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Key West #18
Sunset Bluff
Two ghostwriters walk into a Key West bar...and wobble out with swapped gigs, switched identities, and a dicey bluff that could cost them not only their careers but their lives. Will the Sports Betting King ever figure out that his memoir is being written by a fraud? Will the presumably dead bestselling novelist cooperate by staying dead? Will Darla the beautiful tourist short-circuit the whole crazy caper with her high-voltage romantic appeal?
Unfolding under warm Florida sunshine and spiked with delicious publishing-insider dish, Sunset Bluff provides both belly laughs and wistful sighs as it considers ambitions high and low, friendships true and false, and the very elusive virtue known as authenticity.
Unfolding under warm Florida sunshine and spiked with delicious publishing-insider dish, Sunset Bluff provides both belly laughs and wistful sighs as it considers ambitions high and low, friendships true and false, and the very elusive virtue known as authenticity.
281 pages, Kindle Edition
First published February 2, 2024
191 people are currently reading
45 people want to read
About the author
Laurence Shames
40 books241 followersLaurence Shames has been a New York City taxi driver, lounge singer, furniture mover, lifeguard, dishwasher, gym teacher, and shoe salesman. Having failed to distinguish himself in any of those professions, he turned to writing full-time in 1976 and has not done an honest day’s work since.
His basic laziness notwithstanding, Shames has published more than twenty books and hundreds of magazine articles and essays. Best known for his critically acclaimed series of Key West Capers--14 titles and counting!--he has also authored non-fiction and enjoyed considerable though largely secret success as a collaborator and ghostwriter. Shames has penned four New York Times bestsellers. These have appeared on four different lists, under four different names, none of them his own. This might be a record.
Born in Newark, New Jersey in 1951, to chain-smoking parents of modest means but flamboyant emotions, Shames did not know Philip Roth, Paul Simon, Queen Latifa, Shaquille O’Neal, or any of the other really cool people who have come from his hometown. He graduated summa cum laude from NYU in 1972 and was inducted into Phi Beta Kappa. As a side note, both his alma mater and honorary society have been extraordinarily adept at tracking his many address changes through the decades, in spite of the fact that he’s never sent them one red cent, and never will.
It was on an Italian beach in the summer of 1970 that Shames first heard the sacred call of the writer’s vocation. Lonely and poor, hungry and thirsty, he’d wandered into a seaside trattoria, where he noticed a couple tucking into a big platter of fritto misto. The man was nothing much to look at but the woman was really beautiful. She was perfectly tan and had a very fine-gauge gold chain looped around her bare tummy. The couple was sharing a liter of white wine; condensation beaded the carafe. Eye contact was made; the couple turned out to be Americans. The man wiped olive oil from his rather sensual lips and introduced himself as a writer. Shames knew in that moment that he would be one too.
He began writing stories and longer things he thought of as novels. He couldn’t sell them.
By 1979 he’d somehow become a journalist and was soon publishing in top-shelf magazines like Playboy, Outside, Saturday Review, and Vanity Fair. (This transition entailed some lucky breaks, but is not as vivid a tale as the fritto misto bit, so we’ll just sort of gloss over it.) In 1982, Shames was named Ethics columnist of Esquire, and also made a contributing editor to that magazine.
By 1986 he was writing non-fiction books. The critical, if not the commercial, success of these first established Shames’ credentials as a collaborator/ghostwriter. His 1991 national bestseller, Boss of Bosses, written with two FBI agents, got him thinking about the Mafia. It also bought him a ticket out of New York and a sweet little house in Key West, where he finally got back to Plan A: writing novels. Given his then-current preoccupations, the novels naturally featured palm trees, high humidity, dogs in sunglasses, and New York mobsters blundering through a town where people were too laid back to be afraid of them. But this part of the story is best told with reference to the books themselves, so please spend some time and explore them.
His basic laziness notwithstanding, Shames has published more than twenty books and hundreds of magazine articles and essays. Best known for his critically acclaimed series of Key West Capers--14 titles and counting!--he has also authored non-fiction and enjoyed considerable though largely secret success as a collaborator and ghostwriter. Shames has penned four New York Times bestsellers. These have appeared on four different lists, under four different names, none of them his own. This might be a record.
