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Planet Willie
This is an alternate cover edition for isbn13: 9781490334431
Willie Lee is a highly unusual angel. Irreverent, hilarious, and politically incorrect to the extreme, he tends to make the most of his time on Planet Earth whenever he gets sent down as a detective in the Paradise Police Department, Lost Souls Division, to re-inhabit the body that was woefully lost to him when some misguided stranger put a bullet through the back of his pretty head, four years, eight months, and fifteen days ago.
Now Willie's on the trail of a beautiful art dealer named Fernanda Shore who may have stolen her father's prized painting and who's wandered far off the straight and narrow. Not that Willie's complaining. He's looking for any excuse to extend his investigation in any direction that enables him to prolong his time away from the boring clouds and back in his old body on earth. Which partially explains the belly dancers, the fine Western apparel, the Albanian terrorists, the cape, the bourbon, the nuns, and the cliffs of Acapulco.
Et cetera.
Because for Willie it's the et cetera that makes life worth living, as long and as hard as they’ll let him. And in the meantime he might just figure out who shot him.
Willie Lee is a highly unusual angel. Irreverent, hilarious, and politically incorrect to the extreme, he tends to make the most of his time on Planet Earth whenever he gets sent down as a detective in the Paradise Police Department, Lost Souls Division, to re-inhabit the body that was woefully lost to him when some misguided stranger put a bullet through the back of his pretty head, four years, eight months, and fifteen days ago.
Now Willie's on the trail of a beautiful art dealer named Fernanda Shore who may have stolen her father's prized painting and who's wandered far off the straight and narrow. Not that Willie's complaining. He's looking for any excuse to extend his investigation in any direction that enables him to prolong his time away from the boring clouds and back in his old body on earth. Which partially explains the belly dancers, the fine Western apparel, the Albanian terrorists, the cape, the bourbon, the nuns, and the cliffs of Acapulco.
Et cetera.
Because for Willie it's the et cetera that makes life worth living, as long and as hard as they’ll let him. And in the meantime he might just figure out who shot him.
334 pages, Paperback
First published June 27, 2013
About the author
Josh Shoemake
4 books25 followersJosh Shoemake was born in Richmond, Virginia and attended Columbia University, after which he spent several years teaching high school literature at the American School of Tangier, then became headmaster of The American School of Marrakesh. He now lives in Paris and has published a number of stories and books, both fiction and non-fiction, including a history of literary Tangier, which was named a a Book of the Month in The Sunday Times, and one of Condé Nast Traveller’s all-time best travel books.
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Displaying 1 - 8 of 8 reviews
July 20, 2013
A Heavenly Detective
Being dead and hanging out in heaven isn’t Willie Lee’s cup of tea. After being murdered as a mortal, his ‘future’ becomes rather boring, until he is given a task to change from his angelic state to incarnate and become a detective back on earth.
Sporting a no-holds-barred attitude, Willie provides plenty of humor (at times, off-color) throughout the story. He wastes no time enjoying a politically incorrect life, which includes plenty of booze and women.
This is not your typical book; the characters are exaggerated and a bit outrageous. Watching Willie balance his angelic thoughts and actions with earth’s many temptations, is amusing.
Trying to complete his original task, Willie would also like to solve his own murder mystery. Is he a successful detective? Find out by reading Planet Willie by Josh Shoemake. It’s an unusual story, demonstrating a change of pace to be entertaining.
Being dead and hanging out in heaven isn’t Willie Lee’s cup of tea. After being murdered as a mortal, his ‘future’ becomes rather boring, until he is given a task to change from his angelic state to incarnate and become a detective back on earth.
Sporting a no-holds-barred attitude, Willie provides plenty of humor (at times, off-color) throughout the story. He wastes no time enjoying a politically incorrect life, which includes plenty of booze and women.
This is not your typical book; the characters are exaggerated and a bit outrageous. Watching Willie balance his angelic thoughts and actions with earth’s many temptations, is amusing.
Trying to complete his original task, Willie would also like to solve his own murder mystery. Is he a successful detective? Find out by reading Planet Willie by Josh Shoemake. It’s an unusual story, demonstrating a change of pace to be entertaining.
June 21, 2013
A `comic cowboy angel detective novel'
The talent inherent in Josh Shoemake is staggering. If this novel PLANET WILLIE is indicative of what we can expect from this young, movie star handsome writer then watch out! The literary world could just be set back on its heels. This is experimental writing at its finest - novel in concept, droll in delivery, packed with double entendres, and yet for all of its literary display of skill it remains a novel that is fascinating as a story - from page one to the end.
