Kill Me Tender: A Murder Mystery Featuring the Singing Sleuth Elvis Presley - Hardcover

Daniel Klein

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 031226187X ISBN 13: 9780312261870

Publisher: Minotaur Books, 2000

Synopsis

Elvis Presley, having recently returned from his Army duty in Germany, struggles with his waning love of music even as he becomes involved, along with an Elvis impersonator, in investigating the recent murders of a number of his young fan-club presidents.

About this title

About the Author

Daniel Klein is the author of four previous novels, including the thrillers, "Embryo" and "Beauty Sleep." He is the co-author of the popular humor books, "Where's Elvis?" and "Macho Meditations." A graduate of Harvard, he lives in Great Barrington, Massachusetts.

From Publishers Weekly

Unlike your usual celebrity sleuth, Elvis Presley makes a natural detective in this winning whodunit, set in Tennessee after the singer has returned to civilian life from the army. When Elvis Presley fan-club presidents, all teenage girls, start dying of unknown causes, Elvis becomes concerned enough to do more than just write condolence notes to the families. He personally investigates the deaths (not an easy task when you're famous), in due course determining that each victim was poisoned by a rare Chinese drug. Meanwhile, he begins to receive demo records with sinister parodies of his songs, such as "Kill Me Tender" for "Love Me Tender." In his statewide quest for the murderer, Elvis attends his high school reunion, wanders into a bar full of Elvis impersonators and finally gets arrested in a small redneck townDthe perfect setting for a real jailhouse rock. At the climax, in a suspenseful race to stop the killer from striking again, he must even pass as an Elvis impersonator. For all the novel's amusing contrivances, nothing seems forced or ridiculous, so cleverly does Klein (Beauty Sleep, etc.) use actual Elvis lore to serve his plot. The background of the early-1960s segregated South is also deftly presented, and the method of poisoning is both ingenious and fiendishly fitting. Elvis's romance with a black nurse, Selma du Pres, may be too good to be true (or to last), but Selma takes a key part in the bittersweet ending. Above all, Elvis, here at his most gentle and charming, is irresistible. This mystery has a heart as big as its humble hero's. Agent, Howard Morhaim.
Copyright 2000 Reed Business Information, Inc.

About this edition

• Publisher: Minotaur Books
• Publication date: 2000
• ISBN 10: 031226187X
• ISBN 13: 9780312261870
• Binding: Hardcover
• Edition number: 1
• Number of pages: 227