Happy Holidays are Murder

After being left in charge of the Joe Bastillo Entertainment Agency by Joe himself, Jim Gerrard, comedian and reluctant part time detective soon finds himself returning to performing when he has no choice but to replace Tom Peel, a comedian arrested for the murder of the chef at a Blackpool holiday camp.
After Jim€s singer and horoscope crazy girlfriend Wanda insists, Jim agrees to help Tom prove his innocence. Their efforts are hindered when they get themselves involved with an after shave obsessed camp manager, a maniacal magician, a genial giant security guard, and a devious American and his mother. The second in Norman€s Jim Gerard series.


We drove out of the camp gates and turned on Smooth Radio. Wanda pushed her seat backwards, shut her eyes, and quietly sang along with Tony Bennett.
It was just at the moment Tony reached the chorus on €˜get your kicks on Route Sixty-Six€ that the bump jolted her forward and pushed me over the steering wheel.
€œBloody hell Virgo, your driving skills have gone down the pan.€ That€s when the second bump came. The reason was in the driving mirror, a big four by four with a masked driver in the driving seat, closer to me than a squeezing anaconda. Wanda screamed.
€œPut your foot down Virgo, shoot forward and do a last minute swing into the next side street€
€œWho do you think I am bloody Stirling Moss?€
Wanda didn€t answer; she just grabbed the wheel and swung on it. The back end of the car spun round, the four by four clipped it, then spun round itself, and bounced off the wall of the Flying Pig pub, taking out the free drink with every meal sign and the steak and mash special banner. We came to rest outside Clive€s carpet shop. Ten rolls of assorted Axminster rolls on display had acted as a buffer. It took two minutes for Clive to clear the stack of celebrity door mats that had fallen blocking the car door. We leapt out to find the two minutes was enough time for the four by four driver to have fled. According to witnesses, the driver wore a complete Batman outfit and was cheered down the road where he flagged a taxi down and disappeared.