This image is the cover for the book Man Who Cancelled Himself, The Stewart Hoag Mysteries

Man Who Cancelled Himself, The Stewart Hoag Mysteries

A witty amateur sleuth deals with a disgraced sitcom star and a deadly mystery: “Great fun” (Publishers Weekly).
 Lyle Hednut, known to America as Uncle Chubby, has been the top draw in television comedy for three seasons straight. He is three hundred pounds of good humor and wholesome charm, beloved by children and adults alike until the day the police find him enjoying the show at the wrong kind of movie theater in Times Square. The arrest destroys his image, but his sitcom is too popular for the network to shut down. About to start production on the fourth season, he decides to tell his side of the story, and hires Stewart Hoag—failed novelist and ghostwriter for the disgraced—to do the writing. Hoagy quickly sees that Uncle Chubby’s cheer is no more than an act. The comedy icon is thin-skinned, irrational, and prone to rage. With a man like that in charge of a TV show, it won’t be long before comedy violence turns into the real thing.

David Handler

David Handler (b. 1952) is the critically acclaimed author of several bestselling mystery series. He began his career as a New York City reporter, and wrote his first two novels—Kiddo (1987) and Boss (1988)—about his Los Angeles childhood. In 1988 he published The Man Who Died Laughing, the first of a series of mysteries starring ghostwriter Stuart Hoag and his faithful basset hound Lulu. Handler wrote eight of the novels, winning both Edgar and American Mystery awards for The Man Who Would Be F. Scott Fitzgerald (1990). The Cold Blue Blood (2001) introduced a new series character, New York film critic Mitch Berger, who fights his reclusive nature to solve crimes with the help of police Lieutenant Desiree Mitry. Handler has published eight novels starring the pair, with another, The Snow White Christmas Cookie, due out in 2012. In 2009 Handler published Click to Play, a stand-alone novel about an investigative reporter. He lives and writes in Old Lyme, Connecticut.