TAILED

     Everybody's favorite taxidermy dealer Garth Carson is back and caught up in ritualistic serial killings of big game hunters - by their own trophies!
     Angie, Otto and Nicholas are along for a bumpy ride that takes them through America's heartland, a journey punctuated by the importance of cheese curds.

RAVE REVIEWS, POWERFUL PRAISE, AND MORE FOR BRIAN WIPURD'S "TAILED"

Crimespree Magazine

Garth Cason is back in this latest book from the amazing Brian Wiprud. While a great mystery tale, it’s also a very humorous read, which is a hard combination to get right.

TAILED see Garth working for an insurance company appraising taxidermy collections. While is taxidermy rental business is still operational it is now being run by the lovable Russian immigrant Otto. Garth is in Chicago to look at a collection at an ex football player’s home, and while he does get to see lots of stuffed animals, what he finds is a body. The dead client puts Garth in the middle of an investigation being run by the FBI and with his bosses prompting Garth is on hand to assist. It seems someone is targeting the owners of some mighty expensive taxidermy collections and killing them with pieces of the collection.

Of course nothing is easy for Garth, and he soon finds himself caught up in a whirlwind of a case that puts him on the run, has him meeting his mother at a nudist colony and watching Mexican wrestling. But Garth also reestablishes a firm relationship with his brother and with their bizarre upbringing.

Fast paced and completely absorbing this was a book I read in one sitting. Wiprud entertains, thrills, and satisfies like very few writers can. I think Brian Wiprud is a great new talent and TAILED is his best yet.

Jon Jordan

Romantic Times Magazine

Taxidermy collector Garth Carson, the protagonist of Pipsqueak and Stuffed, returns for another crazy and hilarious adventure. This time he goes straight to Hell (Michigan, that is), and that¹s just the beginning. This wholly original page turner seems to get more outrageous the further you read, but by the end you can see it¹s all controlled chaos. Hang on for a wild roller-coaster ride.

Summary: Hoping his 'danger days' are behind him, Garth is now working for a specialty insurance company and appraising the taxidermy collections of big-time game hunters. But when he arrives at the Chicago home of football star Sprunty G. Fulmore to appraise his collection and finds he¹s been murdered in a rather grisly manner, Garth can feel trouble around the corner. Sure enough, Sprunty isn¹t the first big-game hunter who had hired Garth as an appraiser to be murdered, and he quickly becomes a person of interest in these crimes.  Soon the FBI and the military are involved, and Garth is on the run, trying to keep one step ahead of the authorities and the killer who¹s now hunting him.  

Sandra Garcia-Myers 


Deadly Pleasures Magazine
 
 
Garth Carson has done something totally unexpected, but extremely sensible.  He's taken a job working as a taxidermy appraiser.  He has his helper, Otto, run the taxidermy business in New York City.  Garth travels the country, doing appraisals and learning a lot about the collector mentality.  His love, Angie is working to make her jewelry business take off in a big way, so things are really looking up.
 
And just when life is looking like a bed of roses, an aphid shows up.  Garth is in Chicago for an appraisal of a collection belonging to a Bear, of the gridiron variety.  When Garth gets to the estate, he finds the body of Sprunty G. Fulmore, who appears to have been clawed to death by his own stuffed bear.  To make matters worse, that death makes the authorities take a look at another collector's death that was taken to be an accident.  In Texas, another collector was killed by a falling stuffed critter.  Since both victims had a white Gecko on their bodies, it seems there is a serial killer at large.
 
Garth is asked to go to Seattle to meet with the FBI, and while there another collector bites the dust.  Now Garth is thinking he's being set up, and is not happy about this.  He enlists the aid of his brother, Nicholas and takes it on the lam, right after a visit to his mom, Gabby at the nudist colony where she has lived for many years.  He meets up with assorted groups of people who may or may not be what they seem.
 
The action culminates in a scene in New Mexico, which has a Roswellian theme, and as much action as you could wish for.  Garth and company make sense of a world that seems to have imbibed way too much wacky baccy.  Garth keeps his cool, even learning on the spot to drive an assault vehicle.  Garth has been through a lot over the past few years, and while I don't wish bad things to happen to anyone, Garth breezes through one catastrophe after another with such ease that I am always anxious to see what is in store for him in the future.  Though I do agree with him that seeing his aging mother au natural may be asking too much of this most coolest of dudes.  Highly recommended series.
 

Huntress Book Reviews



Garth Carson owns "Carson's Critters". Otto, his Russian friend, takes care of the shop. So Garth now travels around appraising taxidermy collections for an insurance company. Garth's boss (A.K.A. his handler) is Stella Lombardo. Garth's latest appraisal job for Stella is with Titan Harris III. But when Garth finds Harris dead in his home - apparently mauled to death by his own stuffed bear - Garth knows instantly that his life is about to get weird all over again.

Garth is soon on the run from the FBI, the Air Force, and an ancient cult order. To make things stranger still, his nudist mother, Gabby, and his brother, Nicholas, join the adventure. Gabby seems to even know some of the odd characters that recently entered Garth's life. Gabby can explain all about the crackpot Fowler, who believes himself to be a werewolf, the Order of the White Geckos, as well as about the Vuka spirit everyone believes resides within Garth's body.

Just an average week for Garth ...

***** After reading all of Brian Wiprud's previous novels, you would think that I would be ready for anything and that nothing could possibly surprise me within the pages of this book. You would also be wrong. Just when I think that I have seen everything, the author shows me, quite vividly at times, that I have not. This time around the author combines all the characters from previous titles into one hilarious adventure. Do not worry. You do not have to read a single previous title in order to thoroughly enjoy this mystery/comic tale of woe. Trust me, I have read everything published by this author and I have yet to figure out if Brian Wiprud is a genius or one sick puppy. (I'm leaning toward the latter.) A delightful way to spend an afternoon! *****
 
Mystery Reader Magazine
 
Rating: 10 out of 10 
 

Garth Carson decides that being a CROOKED collector is to dangerous for a PIPSQUEAK like him; so to avoid being STUFFED and SLEEP WITH FISHES, he accepts a job as an insurance appraiser for Wilberforce/Peete looking at taxidermy collections across the country while his able gnomish Russian goofball assistant Otto runs the Jersey store Carson's Critters.

However, although he insists his danger days are over as the American economy runs on lawsuits and insurance, only Garth starting in Chicago could find his company's clients murdered after a visit from him. The FBI assumes he is a taxidermist serial killer. The Feds and the real murderer chase Garth across the country with the law wanting to arrest him for the murders; while the killer wanting to add him to the collection. Garth accompanied by his girlfriend Angie, who knew not let him out on his own, and Otto begin a quest to prove the PIPSQUEAK is innocent even as his enemies and new foes like the archeologist claiming Carson's mother turned him into a werewolf and another government agency TAILED him. Alas all is right in the life of Garth Carson with an arrest imminent if he should live so long.

The previous Carson capers were wild amusing rides, but TAILED is the zaniest yet as everything that could happen to Garth seems to have occurred since he began his new career. The story line is humorous and somewhat out of control as Carson bounces from one incident to another with each new event adding to his troubles. Fans of the series will appreciate this jocular on the lam tale (is there any other type when it comes to this antihero?) while newcomers who appreciate funny somewhat slapstick adventures will join the fray; if your preference is serious thrillers this is a pass.

Harriet Klausner