Tangerine for the Executioner’s Rope: A Frank Fitzpatrick Novel

Frank Fitzpatrick is a former government analyst turned Benedictine monk turned private investigator, who spends his time on Florida beaches, observing tourists and others and reading philosophical works.

But when the opportunity rears its head, he travels around the country for those in need.

This particular August morning kicks off with one of those opportunities.

Old pal Candy Vogel has traveled all the way from Las Vegas to seek Fitzpatrick’s detective know-how. Her genius husband has disappeared, and no one-not the Las Vegas Police Department, the FBI, or Fitzpatrick’s former government coworkers-has a clue about his whereabouts.

Fitzpatrick flies to Sin City to navigate the shark tank, filled with a cast of colorful, carnivorous fish. These include an eccentric painter as flamboyant as Elton John during his heyday, a slick billionaire, a Chinese shipping magnate, and, of course, a beautiful ex-lover.

Each day brings a new adventure, with a surprise and a twist waiting at the end of each dark alley. Fitzpatrick’s search leads him to suspect that perhaps this disappearing act isn’t what it appears to be.

Robert X. Burgess lives in Someplace City, on Anywhere Road, in a house or an apartment, either alone or possibly with a wife and kids.

He writes detective fiction-not mysteries-and he’d like his fiction to be famous and his personal life kept private. So, in lieu of traditional, biographical factoids, here’s a catalog of his artistic influences:

Herman Melville, William Shakespeare, Carl Orff, Henry James, John Singer Sargent, Rudyard Kipling, Oscar Wilde, Ambrose Bierce, Giacomo Puccini, Edward Hopper, Raymond Chandler, Ross Macdonald, John D. MacDonald, Philip K. Dick, Murray Rothbard, H. L. Mencken, John Kennedy Toole, Jimi Hendrix, Vincent Price, and Charlie Rich.

He might or might not be working on a second Frank Fitzpatrick novel. The world will have to wait to see.