronte's Wuthering Heights, is the biggest unfolding disaster the Great White Way has ever seen. Rumor has it, if he doesn't find a deep-pocketed "angel," or investor, soon, he might go down and take the production with him. Morrie thought he had found such an investor in hedge fund billionaire R.J. Farnell, who promised to keep the teetering production afloat. But, Farnell and his $12 million have vanished. Benji tracks Farnell to his girlfriend, Jonquil Beausoleil, who turns the investigation on its head. When Morrie is found gunned down on 42nd Street, Benji finds himself smack in the middle of a high-profile murder investigation, and he'll have to pierce through a lot of Broadway gossip before he can find the killer. Phantom Angel is the next entertaining installment in David Handler's newest mystery series, sure to delight both old and new fans of this award-winning, unique voice in crime fiction.