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Key West #12
One Strange Date
Perfect romance. Perfect nightmare. Sometimes it’s a fine line. Meet Key West native Renita Daughtry--22, wide-eyed, gorgeous, and very much in love with love. In other words, an irresistible target for professional impostor and pathological liar Richie Pestucci, who plans to charm her into utter helplessness. But there’s just one problem. Renita’s seeming naivete masks a lot of savvy and a will of velvet-coated steel, and it isn’t long before Richie, now smitten with his intended victim, starts to wonder just who is gaming who. As his cynical poise dissolves and the lovers’ game of cat-and-mouse grows subtler and sexier, things start going dangerously and hilariously wrong. So wrong, in fact, that setting them right will require the combined efforts of a heroic twin brother, a fiercely loyal uncle who takes his pest control job very seriously, and a sharp-dressing retired mobster with a singing chihuahua. Seamlessly blending tender romance with raucous caper, One Strange Date massages the heart-strings even as it tickles the funny bone and explores the deep everyday mystery of how and why we choose to believe.
234 pages, Kindle Edition
First published January 23, 2017
About the author
Laurence Shames
40 books248 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 - 21 of 21 reviews
October 28, 2020
Nowhere near his best, but that I think works in my favour. I really needed an excuse to stop and break away from this series. This enabled that easily.
Not a disaster but certainly nowhere near the high standard of the rest of the key west series.
Not a disaster but certainly nowhere near the high standard of the rest of the key west series.
May 15, 2020
One Strange Date is far from the best in this series yet an enjoyable light read. Recommended for fans of Carl Hiaasen, Dave Barry and Ben Rehder.
January 16, 2018
I was very happy to see that Bert the Shirt and his chihuahua, Taco, are in this book. Pete Amsterdam, who is still not a detective, is also back. While it is not as good as some of the earlier books in the series, it is still worth reading for Bert, Taco, and Pete in Shames' less-than-perfect Key West.
Bert the Shirt is trying to help Ned find his ne'er do well con man brother Richie and Pete is repaying Ralph for pest control at his house by looking for Ralph's errant niece, Renita. Bert the Shirt and Pete Amsterdam are brought together when they find out that Richie and Renita disappeared together.
One weakness in the book is that it is a little too obvious how some of the plot lines are going to play out. Just in case the reader doesn't guess, there are obvious hints. . It's a good thing that the trip is interesting.
Bert the Shirt is trying to help Ned find his ne'er do well con man brother Richie and Pete is repaying Ralph for pest control at his house by looking for Ralph's errant niece, Renita. Bert the Shirt and Pete Amsterdam are brought together when they find out that Richie and Renita disappeared together.
One weakness in the book is that it is a little too obvious how some of the plot lines are going to play out. Just in case the reader doesn't guess, there are obvious hints. . It's a good thing that the trip is interesting.
August 7, 2017
What's Burt going to help with in #13?
I'm already chomping at the bit to read the next one. The recurrence of characters binds this series together in a very subtle way. It's not an in-your-face series where you are lost if you miss one. Just a nice, cozy feeling, like recognizing an old friend. If you have read the previous books, you get an immediate mental picture of certain characters, which draws you into the story. I think that is one of the authors strongest points. He writes so that you feel as if you know these people. You can see them, hear them and that is the mark of a good storyteller.
Each of these is an off-the-wall story of mobsters, Florida and just the right level of idiocy to be believable yet keep you entertained.
Good Story Mr. Shames. Waiting for #13...
I'm already chomping at the bit to read the next one. The recurrence of characters binds this series together in a very subtle way. It's not an in-your-face series where you are lost if you miss one. Just a nice, cozy feeling, like recognizing an old friend. If you have read the previous books, you get an immediate mental picture of certain characters, which draws you into the story. I think that is one of the authors strongest points. He writes so that you feel as if you know these people. You can see them, hear them and that is the mark of a good storyteller.
Each of these is an off-the-wall story of mobsters, Florida and just the right level of idiocy to be believable yet keep you entertained.
Good Story Mr. Shames. Waiting for #13...
September 21, 2019
I was disappointed in this book. Out of the half dozen or so main characters only one was female and she was a version of the manic pixie dream girl - very attractive, finds a guy attractive even though he is bad for her. She knows he's bad news but for some reason he's irresistible and she ends up doing things she knows are wrong in order to please him anyway. I kept wanting her to shove him out of the car and drive off on her own. She didn't so I did. In the form of I quit reading it.
February 5, 2024
Book 12 of a series, that speaks volumes that I've read 11 other books and am still going.