Born in Newark, New Jersey in 1951, to chain-smoking parents of modest means but flamboyant emotions, Shames did not know Philip Roth, Paul Simon, Queen Latifa, Shaquille O’Neal, or any of the other really cool people who have come from his hometown. He graduated summa cum laude from NYU in 1972 and was inducted into Phi Beta Kappa. As a side note, both his alma mater and honorary society have been extraordinarily adept at tracking his many address changes through the decades, in spite of the fact that he’s never sent them one red cent, and never will.
It was on an Italian beach in the summer of 1970 that Shames first heard the sacred call of the writer’s vocation. Lonely and poor, hungry and thirsty, he’d wandered into a seaside trattoria, where he noticed a couple tucking into a big platter of fritto misto. The man was nothing much to look at but the woman was really beautiful. She was perfectly tan and had a very fine-gauge gold chain looped around her bare tummy. The couple was sharing a liter of white wine; condensation beaded the carafe. Eye contact was made; the couple turned out to be Americans. The man wiped olive oil from his rather sensual lips and introduced himself as a writer. Shames knew in that moment that he would be one too.
He began writing stories and longer things he thought of as novels. He couldn’t sell them.
By 1979 he’d somehow become a journalist and was soon publishing in top-shelf magazines like Playboy, Outside, Saturday Review, and Vanity Fair. (This transition entailed some lucky breaks, but is not as vivid a tale as the fritto misto bit, so we’ll just sort of gloss over it.) In 1982, Shames was named Ethics columnist of Esquire, and also made a contributing editor to that magazine.
By 1986 he was writing non-fiction books. The critical, if not the commercial, success of these first established Shames’ credentials as a collaborator/ghostwriter. His 1991 national bestseller, Boss of Bosses, written with two FBI agents, got him thinking about the Mafia. It also bought him a ticket out of New York and a sweet little house in Key West, where he finally got back to Plan A: writing novels. Given his then-current preoccupations, the novels naturally featured palm trees, high humidity, dogs in sunglasses, and New York mobsters blundering through a town where people were too laid back to be afraid of them. But this part of the story is best told with reference to the books themselves, so please spend some time and explore them.
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Displaying 1 - 28 of 28 reviews
February 5, 2024
Another Home Run Out of the Park
I am amazed at how Laurence Shames weaves tenderness, excitement, subtle lessons in life, complex and simple human emotions--even dog emotions--with such mastery. Descriptions of air texture, scents, and all environmental surroundings let me be there totally. I'm enchanted by every book. Especially this one. Thank you, dearest Laurence, for this warm and enlightened experience.
I am amazed at how Laurence Shames weaves tenderness, excitement, subtle lessons in life, complex and simple human emotions--even dog emotions--with such mastery. Descriptions of air texture, scents, and all environmental surroundings let me be there totally. I'm enchanted by every book. Especially this one. Thank you, dearest Laurence, for this warm and enlightened experience.
March 18, 2024
Shames says there are two kinds of writing: good writing and bad writing. His is good. So good that you can be tricked into thinking that his style of writing is easy, simple and even light-weight. You don't have to write like William James (oh, please, don't ever write like that gas bag) to be an excellent writer and taken seriously. Shames has a series of novels set in Key West, Florida, involving a rotating series of continuous characters along with new ones that wandered by divine design into that delightful ante-room to both Hell and Heaven. Bert the Shirt, a mob guy who died (for a couple of minutes) and thus was able to retire unmolested from grudges from the past in Key West serves as St. Peter. He is helped initially by Don Giovanni, his Chihuahua and later, after DG passed, by Nacho, another Chihuahua with a strong sense of self-identity and importance. Bert helps those that arrive by purpose or accident in the over-ripe town of Key West with practical wisdom learned over his years as a hit man and a creative genius in identifying solutions to problems of the human mind and heart. Funny, wise, with a love of the characters that wash up from the rest of the States onto a Key West beach, these books are little gems. Read these books. They are written by an American master at his craft.
February 4, 2024
Sunset Bluff by witty long-time Florida caper writer Laurence Shames entertains and hands out laughs a word a minute. Featuring his long-time protagonist, retired organized crime figure Burt The Shirt, and his dog Nacho. From page one, the reader is engulfed in a crazy case of mutually mistaken identity between two bored writers, one a ghostwriting novelist of popular fiction and the other a ghostwriter of mafia-based autobiographies.
