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Topless
TOPLESS is a comic moral tale told in the form of a murder mystery. Mike Wilson’s sister-in-law Ethel asks him to return to his native New York from a small Nebraska town when his brother Tony disappears. She wants Mike to take over Tony’s restaurant, which turns out to be a seedy topless bar in Queens. The police have no idea where Tony is, or whether he is still alive.
- GenresFictionMysteryLiterature
Mass Market Paperback
First published January 1, 1991
58 people want to read
About the author
D. Keith Mano
9 books21 followersD. (David) Keith Mano graduated summa cum laude from Columbia University in 1963. He spent the next year as a Kellett Fellow in English at Clare College, Cambridge, and toured as an actor with the Marlowe Society of England. He came back to America in 1964 as a Woodrow Wilson Fellow at Columbia. He has appeared in several off-Broadway productions and toured with the National Shakespeare Company. Mano married Jo Margaret McArthur on 3 August 1964, and they had two children before their divorce in 1979. Mano left the Episcopal church for the Eastern Orthodox in 1979. He lived, until his death in September 2016, in Manhattan with his second wife, actress Laurie Kennedy.
Mano's nine novels emphasize religious and ethical themes and focus on contemporary issues seen from the point of view of a conservative Episcopalian. The novels are rich with comic action and written in an energetic style that occasionally caves in on itself from too much straining for effect.
Mano's nine novels emphasize religious and ethical themes and focus on contemporary issues seen from the point of view of a conservative Episcopalian. The novels are rich with comic action and written in an energetic style that occasionally caves in on itself from too much straining for effect.
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Displaying 1 - 3 of 3 reviews
October 23, 2013
Frisky-five frolicsome fun, facinorous fantastication, frequently fescennine, firmly funny fornication-frissons-full, fellatio for feverish femicide fans, for femininity fans, for fiery, flushed, forgiveness-free fabulousness fans, for feverish-fiction fans, for, finally, frailty-friendly, freak-friendly fans. For friends. For fun fun fun.
Oh and: http://wittenburgdoorinterviews.blogs...
Oh and: http://wittenburgdoorinterviews.blogs...
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May 20, 2017“And when the papers shout PRIEST RAN TOPLESS MURDER BAR, will the church understand?”
The Kirkus Review 1 June 1991.
___________
Topless Review from Publisher’s Weekly, 1 July 1991.
“This offbeat and entertaining crime thriller features Mike Wilson, a young Episcopalian priest who leaves his rural Nebraska parish to pinch-hit at his missing brother's establishment, a bar called the Smoking Car. Glad to be back in his old Queens (N.Y.) neighborhood, happy to help out his sister-in-law and four young nieces, likable Mike is surprised to learn that the main draw at the Smoking Car is its bevy of topless dancers. Settling into his work, he worries first that the bar's staff and clientele--whose personalities quickly supercede their stereotypes--will discover he's a priest and then that his corn-fed Nebraska fiancee will discover his new line of work. Mostly, however, he struggles gamely to resolve the conflict between his spiritual inclinations and those of the flesh. The weeks pass and his brother fails to show up; Mike suspects drugs are being traded in the establishment; four of the dancers are gruesomely killed. A dramatic climax, while somewhat contrived, leads to a satisfying denouement in this reflective, appreciative novel from Mano ( The Bridge ), who is definitely not a leg man.” (full text)
___________
The Wittenburg Door Interview September/October 1994.
DOOR: All of your novels have wild settings.
MANO: Most art deals in extremes. And the great virtue of the Episcopal Church, which I was very much involved in, is that anything can happen in it. An Episcopal priest can do anything in your novel, and you're probably telling the truth because there's one out there somewhere really doing it. I don't doubt that there are priests running topless bars right now. And they're Episcopal.
___________
The Bottomless Pit of Topless Dancing: Writer Roots It Out Everywhere -- With A Notable Exception
Chicago Tribune profile/interview by Jon Anderson, 27 August 1991.
“In the hurly-burly world of free-lance writing, the name of D. Keith Mano has acquired a certain cachet in recent years. The guy’s done it all. Had his back wrenched by rolfers. Been locked up in a mental institution. Dressed as a transvestite. Hung out with cannibals. Talked at length with Jane Fonda.
A kind of McDonald’s of journalism, the prolific Mano has sold more than 1 million words to everyone from Playboy to the National Review. He gets up to $5,500 a story. He is everywhere. Getting tattooed. Giving blood with winos. Riding in squad cars. Working with laborers. Walking on fire.”
So he sounds like a William T. Vollmann, avant la lettre. So where are the compilations of his non-fiction?
The Kirkus Review 1 June 1991.
___________
Topless Review from Publisher’s Weekly, 1 July 1991.
“This offbeat and entertaining crime thriller features Mike Wilson, a young Episcopalian priest who leaves his rural Nebraska parish to pinch-hit at his missing brother's establishment, a bar called the Smoking Car. Glad to be back in his old Queens (N.Y.) neighborhood, happy to help out his sister-in-law and four young nieces, likable Mike is surprised to learn that the main draw at the Smoking Car is its bevy of topless dancers. Settling into his work, he worries first that the bar's staff and clientele--whose personalities quickly supercede their stereotypes--will discover he's a priest and then that his corn-fed Nebraska fiancee will discover his new line of work. Mostly, however, he struggles gamely to resolve the conflict between his spiritual inclinations and those of the flesh. The weeks pass and his brother fails to show up; Mike suspects drugs are being traded in the establishment; four of the dancers are gruesomely killed. A dramatic climax, while somewhat contrived, leads to a satisfying denouement in this reflective, appreciative novel from Mano ( The Bridge ), who is definitely not a leg man.” (full text)
___________
The Wittenburg Door Interview September/October 1994.
DOOR: All of your novels have wild settings.
MANO: Most art deals in extremes. And the great virtue of the Episcopal Church, which I was very much involved in, is that anything can happen in it. An Episcopal priest can do anything in your novel, and you're probably telling the truth because there's one out there somewhere really doing it. I don't doubt that there are priests running topless bars right now. And they're Episcopal.
___________
The Bottomless Pit of Topless Dancing: Writer Roots It Out Everywhere -- With A Notable Exception
Chicago Tribune profile/interview by Jon Anderson, 27 August 1991.
“In the hurly-burly world of free-lance writing, the name of D. Keith Mano has acquired a certain cachet in recent years. The guy’s done it all. Had his back wrenched by rolfers. Been locked up in a mental institution. Dressed as a transvestite. Hung out with cannibals. Talked at length with Jane Fonda.
A kind of McDonald’s of journalism, the prolific Mano has sold more than 1 million words to everyone from Playboy to the National Review. He gets up to $5,500 a story. He is everywhere. Getting tattooed. Giving blood with winos. Riding in squad cars. Working with laborers. Walking on fire.”
So he sounds like a William T. Vollmann, avant la lettre. So where are the compilations of his non-fiction?
October 23, 2016
I read the author's obit in the NYT...
https://www.google.com/amp/mobile.nyt...
How can you read that obit and not want to check out his fiction? It's a delight as a reader for a really good writer to tell you a good story. Anything but typical mystery genre.
https://www.google.com/amp/mobile.nyt...
How can you read that obit and not want to check out his fiction? It's a delight as a reader for a really good writer to tell you a good story. Anything but typical mystery genre.
Displaying 1 - 3 of 3 reviews