So what do we know of Josh Shoemake? It is tough to find much biographical information, so that little bit must be quoted: `Josh Shoemake was a reader in English at Columbia University. He has lived in Morocco since 1996. He spent three years in Tangier, where he taught literature and formed close friendships with Paul Bowles, Mohamed Choukri, and other local artists and writers. He then served for five years as headmaster of The American School of Marrakech and has published stories about Tangier in The Threepenny Review and elsewhere.' Born in Virginia in the United States, Shoemake is making his life along the lines of the other famous ex-pat writers - good company, good experience, good influence, and it definitely shows.
Shoemake describes PLANET WILLIE as a comic cowboy angel detective novel. As soon as we start reading page one that seemingly impossibly absurd concept becomes comfortably deserving as we meet Willie Lee lolling around on the clouds in heaven, dead of course, due to being shot in the head. He is an angel awaiting change and that change comes in the form of an assignment as the assigned detective from the Paradise Police Department, Lost Souls Division to incarnate and return to earth to investigate an art theft from a wealthy wheelchair confined Harry Shore whose beautiful art gallerist daughter Fernanda is the chief suspect. The tale takes him from Acapulco to New York, with all manner of strange people entering the reincarnated Willie's life - from anorexic slum living artists in a hotel managed by one hilarious mega breasted older female, to terrorists, to the ever available bars and their clientele, etc. Willie has a flair for his own brand of fashion and for his manner of altering his facial features (especially his smile) to gain control of any encounter.
But as with many books that venture into the experimental, the story (though well written) is not half so much fun as the distinctive style in which it is written. `High drama' That's my style....It's like Japanese Noh theater I once saw on a television program. These Japanese men dress up like women, paint their faces white and stand for hours like statues in front of packed crowds. Then every once in a while one of these guys will turn up his wrist, or maybe blink, and the crowd, man, they're just devastated... I spend my days waiting for Japanese men in dresses to blink, because it's the blink that gets me too, just like those packed houses n Kyoto or wherever. And these days when I get involved in a case, saving a soul itself honestly never proves too interesting in the end. It's the little details that intrigue, so to speak. The details are where God is, as many wise thinkers have said, and I wholly share the sentiment, even if that's obviously not where he is at all.'
And it is the details of this wildly imaginative politically incorrect angel Willie Jones' tale that glue us to the page - when not practically dry-heaving from laughter. Josh Shoemake is both technically inscrutable and entertainingly devastating and it looks like we, the reading public, are in for a wild hoot of a ride if his subsequent books are as infectious as this one.
Grady Harp
The talent inherent in Josh Shoemake is staggering. If this novel PLANET WILLIE is indicative of what we can expect from this young, movie star handsome writer then watch out! The literary world could just be set back on its heels. This is experimental writing at its finest - novel in concept, droll in delivery, packed with double entendres, and yet for all of its literary display of skill it remains a novel that is fascinating as a story - from page one to the end.
So what do we know of Josh Shoemake? It is tough to find much biographical information, so that little bit must be quoted: `Josh Shoemake was a reader in English at Columbia University. He has lived in Morocco since 1996. He spent three years in Tangier, where he taught literature and formed close friendships with Paul Bowles, Mohamed Choukri, and other local artists and writers. He then served for five years as headmaster of The American School of Marrakech and has published stories about Tangier in The Threepenny Review and elsewhere.' Born in Virginia in the United States, Shoemake is making his life along the lines of the other famous ex-pat writers - good company, good experience, good influence, and it definitely shows.
Shoemake describes PLANET WILLIE as a comic cowboy angel detective novel. As soon as we start reading page one that seemingly impossibly absurd concept becomes comfortably deserving as we meet Willie Lee lolling around on the clouds in heaven, dead of course, due to being shot in the head. He is an angel awaiting change and that change comes in the form of an assignment as the assigned detective from the Paradise Police Department, Lost Souls Division to incarnate and return to earth to investigate an art theft from a wealthy wheelchair confined Harry Shore whose beautiful art gallerist daughter Fernanda is the chief suspect. The tale takes him from Acapulco to New York, with all manner of strange people entering the reincarnated Willie's life - from anorexic slum living artists in a hotel managed by one hilarious mega breasted older female, to terrorists, to the ever available bars and their clientele, etc. Willie has a flair for his own brand of fashion and for his manner of altering his facial features (especially his smile) to gain control of any encounter.