Gangster Bert "the shirt" is a mafia version of the reluctant investigator trope (think somewhere between Jessica Fletcher and the A-Team). When troubles befall his Key West neighbors, he often "knows a guy" who can help. Nonagenarians don't get much action and adventure so Bert has to help with his knowledge of the underworld, his planning skills, and his smooth delivery.
Gangster Bert "the shirt" is a mafia version of the reluctant investigator trope (think somewhere between Jessica Fletcher and the A-Team). When troubles befall his Key West neighbors, he often "knows a guy" who can help. Nonagenarians don't get much action and adventure so Bert has to help with his knowledge of the underworld, his planning skills, and his smooth delivery.
May 21, 2020
Viva Nacho!
Ok I am reading this series backwards because I discovered the most recent novel "Paradise Gig" and loved it. Storylines are right and hilarious. Nacho has to be the best hero, narrator and philosopher of all time! 👍
If love great stories, great laughs and memorable characters then Shames books are must reads.
Ok I am reading this series backwards because I discovered the most recent novel "Paradise Gig" and loved it. Storylines are right and hilarious. Nacho has to be the best hero, narrator and philosopher of all time! 👍
If love great stories, great laughs and memorable characters then Shames books are must reads.
September 9, 2023
A Good One
As the title says, this was a strange, extended date, and crafted very well into a good mob story. I picture Anya Taylor Joy as the heroine and, weirdly, Shia Lebouef as the good bad guy. But the plot was creative and like most of Shames’ stories, needed Bert to come to the rescue. A good Conch story underneath too.
As the title says, this was a strange, extended date, and crafted very well into a good mob story. I picture Anya Taylor Joy as the heroine and, weirdly, Shia Lebouef as the good bad guy. But the plot was creative and like most of Shames’ stories, needed Bert to come to the rescue. A good Conch story underneath too.
June 18, 2024
New York mobsters chase a con man who stole from them to Key West where they encounter a naïve young woman, an amateur PI, an exterminator, an elderly retired hood and his little dog and many others. Shames has written a wonderful comic crime series that take place in Key West but this is not his best. 3 stars. p.s. Shames page on "Stop you're killing me .com" is woefully incomplete.
August 1, 2023
What a tale
Well TAIL is best for Nacho the real star of this one with Bert doing his best to save the day from old friends of friends so to speak .just a good story and looking forward to more..ciao from Costa Rica....
Well TAIL is best for Nacho the real star of this one with Bert doing his best to save the day from old friends of friends so to speak .just a good story and looking forward to more..ciao from Costa Rica....
September 25, 2017
A nice easy read. Fun characters. Recommend it.
September 5, 2018
Slight minor differences in this book, but still an awesome romp through Key West. Yes Burt is back too.
April 14, 2019
Funny Florida noir, featuring Bert the Shirt - always a great moment. And Nacho.
June 2, 2019
I always enjoy Bert and Nacho
June 12, 2021
This one was very weak. Obviously the author slapped it out to get it done. There is not a protagonist that you're rooting for and very weak plot and characters.
February 4, 2024
Every time I finish one of these, I wonder if this series can get any better. And it does. It just keeps getting better and better.
May 4, 2024
Bert the shirt hero
Another amazing story of Key West with Det Amsterdam and Bert d'Ambrosia
This series of books is totally enjoyable and different.
Another amazing story of Key West with Det Amsterdam and Bert d'Ambrosia
This series of books is totally enjoyable and different.
March 19, 2017
This is one of those 'typical' Lawrence Shames books: Bert the Shirt is one of the main protagonists. He is helping out the twin brother of a guy, who is much, much nicer than his 'other half'.
I don't want to write too much about the story - because I might give away too much of the plot. All I can say: I enjoyed reading this LS book at least as much if not more than the other books out of this series.
I don't want to write too much about the story - because I might give away too much of the plot. All I can say: I enjoyed reading this LS book at least as much if not more than the other books out of this series.
March 7, 2017
Bizarre and fascinating story line
Colorful characters developed in this strange tale. The author captures the feel of Key West while intertwining a story about a very bizarre first date gone awry. Delightful entertainment!
Colorful characters developed in this strange tale. The author captures the feel of Key West while intertwining a story about a very bizarre first date gone awry. Delightful entertainment!
February 16, 2017
Key West in winter
I seem to always read Shames New Key West Caper books when it's freezing outside. Always funny and easy to read. Caution: reading causes cabin freezer up north!
I seem to always read Shames New Key West Caper books when it's freezing outside. Always funny and easy to read. Caution: reading causes cabin freezer up north!
February 3, 2017
Perfect for a long day of travel.
Displaying 1 - 21 of 21 reviews