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Sham Shamus
The ultimate identity crisis. From riches to rags. Deadly secrets revealed.
Private investigator Eric Henderson is juggling an existential crisis—literally. Sharing his life and body with penniless criminal lawyer Nick Norton, Henderson is one of two identities born from Chicago lawyer Warren Stevick's desperate bid to escape retribution from dangerous clients. Stevick became Norton and later created Henderson as a fallback.
Henderson and Norton are the quintessential odd couple, with the ghost of Stevick always in the background. Still, they have developed a workable routine, but all that is shattered when P.I. Henderson is hired to track down Warren Stevick. He has been hired to find himself.
Events spiral as a body with Stevick's ID is found in Norton's office, identified as Stevick by his ex-wife! The past resurfaces with a vengeance, putting their collective lives at risk. Attempting to unmask his enemy, Henderson stages a showdown in a vintage elevator in a deserted office building. If he survives, can he continue living as Henderson, or will he be forced to erase still another past and start life anew again?
Private investigator Eric Henderson is juggling an existential crisis—literally. Sharing his life and body with penniless criminal lawyer Nick Norton, Henderson is one of two identities born from Chicago lawyer Warren Stevick's desperate bid to escape retribution from dangerous clients. Stevick became Norton and later created Henderson as a fallback.
Henderson and Norton are the quintessential odd couple, with the ghost of Stevick always in the background. Still, they have developed a workable routine, but all that is shattered when P.I. Henderson is hired to track down Warren Stevick. He has been hired to find himself.
Events spiral as a body with Stevick's ID is found in Norton's office, identified as Stevick by his ex-wife! The past resurfaces with a vengeance, putting their collective lives at risk. Attempting to unmask his enemy, Henderson stages a showdown in a vintage elevator in a deserted office building. If he survives, can he continue living as Henderson, or will he be forced to erase still another past and start life anew again?
283 pages, Kindle Edition
Published August 2, 2025
About the author
Charlotte Stuart
21 books434 followersCharlotte Stuart PhD is an award-winning mystery writer who got her start in academia, left a tenured faculty position to go commercial fishing in Alaska, spent a frustrating year as a political speech writer, and enjoyed time as a management consultant and as a VP of HR and Training.
Her current passion is for writing character driven mysteries with twisty plots, including a legal thriller co-authored with writer husband Don Stuart.
Her discount Detective Mysteries received a 1st Place Series Award in the Chanticleer International Mystery & Mayhem competition. Other awards include a Global Ebook Gold, a Reader Views Silver, a Global Book Award Bronze, and making finals in Foreword Indies, Killer Nashville's Silver Falchion and the Eric Hoffer Awards.
She lives and writes on Vashon Island, is the past president of the Puget Sound Sisters in Crime and a member of the Mystery Writers of America.
Her current passion is for writing character driven mysteries with twisty plots, including a legal thriller co-authored with writer husband Don Stuart.
Her discount Detective Mysteries received a 1st Place Series Award in the Chanticleer International Mystery & Mayhem competition. Other awards include a Global Ebook Gold, a Reader Views Silver, a Global Book Award Bronze, and making finals in Foreword Indies, Killer Nashville's Silver Falchion and the Eric Hoffer Awards.
She lives and writes on Vashon Island, is the past president of the Puget Sound Sisters in Crime and a member of the Mystery Writers of America.
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Displaying 1 - 4 of 4 reviews
August 22, 2025
Well that was a confusing book! Interesting plot/perspective. A few impossible getaways. A grisly death. And the only ending possible.
January 14, 2026
Sham Shamus by Charlotte Stuart is about a private investigator named Eric Henderson who is hired to locate Warren Stevick, a former attorney who has vanished after testifying in a criminal case but has continued sending money to his children. But his investigation turns strange, revealing that he is, in fact, Stevick, but living under a series of carefully constructed identities set in place to keep him hidden. A murder happens in his office, and of one of his assumed identities results in Stevick being declared officially dead and identified by a woman claiming to be his wife. Soon, Henderson becomes wrapped up in a situation involving police scrutiny, a deceptive investigator, and people linked to organized crime, leaving him no choice but to try and protect his last remaining identity.
This is a very interesting narrative, and I don’t think I’ve ever read anything like it. It has a tightly-controlled cast centered on a narrator split between three identities: Warran Stevick, Nick Norton, and Eric Hernderson. Each of these characters has distinct habits, speech patterns, and internal priorities. Other characters who stood out include Stephen Foster, whom I immediately felt a distrust for, even though he’s an investigator from Chicago. He’s evasive and more concerned with protecting himself than correcting any damage he caused. Dan Simco is hired muscle and connected to the woman posing as Mrs. Stevick. The woman posing as Mrs. Stevick makes her a central figure in identifying Stevick’s body as her dead husband.
