Endless Honeymoon - Hardcover

Webb, Don

3.62

8 ratings by Goodreads

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 0312265824 ISBN 13: 9780312265823

Publisher: Minotaur Books, 2001

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Way back when, Robin Hood's turf for his deeds of derring-do was England. Nowadays, Willis and Virginia work the turf in Texas, righting wrongs by spotting society's nastiest creeps---the mean and bitter people who make everybody's lives worse. (A high-powered computer program allows them to identify these people easily.) Their modus operandi is to perform an ingenious prank on the nasty cuss in hopes of rehabilititating him or her.

Imagine the shock when they put a prank into action on July 4th . . . only to find their victim has just been murdered for real.

Someone must be one step ahead of them.

And indeed, someone is, a shadowy figure. Someone else is also lurking one step behind them, and there's an FBI agent who's keeping pace with them, and it seems there are other figures in the mix . . .

Like a caper novel as Philip K. Dick might have written it, Endless Honeymoon is a weird and wild run through the world of crime.

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Review:

This funny, freaky, tender little caper novel about a couple of merry pranksters is a true original. (That doesn't mean it's great, just original.) It's not only unique, but amusing as well, although in places it reads like the stoned meanderings of a computer nerd with an X-Files addiction. If one of those dopey geniuses who do all the data mining for agents Mulder and Scully could write, this is what he'd come up with.

Virginia and Willis, a happily married young pair of cybersleuths, have stumbled on a computer program that somehow identifies the folks everyone loves to hate-- the petty tyrants, the rumormongers, the snoops, the bitter but not (yet) damned. Then they scare these mean and nasty but otherwise ordinary people into changing their ways. But when they set out to "rehabilitate" an ice cream store owner who cheats little kids out of full scoops and find out she's been murdered for real, they discover that the joke's on them. Someone's using the same program, has beaten them to their target, and is playing for real. This so- called S-Killer has driven several otherwise sensible FBI agents to madness and murder in the course of their efforts to find him. And now the S-Killer is stalking Virginia and Willis in a high-stakes game of double-dealing that ends in a "memory restoration" sanitarium in New Jersey.

This is an implausible, improbable, and highly entertaining tale, just right for that conspiracy theorist with a deranged sense of what's funny who happens to be on your gift list. Failing that, it's a lively read for anyone willing to suspend disbelief who's facing a summer of X-Files reruns. It will help if they share the author's fondness for young lovers, stupid tricks, and weird goings-on, all seasoned with a healthy dose of very dark humor and a suitably happy-ever-after ending. --Jane Adams

About the Author:

Don Webb is one of the rising stars of the mystery field. A licensed fireworks operator, he is also known locally for his culinary expertise, teaches writing, and enjoys an endless honeymoon with the artist Guiniviere Webb. His previous novels include The Double and Essential Saltes and his short fiction and reviews have appeared in more than 250 publications throughout the world. He lives in Austin, Texas.

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