Four five-star Yelp reviews do you little good when you’re nailed inside a giant barrel of whiskey, which is where our intrepid private detective Barry finds himself while on the case to help his campy drag friends, all of whom have numerous secrets to hide. <br><br>If he can decide between the man he once loved and the bartender he’s falling for, successfully stay undercover as his alter-ego, Mary, Queen of Scotch, and keep one step ahead of the bad guys, plus a raucously funny meddling mom, he just might live to see that much-desired fifth review.

Mary, Queen of Scotch

“You’re kidding, right?” I said as I read the paper. “These are their realnames?”


I nodded. I left. Quickly. I had work to do, after all. Plus, willies, like snarkiness, were hard to shake. Putting some distance between me and that house would hopefully help.


I went home and plugged their names into the database. Hall’s real name was Halston. Halston Pruitt, as the name seemed to imply, came from money. Poor people, after all, don’t often name their kids after dead fashion designers. Sadly, at least for Hall, the money was ill-gotten and, when his parents were arrested, promptly vanished. Hall wound up in foster care and, eventually, jail for drug dealing and drug possession.


Chapter 68