"Fresh, inventive, wild and crazy mystery."

Suppose you could come face to face with an icon from your childhood, something that could bring back all those cherished childhood memories? Garth Carson, madcap taxidermist extraordinaire, never expected it could happen to him, even though he grew up everyday wishing he could own Pipsqueak, the quirky TV show hero of the 50s and 60s. Yet one day, he makes a side stop at a rural flea market shop of strangeness in search of more critters for "Carson's Critters" and indeed beholds what to him is the Holy Grail - Pipsqueak. Insanity ensues almost from the moment he steps in the door and only snowballs into more crazy situations, mystery and hilarity.

The harder Garth looks for Pipsqueak, and the more involved he gets in the mystery surrounding the infamous puppet, the more harrowing and wacky the situation becomes. Tooling around town in his '66 Lincoln convertible, he starts to uncover the real reason why Pipsqueak is important enough to die for. He and his jewelry-making fiancée, Angie, will be joined by and interact with a strange band of characters, including his estranged brother Nicholas. From Hollywood calling for every taxidermic critter he has for a movie, to retro swing band villains, it's one loopy roller coaster ride to see who can get to the squirrel first.

This is truly like no other book I've had the pleasure of reading. At first glance, it screams to be placed in the detective novel genre. However, with each successive page turned, it's apparent you've entered the mind of a writer with unique perceptions. This book could just as well double as a sardonic pop-culture book of our time, or a comic's guide to mystery. There are no stereotypical characters here, and each is fresh and inventive. I laughed and laughed and laughed some more - out loud even! Imagine Robin Williams and Steve Martin at their very wild and crazy best, doing an interpretation of the Maltese Falcon going after Rocky or Bullwinkle, and you start to get the idea as to just how much fun this book is.

Reviewed by Anne Barringer
Posted May 14, 2004

Summary

Tuning forks, thugs in plaid cummerbunds, digital TV, a dead biker, a stuffed loon and an old cartoon show? What's all this got to do with a ratty old squirrel puppet? That's the Pipsqueak story, featuring Garth Carson, a New York City taxidermy collector, and his gal Angie. After a murderous melee in an obscure antique store, the puppet goes missing and they find themselves entangled in a deadly swing band conspiracy and Soviet-era secrets. "...the wildest mystery to come down the pike in a stuffed squirrel's age." --Publishers Weekly "The flat-out coolest mystery I've read in years, not to mention the funniest. Brian Wiprud is either a genius or a lunatic. Or maybe both." --Steve Hamilton, Edgar Award-winning author of North of Nowhere and the Alex McKnight series "Splendidly kooky with a sharp dressing, sharp-witted characters woven into a wicked conspiracy theory." --Chris Niles, author of Hell's Kitchen "The Nick and Nora of taxidermy meet the Maltese Falcon--er--Squirrel in another crazy, funny mystery by Brian M. Wiprud." --Sparkle Hayter, author of The Last Manly Man "'Zany,' 'madcap,' and 'romp' must have been invented specifically for Wiprud's smart and funny Pipsqueak. A lunatic, super-fast mystery."