But as with many books that venture into the experimental, the story (though well written) is not half so much fun as the distinctive style in which it is written. `High drama' That's my style....It's like Japanese Noh theater I once saw on a television program. These Japanese men dress up like women, paint their faces white and stand for hours like statues in front of packed crowds. Then every once in a while one of these guys will turn up his wrist, or maybe blink, and the crowd, man, they're just devastated... I spend my days waiting for Japanese men in dresses to blink, because it's the blink that gets me too, just like those packed houses n Kyoto or wherever. And these days when I get involved in a case, saving a soul itself honestly never proves too interesting in the end. It's the little details that intrigue, so to speak. The details are where God is, as many wise thinkers have said, and I wholly share the sentiment, even if that's obviously not where he is at all.'
And it is the details of this wildly imaginative politically incorrect angel Willie Jones' tale that glue us to the page - when not practically dry-heaving from laughter. Josh Shoemake is both technically inscrutable and entertainingly devastating and it looks like we, the reading public, are in for a wild hoot of a ride if his subsequent books are as infectious as this one.
Grady Harp
July 21, 2013
In many respects, I do believe that angel and part time P.I. Willie Lee is in truth author Josh Shoemake's alter ego. Willie is a handsome, sometimes salty often philosophical angel with a 1000 mega watt smile that knocks `em dead. He sports a calfskin cowboy hat, a much too expensive belt buckle on his ostrich skin belt, a fancy Italian suit, a cape (does that make him a super-angel), and a pair of made to measure boots that have seen better days.
Dispatched from his cloud in the Lost Souls division of the Paradise Police Department Willie's assignment is to answer the prayer of one Harry Shore - to save the soul of his wayward daughter Fernanda and to locate and return the Madonna painting presumably stolen by her and replaced with a counterfeit.
Enter the most unusual cast of characters you're likely to meet west of Kurt Vonnegut. A crazy group of Albanians, a Mexican business-man called Queso (is he a big cheese?) as well as an irresistible pheromone perfume pushing salesman named Billy Sidell are just the tip of the iceberg in this imaginative and comedic romp that takes the reader from Texas to New York, to Colorado and finally to Mexico. Oh, and let's not forget the culprit who sent Willie to his heavenly reward in the first place - finding out who-dunnit is also on Willie's list of things to do and it appears that he has taken a page from the book of "old blue eyes" and enjoys disregarding convention as he does things his way......and according to Willie my way is God's prerogative too.
PLANET WILLIE is an enjoyable, slightly off beat excursion into a world where Christopher Moore and Nick Hornby and the aforementioned Kurt Vonnegut would feel completely at home.
Willie once muses, "Is Eternity long enough to get yourself on track?" This author doesn't need eternity. He's right on track with the highly original and uniquely endearing PLANET WILLIE.
P. S. Just one little bit of nit-picking. On page 23 when referring to his truck Willie says, "She stood by me through thick and thin, my truck. Trigger to my Lone Ranger". Didn't Trigger belong to Roy Rogers? I believe the Lone Ranger's horse was Silver......or maybe his truck should have been the trusty "Tonto to my Lone Ranger". Just wondering.
Dispatched from his cloud in the Lost Souls division of the Paradise Police Department Willie's assignment is to answer the prayer of one Harry Shore - to save the soul of his wayward daughter Fernanda and to locate and return the Madonna painting presumably stolen by her and replaced with a counterfeit.
Enter the most unusual cast of characters you're likely to meet west of Kurt Vonnegut. A crazy group of Albanians, a Mexican business-man called Queso (is he a big cheese?) as well as an irresistible pheromone perfume pushing salesman named Billy Sidell are just the tip of the iceberg in this imaginative and comedic romp that takes the reader from Texas to New York, to Colorado and finally to Mexico. Oh, and let's not forget the culprit who sent Willie to his heavenly reward in the first place - finding out who-dunnit is also on Willie's list of things to do and it appears that he has taken a page from the book of "old blue eyes" and enjoys disregarding convention as he does things his way......and according to Willie my way is God's prerogative too.
PLANET WILLIE is an enjoyable, slightly off beat excursion into a world where Christopher Moore and Nick Hornby and the aforementioned Kurt Vonnegut would feel completely at home.
Willie once muses, "Is Eternity long enough to get yourself on track?" This author doesn't need eternity. He's right on track with the highly original and uniquely endearing PLANET WILLIE.
P. S. Just one little bit of nit-picking. On page 23 when referring to his truck Willie says, "She stood by me through thick and thin, my truck. Trigger to my Lone Ranger". Didn't Trigger belong to Roy Rogers? I believe the Lone Ranger's horse was Silver......or maybe his truck should have been the trusty "Tonto to my Lone Ranger". Just wondering.
September 12, 2013
Willie Lee is a member of “an elite unit of highly bored individuals”, better known as angels. He’s been an angel since he got topped by the guy in the pink paisley shirt four years ago, but sometimes gets sent back to Texas to answer someone’s prayers (which is funny in itself: it seems Willie’s ‘friends’ don’t know he’s supposed to be dead). He’s a detective with the Lost Souls department.
