When thieves snatch a statue of the bird-headed Egyptian god, Thoth, and drop its owner from a third-story window, 1950's private detective Axel Hatchett is hired to solve the crime. But wait! - there are actually three statues, and one of them may contain a treasure map! Hatchett enlists the aid of his humorous hash-slinging fiancée and a snake-handling English professor to help solve an eventual murder in this cozy, humorous noir about three cursed - and cursing! - birds. __________ We caught 50's noir detective Axel Hatchett in an expansive mood, and he told us about his investigation of the Three Cursing Birds, the fourth in the humorous noir series, Axel Hatchett Mysteries. Here's what he told us while he lit up one of his infamous cheap cigars: "What do you know about sacred ibises, or the old Egyptian god, Thoth? I knew next to nothing about such things until a few nights before Christmas. That's when my old professor friend, Eben Mulford, got me out of bed with a midnight phone call. He told me that a former colleague of his, an English professor named Kirsten Lund, had been attacked that night and dropped out of the upstairs window of her cozy Victorian house. She ended up with a broken leg. Quite the intriguing crime. "Dr. Lund wasn't interested in having a gumshoe like me look into her little accident, so Eben hired me himself. Seems like he had some romantic feelings for the good doctor. I couldn't blame him - Lund was a looker, even if she was on the wrong side of fifty. She was talented, too, and that's how the trouble started. She liked to carve artsy figurines out of exotic woods, and bone, and even ivory. An old lover of Lund's - Ollie Crampton - had given her an ivory figure of the god Thoth, a guy with a man's body and the head of an ibis. That's a bird, in case you don't know. I didn't. "Lund told me - from her hospital bed - that there was a story, and a mystery, behind the ivory ibis Crampton had given her. Supposedly, there was a treasure map hidden in the carving's base, pointing the way to a tomb full of gold, and other pawnable items, near the pyramids in Egypt. Of course, the tale was so much hooey, but Lund's attackers didn't know that. Also, Lund had carved two copies of the ibis. There were three of the damned dinguses! The good doctor's treasure-hunting attackers were trying to track down the whole trio of birds, certain that one of them contained the treasure map. "While I was trying to find Lund's assailants, and at the same time wondering what I was going to give my swell fiancée, Tracy, for Christmas, I got involved with quite a collection of creepy characters. There was a treasure-hunting dentist who'd already found a trove of Colorado gold, a snooty librarian, a couple of smart-alecky college kids, and three pretty feisty dames. And - wouldn't you know it? - by the time I got a handle on the case, somebody got murdered. How's that for cozy Christmas cheer? Thanks, Axe, and don't stop believing in Santa.
About the Author: Steven LeRoy Nelson is an award-winning humorist whose short fiction has appeared in Alfred Hitchcock Mystery Magazine, Ellery Queen Mystery Magazine, The Leviathan, Fire and Ice, and other publications. Visit him at his website at: www.stevenleroynelson.com