Killer Material: A Mystery

by Dan Barton

Some kinds of thievery cause not only material loss but outrage--Great Aunt Annie's cameo brooch, for instance. Or a stand-up comic's routine. So when Bill Kincaid, standing in at the last minute for a friend who unexpectedly cancels his gig, finds that another comic working there that night has taped his act, he is mad!

Turns out there's a lot more involved than the theft of a clutch of hilarious one-liners, no matter how important that can be to a good stand-up. A lot of shenanigans are going on on the comedy club circuit. The very bad comedian who stole Bill's material had paid the club owner to put him on the bill. Art Wescott, the friend who cancelled so suddenly, is found to have had a very good reason --he'd had a gun at his head while he was making the call, one that went off after he hung up. Bill figures he's involved in something that's not funny at all, and he'd better find out what it is before the last laugh is on him.

Genres: Mystery

304 pages, Hardcover

First published April 11, 2000

Reviews

[Maddy · Rating 4 out of 5]

PROTAGONIST: Biff Kincaid, stand-up comedian
SETTING: Los Angeles
SERIES: #1 of 3
RATING: 3.5
WHY: Biff Kincaid is a successful stand-up comedian. When he finds someone taping the acts of other comedians to use for themselves and finds a fellow comedian's body, he sets out to right the wrong. The humor is surprisingly subtle given the setting--there are some good one liners though. The action scenes weren't quite believable, but the characters were likeable.

[Marcus Bavel · Rating 5 out of 5]

Dan Barton invented this genre (stand-up comic as detective) so give him credit for that and for keeping it going. Not enough love out there for what stand-up comedians go through in their personal lives and what they learn from it, invaluable lessons that can be applied to almost any career that involves getting up in front of people, writing comedy, doing any kind of live performance, sticking your neck out (artistically speaking), massive amounts of memorization, having the wits to respond to hecklers in real-time, and by gosh, solving mysteries. Oh yes, and the book is funny. Especially to fans of the hard-boiled detective novel and the smokey, drunken love of being on the high wire without a net.

[Brian O'Leary · Rating 3 out of 5]

Good characters, good story, the end is lacking.

[Bill · Rating 5 out of 5]

Very well written story about a professional comedian who gets into trouble and solves crimes.

[Norma · Rating 4 out of 5]

( Format : Audiobook )
"Good food, good entertainment, good company."
An easy read, enjoyable murder mystery centering around the sordid side of comedy clubs. When Kincaide steps in To replace an old friend, Art, as headliner in the comedy club, Chortles, he realizes that the starter act was using other comedians material - badly. And when he finds out that Art had been murdered, life doesn't seems so funny.

Nice noir fast talking story, with fairly stereotypical characters but fun if the reader doesn't look too hard at the p!ot. Dan Barton narrates with ski!l and good timkng, really adding colour and excitement to the book with individual and appropriate character voices as well as slipping effortlessly into the persona of Kincaide himself, the comedian and first person story teller. A fine performance.I

I was very fortunate in being freely gifted with a complimentary copy of Killer Material by the rights holder, at my request, via Authors Direct. Thank you. It was good fun, and recommended as a vast paced enjoyable novel..

[Dianne · Rating 3 out of 5]

This was enjoyable enough but not as funny as I'd hoped (it's written by a comic about a comic so I expected it to be very funny.)

[Toesnorth's mom]

stand up comedian, not very good, first novel about comedy

[Philip Reiter · Rating 4 out of 5]

Interesting look into the world of comedy, comedians, and mayhem which moves the story along. Good afternoon story for a read.