His case this time is Harry Shore, who is concerned about his daughter, Fernanda—mostly because he thinks she’s stolen his million-dollar Botticelli painting of the Madonna. Willie travels to New York to find Fernanda, and runs into a group of Albanians calling themselves the Art Liberation Front, and their current project: to devalue Shore’s Botticelli. This sets Willie (and the ALF) off on a cross-country chase to track down the original painting (which is reminiscent of the 1980’s British comedy, ’Allo ’Allo, and their perpetual search for the painting of the Fallen Madonna with the Big Boobies).
Willie’s a great first-person narrator. He has a very healthy self-image, particularly when it comes to his opinion of how he is seen by the ladies (he has a collection of smiles he gives the ladies, and has names for them all. What does that tell you?). His narration is rather stream-of-consciousness which is usually a criticism, but Willie’s voice is strong and engaging enough that it works. He also has great collection of one line jokes.
But hidden in the comedy are some thought-provoking lines:
“If you keep thinking about what you want to do or what you hope will happen, you won’t do it, and it won’t happen.”
That’s good advice—thinking too much is a recipe for procrastination. We need to do things, not think about them.
Planet Willie is an irreverent comedy that’s a lot of fun. It can be hard to read on the Kindle—the paragraphs are too long, and the plot sometimes disappears in the comedy,there is the occasional use of bad language and the plotline isn’t exactly the normal Christian fiction I review, but I enjoyed it. A good read for those who don’t take life (or death) too seriously.
Thanks to Opium Books for providing a free ebook for review.
His case this time is Harry Shore, who is concerned about his daughter, Fernanda—mostly because he thinks she’s stolen his million-dollar Botticelli painting of the Madonna. Willie travels to New York to find Fernanda, and runs into a group of Albanians calling themselves the Art Liberation Front, and their current project: to devalue Shore’s Botticelli. This sets Willie (and the ALF) off on a cross-country chase to track down the original painting (which is reminiscent of the 1980’s British comedy, ’Allo ’Allo, and their perpetual search for the painting of the Fallen Madonna with the Big Boobies).
Willie’s a great first-person narrator. He has a very healthy self-image, particularly when it comes to his opinion of how he is seen by the ladies (he has a collection of smiles he gives the ladies, and has names for them all. What does that tell you?). His narration is rather stream-of-consciousness which is usually a criticism, but Willie’s voice is strong and engaging enough that it works. He also has great collection of one line jokes.
But hidden in the comedy are some thought-provoking lines:
“If you keep thinking about what you want to do or what you hope will happen, you won’t do it, and it won’t happen.”
That’s good advice—thinking too much is a recipe for procrastination. We need to do things, not think about them.
Planet Willie is an irreverent comedy that’s a lot of fun. It can be hard to read on the Kindle—the paragraphs are too long, and the plot sometimes disappears in the comedy,there is the occasional use of bad language and the plotline isn’t exactly the normal Christian fiction I review, but I enjoyed it. A good read for those who don’t take life (or death) too seriously.
Thanks to Opium Books for providing a free ebook for review.
August 26, 2013
Willie is an angel who is sent back to earth to "save a soul". That's his mission, but maybe he can do some other things while he's back in the flesh. Like find a missing/stolen painting. Meet some new and interesting people. Hang out with a nun (who's having none of that habit). Oh, and maybe find the person that killed him so many years ago.
Bad theology aside, this was a pretty fun book to read. I'll admit that I had a hard time getting into it, mostly because the style of the narrator (first person) was completely off from what I have been used to reading (third person). The cadence was quite a bit different, too, but after three chapters I was into the groove and enjoying this new style. About half way through the book, I realized this was how the anime "Cowboy Bebop" would read if it were written -- the western/jazz mashup in words.
And funny! This might be one of the funniest books I've read since "Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy" and "A Confederacy of Dunces". I'm not saying Willie will necessarily be a classic like those two, but it is certainly in the same league as to how much I enjoyed reading it. Clever turns of phrase riddle the book, keeping the reader on his or her toes. Often, it would hit me three or four sentences later what I had just read.
Highly recommended. Just stick with it to get used to it, and you should have a bumpy ride all night!
The world revolves around Willie, and he wants you on his planet.
Bad theology aside, this was a pretty fun book to read. I'll admit that I had a hard time getting into it, mostly because the style of the narrator (first person) was completely off from what I have been used to reading (third person). The cadence was quite a bit different, too, but after three chapters I was into the groove and enjoying this new style. About half way through the book, I realized this was how the anime "Cowboy Bebop" would read if it were written -- the western/jazz mashup in words.
