In the midst of Lenny Bliss' marriage falling apart, a prostitute is murdered, and Bliss becomes obsessed with the case, which leads the NYPD detective into the dark world of the Russian mob

New York City homicide detective Lenny Bliss' biggest mistake wasn't bungee-jumping off the Brooklyn Bridge. The mistake was handing his gun to the previous jumper, a young Chinese girl: she's gone. Bliss' wife has a successful career as a stand-up comic (often using him for material), but for Bliss work is serious. A young Off-Broadway actor has been found dead on stage; Bliss' partner, Ward, is out of commission, reeling from having been shot by a druggie—and now an unstable young woman has disappeared with Bliss' gun. Bob Sloan's street-smart plot, full of jump-cut scenes and colorful New York atmosphere, follows Bliss as he frantically tries to track down Li-Jung while also investigating murder suspects. Why are the dead man's very rich parents acting strangely? What motives are the other members of the theater troupe hiding—the poetic Wolf, haunted by Vietnam memories; the director Katrina, with her obsessive videotaping; the seductive Constance, who harbors a secret and seems bent on distracting Bliss from his job? Meantime Li-Jung, a walking time bomb of rage and loneliness, waits for the right moment to use her unexpected new power. When a nothing-to-lose ex-cop picks her up in his cab and sees a way to make some blackmail money, events come together fast in a tense and satisfying conclusion.

In its starred review, Publishers Weekly called Bliss Jumps the Gun "the book for the mystery reader who's looking for something fresh and strong." Now in The Middle of Nowhere, Bob Sloan has once again created an intricate plot and characters that will keep you on the edge on your seat. Homicide detective Lenny Bliss wears consciousness like an albatross. He is looking for some inner peace. Instead he gets a floater fished out of the East River. Then his comedienne turned novelist wife wants to tag along. She's writing a novel about, of all things, a homicide detective. The investigation is not going swimmingly (they never do, with floaters) when another case takes precedent—the bludgeoning of a young man during a party in a swanky Upper East Side townhouse. Arriving on the scene, Bliss realizes he's been to this townhouse before, the night he went looking for his missing daughter who had also been to the swanky townhouse party. If his previous visit is revealed, it will taint the case and make Bliss a very likely suspect. In The Middle of Nowhere, Bob Sloan writes with the lyrical toughness of James Lee Burke and the dark humor of Carl Hiassen, creating a torrid and revealing look at the dark underbelly of New York's wealthy elite-and the deeper darkness that lies under that.