Buck Schatz

This is the first in a one-of-a-kind, spectacularly well-written mystery series featuring Buck Schatz, an eighty-seven-year-old retired Memphis cop with a know-it-all, plugged-in grandson as his sidekick. When Buck learns that an old adversary may have escaped Germany with a fortune in stolen gold, he decides to hunt down the fugitive and claim the loot. But lots of people want a piece of the stolen treasure, and Buck's investigation quickly attracts unfriendly attention from a Mississippi loan shark, a seven-foot-tall Hasidic Jew, and a bloodthirsty maniac hell-bent on rubbing out everybody who knows anything about the stolen gold. Readers who love Elmore Leonard, Walter Mosley, early Jonathan Lethem, and superlative detective fiction in general will not want to miss Don't Ever Get Old. "Wonderfully original and totally engrossing...When I'm eighty-seven, I want to be Buck Schatz." "Excellent…Friedman makes his limited lead plausible and bolsters the story line with wickedly funny dialogue." "Crackling dialog and memorable characters make this a standout debut. With his curmudgeonly lead, Friedman ensures his intergenerational detective story maintains a pitch-perfect tone. The underlying theme of revenge balances a wacky plot that evokes Elmore Leonard. This has a direct topical connection with P. J. Tracy's Live Bait, too." "[A] knockout of a book...Ninetyish, retired Memphis homicide cop Buck Schatz makes coot-dom look like a riot." "The real prize here, however, isn't Nazi treasure but Buck's what-the-hell attitude toward observing social pieties, smoking in forbidden venues, and making life easier for other folks.As he battles memory loss and a host of physical maladies, it's great to see that he can still make whippersnapper readers laugh out loud. A sardonically appealing debut for a detective who assures his long-suffering grandson, 'I care about people. I just don't like them.'" "If you read one book this year about the adventures of an eighty-eight-year-old Jewish retired cop and his frat-boy grandson, it had better be Daniel Friedman's Don't Ever Get Old…A twisty, funny, fast-paced treat." "In this crackling debut, Dan Friedman paints a pitch-perfect portrait of crusty, gun-toting, octogenarian Jewish ex-cop Baruch "Buck" Schatz as he searches for Nazi gold. Funny, suspenseful, and poignant, Don't Ever Get Old will stick with you long after you've turned the last page. If you love a great story well-told, put Friedman high on your list of 'must reads.'" "Laugh-out-loud funny as well as surprisingly poignant. Kudos to Daniel Friedman for giving us a nearly ninety-year-old hero who's not going gently into that good night-he's going out with guns blazing, F-bombs flying, and a pack of Lucky Strikes." "We have nothing to fear from aging, if Don't Ever Get Old is any measure. By turns gritty and snappy, Friedman's clever debut novel is like an epilogue to Inglorious Basterds, sixty-six years later." "Friedman's debut novel is one of the most original and entertaining tales I have read in many a moon…Schatz is an anachronism: a chain-smoking Lucky Strike addict; a Luddite to a fault; cranky and crotchety at every juncture. He is also wickedly funny and full of pithy homilies. Don't Ever Get Old is just about as good as debut mysteries get. It may, in fact, mark the beginning of a new suspense subgenre: Geezer Noir. Long may it live!"

The sequel to Don't Ever Get Old, which garnered four starred reviews, a movie deal with a major Hollywood producer, and an Edgar Award nomination for Best First Novel Twentysomething Daniel Friedman's debut hit novel, Don't Ever Get Old, was a huge critical and word-of-mouth success. Now his unforgettable protagonist Buck Schatz is back, and once again this eighty-eight-year-old retired Memphis cop refuses to go gently into that good night. Having sustained injuries in Don't Ever Get Old, Buck is living at a retirement home with his wife, and he's downright miserable being treated like the elderly person he is. But soon, Elijah, a man from his past, pays Buck a visit. Elijah offers Buck a tidy sum to do him a favor, and Buck is eager to close the book on a series of robberies that he could never solve. But things soon go downhill-way downhill. Written in Buck's signature voice and featuring a mystery that will knock your socks off, Don't Ever Look Back is another home run by an author with a long and star-studded career ahead of him. "Daniel Friedman takes the considerable momentum from his Macavity-winning debut novel Don't Ever Get Old and builds on it for Buck Schatz's newest turn, Don't Ever Look Back. Friedman's sophomore outing is darker, grittier, and more political (but just as funny) as his first. It not only lives up to, but indeed surpasses, all expectations for a sequel." "Don't Ever Look Back is a funny, smart, and vibrant work of crime fiction. Good luck finding anything more from a novel this year." "Alternately humorous and moving sequel…The howdunit of the 1965 crime will please Golden Age puzzle fans." "Friedman's sophomore series entry for the angriest old cop you've ever met (after the Macavity Award-winning Don't Ever Get Old) doesn't disappoint. Through the violence (Buck's not a gentle guy) you'll be laughing with tears streaming down your face. It doesn't quite top the first title, but it's a fine sequel and a must-buy!" "Enjoy the plot, which even has a locked-room mystery packed into it. Savor the resonant prose as a reminder of how flabby much bestseller writing has become. Delight in Buck's deadpan humor, but don't fall for it. No codger cuteness here; his nastiness can shock." "Retired detective Buck Schatz continues to hunt bad guys and make life hell for the staff at Valhalla Estates Assisted Lifestyle Community for Older Adults…A worthy successor to Buck's fine-tuned debut."