Stuart leans into that first-person noir style narrative, which always seems to work for these stories in my opinion. The pacing varies from chapter to chapter, but it’s appropriate for each scene. The premise is established early on when Henderson opens the file and sees that the photograph of Warren Stevick is of him. I thought that was a really good punch at the right time to hook readers. I also like how Stuart set up the scene when Bernie Hick’s body was found in Norton’s office, and his wallet contained all the cards in the name Warren Stevick. Everything just felt like a violation; it felt dangerous.
As the story moves along, so much comes to light; there are deaths I didn’t see coming, and it seems to push Henderson out of hiding and into danger on multiple fronts. There’s an insurance investigation that forces him to investigate the corpse identified as himself, there’s mob intimidation, procedural friction, and it kept me wanting to read more, especially when a chilling blackmail offer turned up. But that wasn’t even the cake. What really got my cogs churning was when the burner phone traced back to “Get Physical” because it made this whole conspiracy feel like it was so close.
Just when I thought the story was already ten toes deep into deception, it turns into paranoia and active extraction. The pacing really picks up because Henderson is put in a high-risk situation aboard the Zenith, where he has to make some split-second choices. We find so many more revelations and realize who has access and authority and is steering this whole setup. It gets messy in a good way. Readers are probably going to find themselves asking, “Did this really just happen?”
Readers will definitely root for Henderson as his survival really depends on staying steps ahead of the police, mob muscle, and the system that saved Stevick by turning him into Norton at one point. Stuart really turned the screws so well when the mask came off and revealed the sinister person behind all of this chaos. The institutions begin to look as dangerous as the criminal organizations.
Sham Shamus is one of those high-wire noirs that has sharp, street-smart elements and dark humor, but still offers a menacing storyline. It kind of reminds me of Joe Ide’s IQ for its similar style. Readers who enjoy books where the detective figure is used to expose how power can manipulate the vulnerable, even when they are trying to do what’s right, will absolutely enjoy Sham Shamus by Charlotte Stuart.
This is a very interesting narrative, and I don’t think I’ve ever read anything like it. It has a tightly-controlled cast centered on a narrator split between three identities: Warran Stevick, Nick Norton, and Eric Hernderson. Each of these characters has distinct habits, speech patterns, and internal priorities. Other characters who stood out include Stephen Foster, whom I immediately felt a distrust for, even though he’s an investigator from Chicago. He’s evasive and more concerned with protecting himself than correcting any damage he caused. Dan Simco is hired muscle and connected to the woman posing as Mrs. Stevick. The woman posing as Mrs. Stevick makes her a central figure in identifying Stevick’s body as her dead husband.
Stuart leans into that first-person noir style narrative, which always seems to work for these stories in my opinion. The pacing varies from chapter to chapter, but it’s appropriate for each scene. The premise is established early on when Henderson opens the file and sees that the photograph of Warren Stevick is of him. I thought that was a really good punch at the right time to hook readers. I also like how Stuart set up the scene when Bernie Hick’s body was found in Norton’s office, and his wallet contained all the cards in the name Warren Stevick. Everything just felt like a violation; it felt dangerous.
As the story moves along, so much comes to light; there are deaths I didn’t see coming, and it seems to push Henderson out of hiding and into danger on multiple fronts. There’s an insurance investigation that forces him to investigate the corpse identified as himself, there’s mob intimidation, procedural friction, and it kept me wanting to read more, especially when a chilling blackmail offer turned up. But that wasn’t even the cake. What really got my cogs churning was when the burner phone traced back to “Get Physical” because it made this whole conspiracy feel like it was so close.
Just when I thought the story was already ten toes deep into deception, it turns into paranoia and active extraction. The pacing really picks up because Henderson is put in a high-risk situation aboard the Zenith, where he has to make some split-second choices. We find so many more revelations and realize who has access and authority and is steering this whole setup. It gets messy in a good way. Readers are probably going to find themselves asking, “Did this really just happen?”
Readers will definitely root for Henderson as his survival really depends on staying steps ahead of the police, mob muscle, and the system that saved Stevick by turning him into Norton at one point. Stuart really turned the screws so well when the mask came off and revealed the sinister person behind all of this chaos. The institutions begin to look as dangerous as the criminal organizations.
Sham Shamus is one of those high-wire noirs that has sharp, street-smart elements and dark humor, but still offers a menacing storyline. It kind of reminds me of Joe Ide’s IQ for its similar style. Readers who enjoy books where the detective figure is used to expose how power can manipulate the vulnerable, even when they are trying to do what’s right, will absolutely enjoy Sham Shamus by Charlotte Stuart.
March 20, 2026
Reviewed based off a GoodReads giveaway. I really enjoyed how this mystery combined a serious investigation with a main character who is actually pretty funny, relatable and in a complicated situation. The plot kept me guessing until the very end, making it a perfect quick read for anyone who likes a good detective story.
August 29, 2026
This was a great book. Love the old gumshoe vibes!
Displaying 1 - 4 of 4 reviews