Flipping Out: A Lomax & Biggs Mystery (Lomax & Biggs Mysteries) [Hardcover]

Marshall Karp (Author)

Book Description

Series: Lomax & Biggs Mysteries | Publication Date: March 31, 2009

Nora Bannister is a bestselling mystery novelist who buys run-down houses in LA. While her business partners turn the house into a showpiece, Nora makes it the scene of a grisly murder in her House To Die For series. As soon as the new book goes on sale, so does the house — and the bidding frenzy begins.  It seems a lot of people are willing to pay a lot of money to live in a real house where a fictional character has died a violent death.

Just before Nora’s latest book hits the market, one of her house-flipping partners is murdered.  LAPD Detectives Mike Lomax and Terry Biggs are assigned the case, but this one is a hot potato – the dead woman is also the wife of one of their fellow cops. As Mike and Terry dig into the victim’s private life, more bodies turn up . . . 

Is someone stalking the house flippers or is the murderer after cops’ wives?  Either way, Mike and Terry have to track down the killer before he murders his next logical target — Marilyn Biggs, Terry’s wife.

Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly

LAPD homicide detectives Michael Lomax and Terry Biggs take on a killer targeting a group of police officers' wives in Karp's irreverent third mystery (after 2007's Bloodthirsty). When spouses of some of Lomax and Biggs's closest co-workers are found murdered, they begin their investigation by questioning the surviving members of the LA Flippers, the partnership of cop wives who, along with popular mystery writer Nora Bannister, have found a lucrative way to flip houses in the highly competitive Southern California real estate market. With the body count rising and pressure from Lomax and Biggs's superiors to close the case fast, the wisecracking duo must somehow track down a cunning psychopath before Biggs's wife becomes the killer's next target. Blending the gritty realism of a Joseph Wambaugh police procedural with the sardonic humor of Janet Evanovich, Karp delivers a treat that's not only laugh-out-loud funny but also remarkably suspenseful. (Apr.)
Copyright © Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

From Booklist

Cop wives are dropping like flies in Karp’s third offering to feature the irrepressible Los Angeles Police Department detective team of Mike Lomax and Terry Biggs. All of the victims were partners in a real-estate venture: flipping houses for fun and profit. (The group, which included mystery novelist Nora Bannister, had an ingenious gimmick; in her books, Bannister would set a murder at the address of an actual home up for sale). Lomax and Biggs think they’ve nabbed the killer, but too many loose ends remain, including a couple of widowed cops who are behaving very suspiciously. With their own romantic partners in peril, Lomax and Biggs set out in search of damning evidence before higher-ups shut the case in their face. Karp’s earlier novels (The Rabbit Factory, 2006, and Bloodthirsty, 2007) were gems of comic timing, focusing on good-natured Lomax and one-liner-slinging Biggs. This time around the attention is more on secondary characters and plot. That’s all well and good, though series fans may be a bit disappointed to see two such scenery-chewing stars forced to share center stage. --Allison Block

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Product Details

• Hardcover: 304 pages
• Publisher: Minotaur Books (March 31, 2009)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0312378211
• ISBN-13: 978-0312378219
• Product Dimensions: 9.5 x 6.3 x 1 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.1 pounds
• Average Customer Review: 4.6 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (58 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #1,025,144 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

More About the Author

I worked in the ad business with James Patterson. I worked in TV with George Clooney, Connie Sellecca, Cuba Gooding Jr and Jane Curtin. My movie was directed by Jason Alexander and starred Ryan Merriman, Patti LuPone and Gretchen Mol. My play has been produced in 700 theatres around the world. I worked for ad agencies, networks, TV and movie studios and in 1995 opened my own internet advertising agency and sold it in 1999. Are you getting the picture? I'm totally incapable of holding a job.

So what does a writer do when he's expolored every arena from writing the labels on tuna fish cans (an early career high) to stage, screen, television and websites? Duh. Books. Technically, at this point it's singular. Book. Murder mysteries are my favorite stuff to read and since I spent enough time in Hollywood to want to kill a lot of people, I decided it would be fun to kill them without having to go to prison. Just book tours, where I don't have to spend quite as much time in solitary confinement.

I'm not capable of writing a novel for readers who get wrapped up in the gore of the crime or the minutiae of the forensics. My stronger suit I've learned over my checkered careers is to create people that people want to spend time with. So I came up with Mike Lomax and Terry Biggs. I wanted them to be three dimensional characters with real lives, genuine sensibilities, visible warts and great senses of humor. My first shot was The Rabbit Factory, and if I can believe the reader mail, most of the reviews, and my lying agent, it came out pretty good. So Lomax and Biggs are going to become a series. Which means I'm going to be murdering a lot more people in Hollywood. At last, a career I'm not going to get bored with.

Still want more about my life? I go on ad nauseum at www.lomaxandbiggs.com.

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

12 of 13 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Just what you wanted: an escapist, light-hearted mystery, March 2, 2009

By 

Esther Schindler (Scottsdale, AZ USA) - See all my reviews
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This review is from: Flipping Out: A Lomax & Biggs Mystery (Lomax & Biggs Mysteries) (Hardcover)

(What's this?)

