Such Vicious Minds: A Murder Mystery Featuring Elvis Presley [Hardcover]

Daniel Klein (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: August 1, 2004

It's Memphis,1965. An increasingly withdrawn Elvis passes his evenings at the Memphian movie house, endlessly watching Stanley Kubrick's "Dr. Strangelove." His friends and hangers-on are starting to worry,and so is his famously hucksterish manager,Colonel Tom Parker.

Things only get worse when the King finds out that someone has been disguising himself as Elvis in order to seduce his teenage fans,and that Colonel Tom's been paying off their parents to keep the scandal out of the press.

When a photographer who claims to have documented these seductions is murdered...and Colonel Tom is arrested for that murder...the stakes become life and death.

Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly

Set in 1965, Klein's fourth diverting Elvis mystery (after 2003's Viva Las Vengeance) takes us to the center of the King's self-doubt. Mortified by the mediocrity of his recent song and movie output, and still on the fence about Priscilla, Elvis realizes that the only thing that makes him feel good is eating. So he decides to try to persuade Terry Southern (whose Dr. Strangelove script he admires) to be his screenwriter for a classy, original movie about meat loaf (one of his favorite foods). Enter an underage ex-virgin with her angry father who claims it was Elvis who did the deed. To avoid a potential Jerry Lee Lewis flameout, Colonel Tom Parker wants a pay-off, but Elvis, more concerned with truth, wants the culprit. Two more underage victims and a dead photographer shift the unlikely duo of Elvis and Tom into high gear, skidding through car, truck, motorcycle and dung-spreader chases, river raft trips (think Huck Finn), small-town Elvis lookalike contests and an antediluvian boarding school. They also hit all the predictable tropes of the South (barbecue, sheriffs, jails, racism). So many characters and subplots make it easy to lose track, and the amusing, soul-searching story is more a road odyssey than a mystery, but finally, who cares. The King still rules.
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About the Author

Daniel Klein has authored the medical thrillers, Embryo, Wavelengths, and
Beauty Sleep. His mysteries starring Elvis are Kill Me Tender, Blue Suede Clues and Viva Las Vengeance. He lives in Massachusetts.

Product Details

• Hardcover: 240 pages
• Publisher: Minotaur Books; 1st edition (August 1, 2004)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0312319401
• ISBN-13: 978-0312319403
• Product Dimensions: 8.4 x 5.6 x 1 inches
• Shipping Weight: 14.9 ounces
• Average Customer Review: 5.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (2 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #950,922 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

7 of 7 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars comic Elvis amateur sleuth mystery, July 28, 2004

By 

Harriet Klausner - See all my reviews
(#1 Hall OF FAME REVIEWER)    (REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Such Vicious Minds: A Murder Mystery Featuring Elvis Presley (Hardcover)

In 1965 Memphis, Elvis Presley buys out the movie theatre so he can see "Dr. Strangelove" as many times as he wants without getting in the way of any other customers. When he is had enough and returns to Graceland, he finds Colonel Tom Parker paying $5000 to Mr. Crampton to keep quiet about Elvis having sex with his underage daughter. Elvis gets angry because he never seen the teen in his life and does not want to give in to blackmail.

That is not the end of Elvis's troubles because the Sheriff of Waynesboro asks him to see him as soon as he can. When he meets Sheriff Tip, he tells him that he will prevent Muffy Kent, another underage teen from saying she made love with Elvis in return for his giving the sheriff a music audition. Someone is taking pictures starring an Elvis imitator and using them as blackmail pictures but when the photographer is killed, Elvis realizes he has to get answers before his reputation is ruined and he ends up in jail.

This is a comic amateur sleuth mystery starring real people including Elvis, the Colonel and Priscilla. Daniel Klein is a pro at satirizing religion and morality in the deep south so that readers find enjoying the latest book in this series. At times inane, SUCH VICIOUS MINDS is the ideal book the reader when you are feeling blue and need something to snap you out of it.

Harriet Klausner

5.0 out of 5 stars Such Viscious Minds is an awesome book. I bought the whole series. I wish Daniel Klein would write more Elvis mystery books!!!!!, May 8, 2009

By 

Margaret A. Burkhart (Orland Fla,) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

Amazon Verified Purchase

This review is from: Such Vicious Minds: A Murder Mystery Featuring Elvis Presley (Hardcover)

Super great! Wish David Klein would write more of this Elvis mystery! All four books are excellent!!