Impossible Bliss [Paperback]

Lee Sheldon (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: August 2001

Dan Shepard, the new police chief of Carmel, California is faced with the impossible when a golfer vanishes into thin air from a sand trap. To his increasing exasperation he soon finds himself teamed with Herman de Portola Bliss, an irascible artist with no talent for painting, but an unerring eye for clues, and an even greater talent for getting into trouble.

As the case grows ever more bizarre and deadly, the mismatched pair find themselves confronted with more than one corpse, a shady land deal, self-serving politicians, environmental protesters, a major golf tournament, the mob, multiple burglars, car chases, a particularly unique form of infidelity, and significant seagull droppings.

To solve the impossible crime Shepard will first have to survive the man known as Impossible Bliss.

Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly

In his first mystery novel, Sheldon presents an "impossible crime" worthy in its "impossibility" of John Dickson Carr himself. On the seventh hole of the Carmel Bay Country Club, during his usual Wednesday morning foursome, lawyer Alex Wagner hits his ball into a low bunker. He appears to loft it nicely out onto the green where it ends up in the cup. To the surprise of his three golf buddies, Wagner doesn't climb out of the sand trap to gloat over his miraculous shot. When they finally look in the bunker, the man is gone. Later his body turns up in the bay miles away. A potential witness to this vanishing act is artist Herman de Portola Bliss, a notorious public nuisance, who was painting near the seventh hole at the time. Taking charge of the investigation, Dan Shepard, the easygoing new chief of the Carmel City (Calif.) police department, finds himself reluctantly playing Watson to Bliss, who has a natural gift for detective work. While some people want Wagner's murderer found, others don't. Since Shepard is new to the area, everyone keeps a dubious eye on the chief's performance, and Bliss doesn't make his job easier. A witty and graceful style, an unusual cast of characters and a mystery that baffles up to the last page bode well for future puzzlers from Sheldon. If this isn't the start of a series, it should be.
Copyright 2002 Reed Business Information, Inc.

About the Author

Twice nominated for Edgar Awards by the Mystery Writers of America, Lee Sheldon is better known as a writer and producer of television and interactive entertainment, including Charlie?s Angels, Star Trek: The Next Generation, and the computer games Wild Wild West: The Steel Assassin and The Riddle of Master Lu. --This text refers to an alternate Paperback edition.

Product Details

• Paperback: 240 pages
• Publisher: iUniverse (August 2001)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0595194818
• ISBN-13: 978-0595194810
• Product Dimensions: 9.1 x 6.4 x 0.6 inches
• Shipping Weight: 13.8 ounces
• Average Customer Review: 4.5 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (2 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #7,107,223 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

More About the Author

Lee Sheldon is Associate Professor and Co-Director of the Games and Simulation Arts and Sciences program at Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute. He has written and designed over 20 commercial video games and MMOs. His latest book is The Multiplayer Classroom: Designing Coursework as a Game. His book Character Development and Storytelling for Games is required reading at many game developers and in game design programs at some of the world's most distinguished universities. A new edition will be published in 2012. Lee is a contributor to several additional books on video games including Well-Played 2.0 from Carnegie-Mellon's ETC, Writing for Video Game Genres from the IGDA, Game Design: An Interactive Experience and Second Person. He is cited in many publications; and is a regular lecturer and consultant on game design and writing in the US and abroad. Before his career in video games Lee wrote and produced over 200 popular television shows, including Star Trek: The Next Generation and Charlie's Angels. As head writer of the daytime serial Edge of Night he received a nomination for best writing from the Writers Guild of America. Lee has been twice nominated for Edgar awards by the Mystery Writers of America. His first mystery novel, Impossible Bliss, was re-issued in 2004. Lee began his academic career in 2006 at Indiana University where he taught game design and screenwriting. At IU Lee first instituted the practice of designing classes as multiplayer games; worked on the serious games Quest Atlantis and Virtual Congress; and wrote and designed the alternate reality games The Skeleton Chase and Skeleton Chase 2: The Psychic funded by the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation; and Skeleton Chase 3: Warp Speed funded by Coca-Cola. He continues as creative director of the narrative-driven MMO Londontown; and is head of the team working to build the Emergent Reality Lab at Rensselaer. Most recently he has been a design consultant and Lead Writer on Star Trek: Infinite Space; Lead Writer on Adventure World from Zynga; and currently Consultant/Writer at Harmonix.

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

3 of 3 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Impossible Bliss Review, December 29, 2001

By 

Karl F Johanson (Victoria, BC Canada) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Impossible Bliss (Paperback)

Impossible Bliss

One wanders through some stories with only a vague notion of what the characters and their surrounding look like. You have a grayish, shapeless environment, peopled by grayish shapeless characters. This is definitely not so with Impossible Bliss. The author has a talent for visual description of his characters and their environment. Not content to leave us with simple visually interesting characters, Mr. Sheldon has filled out their personalities nicely as well.

The story deals with a colorful character named Herman de Portola Bliss, who almost bares witness to a murder on a golf course near Carmel Bay, California. Bliss' unique observational talents allow him to be an aid to the local police investigators, who must deal with Mr. Bliss' idiosyncrasies while trying to solve a complicated "impossible" murder.

I confess that I thought I had the whole mystery all worked out around a quarter of the way through the book. My rather convoluted solution to the interesting main puzzle of the story seemed to be confirmed at a few points through the story. Regrettably my idea (which I am too embarrassed to list here) was very far off base. Fortunately the true solution to the story was actually more interesting than my unique conjecture. So, I got an interesting story that made me think, and I was surprised. A good combination

5.0 out of 5 stars Excellent Read!!, August 18, 2002

By 

"jalynn37" (Midland, TX USA) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Impossible Bliss (Paperback)

Great read! This is a witty and intelligent mystery with twists and turns throughout. I love figuring out the mystery before the end of the book, but it was not to be. Mr. Sheldon has a way of giving all the clues, without giving away the ending. I must admit I was completely surprised! Great book with great characters. I hope the author is planning to do more with these characters.