And funny! This might be one of the funniest books I've read since "Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy" and "A Confederacy of Dunces". I'm not saying Willie will necessarily be a classic like those two, but it is certainly in the same league as to how much I enjoyed reading it. Clever turns of phrase riddle the book, keeping the reader on his or her toes. Often, it would hit me three or four sentences later what I had just read.
Highly recommended. Just stick with it to get used to it, and you should have a bumpy ride all night!
The world revolves around Willie, and he wants you on his planet.
August 28, 2013
This review is courtesy of topoftheheapreviews.com
Life is different on Planet Willie. This different take on the detective/noir/private eye genre does well to support that concept. Check out our thoughts about Willie Lee, and how the world sees, Planet Willie.
Josh Shoemake creates a very different kind of detective story that still gives you that feeling of familiarity. After reading the description, and whispering to yourself “whookaay!” you open the book and realize that you are in for a treat.
The characters, from the major to the minor are well crafted. The dialogue is precise, and from the seedy to the posh, settings are fully imagined.
Hard boiled detective novels are known for their tight plots, and their quick witted dialogues, and this is no different. Willie Lee is as sharp tongued as any private eye you will ever meet.
The character of Willie Lee is extremely loveable and despicable just as any good PI ought to be. With the twist of being an angel though, you know he’d much rather spend time on Earth rather than dealing with the doldrums of everyday cloud life.
The Bottom Line: At the same time hilarious and though provoking, Willie Lee will be remembered once you close the covers surrounding the pages. With a fresh take on the classic hard boiled crime type novel, it will excite new and old readers of the genre alike.
Life is different on Planet Willie. This different take on the detective/noir/private eye genre does well to support that concept. Check out our thoughts about Willie Lee, and how the world sees, Planet Willie.
Josh Shoemake creates a very different kind of detective story that still gives you that feeling of familiarity. After reading the description, and whispering to yourself “whookaay!” you open the book and realize that you are in for a treat.
The characters, from the major to the minor are well crafted. The dialogue is precise, and from the seedy to the posh, settings are fully imagined.
Hard boiled detective novels are known for their tight plots, and their quick witted dialogues, and this is no different. Willie Lee is as sharp tongued as any private eye you will ever meet.
The character of Willie Lee is extremely loveable and despicable just as any good PI ought to be. With the twist of being an angel though, you know he’d much rather spend time on Earth rather than dealing with the doldrums of everyday cloud life.
The Bottom Line: At the same time hilarious and though provoking, Willie Lee will be remembered once you close the covers surrounding the pages. With a fresh take on the classic hard boiled crime type novel, it will excite new and old readers of the genre alike.
July 8, 2013
Planet Willie is a fun read that had me chuckling throughout. The plot concept is one of the most original I've read in some time. The book is written in first person narration, from Willie's perspective. Throughout the story, Willie tells us exactly what's on his mind, and most of his thoughts are not at all angelic.
The story line is a little chaotic, moving us along a bumpy and winding path. Despite this, I didn't have trouble following along. Willie demands attention, and he had mine in full.
My only problem with this book is that it began to feel too satirical. None of the characters are "normal" people. Everyone is a little crazy, a little over the top. Consequently, the experience for me was more of reading a parody than getting lost in a story. I would have liked a bit of balance.
The story line is a little chaotic, moving us along a bumpy and winding path. Despite this, I didn't have trouble following along. Willie demands attention, and he had mine in full.
My only problem with this book is that it began to feel too satirical. None of the characters are "normal" people. Everyone is a little crazy, a little over the top. Consequently, the experience for me was more of reading a parody than getting lost in a story. I would have liked a bit of balance.
August 21, 2013
The author's vision is very original. I can honestly say I've never read anything quite like it before!
The main character is Willie Lee, who is an Angel in heaven awaiting change. He receives his wish and he is assigned as a detective from the Paradise Police Department to incarnate and return to earth to investigate an Art theft.
I really enjoyed the author's writing and wit. I look forward to reading more of his books. The book was cleverly written and I have to say anything, nothing like I have ever read before.
Thank you to the publisher for providing me with a complimentary copy for my review.
The main character is Willie Lee, who is an Angel in heaven awaiting change. He receives his wish and he is assigned as a detective from the Paradise Police Department to incarnate and return to earth to investigate an Art theft.
I really enjoyed the author's writing and wit. I look forward to reading more of his books. The book was cleverly written and I have to say anything, nothing like I have ever read before.
Thank you to the publisher for providing me with a complimentary copy for my review.
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