The novelist writes a continuing series initially created by a now-dead author. Both writers are bored, and on a lark, they agree to trade assignments. The novelist agrees to work with the Mafia member, and the Mafia writer agrees to take on the continuing popular fiction story. Add in an appearance by an aggrieved hitman and his girlfriend; the story only gets more unpredictable and beguiling. Sunset Bluff is an outstanding addition to the author's exceptional backlist, which is highly recommended to all.
The novelist writes a continuing series initially created by a now-dead author. Both writers are bored, and on a lark, they agree to trade assignments. The novelist agrees to work with the Mafia member, and the Mafia writer agrees to take on the continuing popular fiction story. Add in an appearance by an aggrieved hitman and his girlfriend; the story only gets more unpredictable and beguiling. Sunset Bluff is an outstanding addition to the author's exceptional backlist, which is highly recommended to all.
August 27, 2024
Retired mobster, Bert the Shirt, and his chihuahua Nacho, are the creaky-boned dynamic duo of Key West.
All of the books in this series stand alone. The main characters are Bert and Nacho, but the other characters come and go. All of his characters are fully-developed and Shames somehow makes us like almost all of them. Even some of the bad guys can evoke some sympathy.
Don't get me wrong, there are some real baddies that Bert and Nacho have to take care of but these are FAST, FUNNY READS!!
All of the books in this series stand alone. The main characters are Bert and Nacho, but the other characters come and go. All of his characters are fully-developed and Shames somehow makes us like almost all of them. Even some of the bad guys can evoke some sympathy.
Don't get me wrong, there are some real baddies that Bert and Nacho have to take care of but these are FAST, FUNNY READS!!
March 17, 2024
Sunset Bluff is about two authors trading places as they try to outwit the mob with dangerous consequences. It’s a blend of madcap comedy, mixed-up identities, and mobster fiction, written in an unexpected literary style. The perfect setting, Florida’s Key West, is described beautifully: "the bottomless toy box of jigsaw clouds, the tireless play of light on water." I’m happy to see that Shames has written other Key West Capers and plan to read through all of them!
August 29, 2025
Another great Shames read
Immersed in a riveting narrative, I was captivated by the ingenious plot developments, the endearing and eccentric cast of characters, and the vibrant Key West backdrop. The story's surprising conclusion left me thoroughly satisfied and eagerly anticipating more literary gems from this masterful storyteller. Mr. Shames continues to deliver exceptional, compelling reads that keep readers on the edge of their seats.
Immersed in a riveting narrative, I was captivated by the ingenious plot developments, the endearing and eccentric cast of characters, and the vibrant Key West backdrop. The story's surprising conclusion left me thoroughly satisfied and eagerly anticipating more literary gems from this masterful storyteller. Mr. Shames continues to deliver exceptional, compelling reads that keep readers on the edge of their seats.
February 25, 2024
Another Mood Lifting read by Shames
I love Laurence Shames’s gift for weaving clever storylines into the crazy backdrop of Key West. His descriptions are so vivid and interesting and the pace never lets you get bored. I wish I could save his books for vacations because they’re perfect vacation reads but I always break and read them immediately as I find them.
I love Laurence Shames’s gift for weaving clever storylines into the crazy backdrop of Key West. His descriptions are so vivid and interesting and the pace never lets you get bored. I wish I could save his books for vacations because they’re perfect vacation reads but I always break and read them immediately as I find them.
February 25, 2024
a quick read
At first, it wasn’t to clear how this was going to unfold, writers swapping genres, mob guys in Key West as book subjects, frustrated women, a jerk rising from the dead and a quintessential Guido chasing his erstwhile girlfriend all connected by Bert the Shirt. But it did work! And we have hit the last of the series for now. Will wait for 19 anxiously.
At first, it wasn’t to clear how this was going to unfold, writers swapping genres, mob guys in Key West as book subjects, frustrated women, a jerk rising from the dead and a quintessential Guido chasing his erstwhile girlfriend all connected by Bert the Shirt. But it did work! And we have hit the last of the series for now. Will wait for 19 anxiously.
February 26, 2024
Really great story
Left a little sad thought Darla and Richie were a forever thing g UT also what's forever in this world Bert of course is the logical one and Ralph is be will stay with Tony but the real hero is Nacho o a dear friend Anne who made her 90th birthday God bless RIP....ciao from Costa rica..
