In the prologue to Suicide Squeeze, set in 1954 New York, Horace Folger takes his son Teddy to meet Joe DiMaggio on the set of The Seven-Year Itch. DiMaggio signs a baseball card for the boy, and Marilyn Monroe volunteers her signature and gets director Billy Wilder to sign as well.
When Teddy's dreams don't pan out in the following years, he sets fire to his comics and collectibles shop to collect insurance money. Though the one-of-a-kind card is said to have burned in the fire, Japanese billionaire and American pop culture fanatic Ahira Kurisaka doesn't believe this, and sends agents to America to obtain the card at any cost.
Enter Conner Samson, ex-jock, gambler, slacker, who takes the job of repossessing Folger's sailboat so he can pay off a loan shark. Folger's various pursuers collide in a bloody, funny, immensely readable affair. Gischler's characters are offbeat enough to sustain the chase and grounded enough to win sympathy along the way,
Next from Gischler is Shotgun Opera, due April 2006.
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