There's a time and place for serious, cerebral reading, the kind of novel that makes you think deeply about the ethical choices every character made--

This isn't that book.

Instead, Flipping Out is the sort of novel you turn to after it's been a hard week at the office, when you want a story that holds your interest for a few hours, makes you laugh, and -- hey, isn't that enough? Flipping Out is absolutely the right accompaniment to a big bag of potato chips, because you'll find it as hard to put down the book as it is to "eat just one chip."

The story doesn't sound all that lighthearted. It's a police procedural, which means a detective team at the LAPD who's called upon to solve a homicide. Is the murder because the victim is a police-buddy's wife, or because she's partner in a real estate deal spearheaded by acclaimed mystery novelist Nora Bannister? Nora has discovered a unique way to improve a property's value: set a mystery novel in the renovated house, then sell it to a fan who wants to live at a "famous address." (It does sound cool, doesn't it?) But everyone LIKED the victim; no one had a reason to kill her.

The two heroes, Biggs and Lomax, spend most of the book trying to figure things out, and I had no idea what the answer was until the author revealed it. But even if I had guessed (and I sure wasn't close), I wouldn't have minded. What makes this book so much fun is the dialog. Imagine a mystery novel written by Joss Whedon. It's clever, it's funny, and it's fast paced:

"That's not a girl thing. It's called fear," [Biggs says as he tries to reassure his girlfriend.] "Even manly-man cops get it. Can I give you three words of advice?"
"Carry a gun?" [she replies]
"Let it go."
"That's easy for you to say. You have a gun."

Flipping Out is a great weekend read. Grab your sunglasses, put your feet up on the porch swing, pour a beer, and have a wonderful time.

11 of 12 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars www.booksandchat says - I Flipped over this Fantastic Find!, March 11, 2009

By 

Dianne E. Socci-Tetro "Books & Chat" (Connecticut, USA) - See all my reviews
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This review is from: Flipping Out: A Lomax & Biggs Mystery (Lomax & Biggs Mysteries) (Hardcover)

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Flipping Out by Marshall Karp

I have to say that this book just flat out really did it for me. I have found a new obsession in Mr. Karps writing! I love mysteries, and this is a police procedural too...then to add the cherry onto the cake it is also laugh out loud funny. Mr. Karp better be sitting in front of his word processor right this minute cranking out the next book in this series that's all I have to say. I read this the third in the series first and as soon as I was done, I immediately went back and ordered the first two on this series - The Rabbit Factory and Bloodthirsty. There really is no need to read the first books in order since each can stand on it's own quite nicely, but it may help clarify some minor points and "in" jokes..

Okay now down to the nitty gritty - this series stars two of LAPD's finest Detectives Mike Lomax, Terry Biggs (an aspiring stand up comic) and a whole slew of other equally hilarious secondary characters, including Mike`s teamster father who loves to be a butinski, Mikes lady friend Diana and Terry`s wife Marilyn. The first murder that happens, just happens to be another detective's wife and then there is a second murder of a cop's wife and then... well you get the idea! What do these murders have in common besides they are all cops wives? Well this group of women just all happen to belong to a club that flips houses for profit and this group includes Terry`s wife Marilyn. This club is headed by famed mystery writer Nora Bannister who is writing a series of mystery books called The House to Die For Series. Each house in her series is an actual house newly renovated by the partners and as soon as the newest house in the series is ready to go on the market the wives start dying.

If you think you will be able to figure out who-dun-it quickly and neatly you have a big surprise coming to you. I thought I had it all wrapped up neatly too, but Mr. Karp manages to throw in one heck of a curve ball at the end.
Add to this some additional mayhem of Mike and Diana buying and renovating an older home and the humor never stops.

PS: I just finished the The Rabbit Factory and Bloodthirsty and I highly recommend them also.

4 of 4 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Tip of the Iceburg Police Procedural, March 6, 2009

By 

Jacqueline Lichtenberg "sf/f writer" (Arizona) - See all my reviews
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This review is from: Flipping Out: A Lomax & Biggs Mystery (Lomax & Biggs Mysteries) (Hardcover)

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Flipping Out has a wonderful premise that is fully realized as the plot thickens.

It portrays the inevitable relationship among the families of professional law enforcement, continuing the "Lomax and Biggs Mystery" series in a way that lets us get to know and respect these two cops.

There's much to discuss about this novel, but I have to tiptoe around spoilers. The first murder is just the tip of the iceburg of an involuted but relentlessly logical scheme by characters the reader gets to know well enough to suspect them of involvement in the scheme.

Lomax and Biggs show the kind of character we hope all our law enforcement people have. They don't stop assembling the case in their minds even when political pressure manipulates events. They are honest, smart, capable and imaginative in working the case even when they have no real leads. And they solve it.

The clues are laid out by the author honestly, and a clever reader will twig to the big clue once it's presented -- but probably not before.

This is a very well constructed and cleanly written police procedural, and I'd expect great things from this series in the future.