Left a little sad thought Darla and Richie were a forever thing g UT also what's forever in this world Bert of course is the logical one and Ralph is be will stay with Tony but the real hero is Nacho o a dear friend Anne who made her 90th birthday God bless RIP....ciao from Costa rica..
March 7, 2024
Every vacation is better when reading one of the Key West Capers series installments. These light books are always an enjoyable romp in Key West with Bert the Shirt and some decent new character who somehow got mixed up in something and wants to do the right thing possibly with a little love interest. 3.75 fun stars.
February 10, 2024
Vic review
Laurence Shames knows how to spin an enjoyable read. This story has a plot that appears straight forward but has twists that keep you guessing.
I would recommend this book .
Laurence Shames knows how to spin an enjoyable read. This story has a plot that appears straight forward but has twists that keep you guessing.
I would recommend this book .
February 10, 2024
Loved it
Once again Bert and Nacho did not disappoint. Richie kept my interest and I could not dislike Evan more. I love the monsters were likable and I am glad Harry got his just desserts. Great book!
Once again Bert and Nacho did not disappoint. Richie kept my interest and I could not dislike Evan more. I love the monsters were likable and I am glad Harry got his just desserts. Great book!
February 15, 2024
Mr. Shames has his Key West stories down to a science. They revolve around Bert the Shirt and his dog Nacho. The other star is Key West. Throw in a mobster or two and a couple of twists and you have a story that can't be beat.
March 25, 2024
A Mob boss biography? Really.
Another fun book from Mr Shames. His continuing characters of Bert and Nacho make reading his books fun. I always look forward to them. And this one did not disappoint. Start at book one and read them all. You won't be disappointed.
Another fun book from Mr Shames. His continuing characters of Bert and Nacho make reading his books fun. I always look forward to them. And this one did not disappoint. Start at book one and read them all. You won't be disappointed.
July 9, 2024
loved every one of these books!
Such good reads) Each with its own story even when characters reappear. There are always reasons to smile, even laugh out loud. Thank you Mr. Shane’s!
Such good reads) Each with its own story even when characters reappear. There are always reasons to smile, even laugh out loud. Thank you Mr. Shane’s!
February 5, 2024
One of his best. Read it in two sittings.
February 5, 2024
Another fun ride in Shames crazy Key West world
If you live somewhere cold or just love the Keys check this one out!
If you live somewhere cold or just love the Keys check this one out!
February 6, 2024
Always a joy to take the trip
Sometimes we don't know who we really are, cause we are in denial.
Now and then a trip with Burt sooths our bruises. Thanks you !
Sometimes we don't know who we really are, cause we are in denial.
Now and then a trip with Burt sooths our bruises. Thanks you !
February 20, 2024
Fun Read
This is another fun read from the creator of Bert the Shirt. I look forward to new additions to the series and recommend the entire series to those who liked this book.
This is another fun read from the creator of Bert the Shirt. I look forward to new additions to the series and recommend the entire series to those who liked this book.
March 11, 2024
Fun caper with humorous characters and an enticing location.
March 17, 2024
comedy of errors
I liked this book, an enjoyable far read. A. Little convoluted, for my taste, and a little too romantic, but that’s okay.
I liked this book, an enjoyable far read. A. Little convoluted, for my taste, and a little too romantic, but that’s okay.
June 9, 2024
Feel good weirdness. Love Bert
August 27, 2024
Bert and Richie forever
Bert the shirt in the spotlight totally. Shames continues to be the best in this Key West mob, east coast genre.
Bert the shirt in the spotlight totally. Shames continues to be the best in this Key West mob, east coast genre.
December 1, 2024
Hilarious and wildly wicked. You'll have to pay attention, or you'll go off the rails.
January 1, 2025
The little dog wears a driving hat.
June 21, 2025
Will make you smile. Funny and entertaining as always with Laurence Shames' Key West series. Thanks!
July 22, 2025
Fun characters and a fun crazy story.
Easy read
Easy read
November 18, 2025
I so enjoy reading Laurence Shames books and I hope there will be more adventures of Bert and Nacho! Please more books Mr. Shames!
Displaying 1 - 28 of 28 reviews