The Saxon novels are out of print. Sometimes, though, you can find used copies at Amazon.com.
An Infinite Number of Monkeys
Hearing the scared voice of his secretary on a late-night phone call, actor-turned private eye Saxon figures he is in for a case with too many favors and no hard cash. But he is only half-right, because whoever took a shot at his secretary's husband was really aiming at big bucks--in the person of Buck Weldon, one of America's wealthiest and most famous mystery writers, whose enemy list is longer than some of his stories. Saxon quickly finds himself on Southern California's dark side of drugs, violence, and fraud--and, naturally, murder.
"A definite winner... one of those books you know you're going to love after reading the first paragraph... There's not a false move in this book... Roberts is off to a strong start as a mystery writer." (Scripps Howard News Service)
Excerpt: My Ficus benjamina was dying. There wasn't much I could do about it except sit there listening to Stan Getz records and watch it die. I had watered it, fed it plant food, given it lots of light and even talked to it, but nothing seemed to help. I couldn't bring myself to throw it in the garbage, not while there was still some life left. The plant was not unlike my just-ended relationship. We'd known it was dying and tried all sorts of things to save it, but we didn't throw it away until it was completely dead. And now she was gone. Leila was gone, and I was watching my ficus die.
Publisher: St. Martin's Press
Publication Year: 1987
Pages: 165
Not Enough Horses
When a bit actor and part-time male prostitute dies in a mysterious car explosion, the Los Angeles police don't seem to care. But private eye Saxon does--poking around the dimly lit West Hollywood gay bars and the boardrooms of a television network. Along the way, he runs afoul of a vindictive pimp, a game-show host, a cadre of frightened network executives, and a movie sex goddess who is fighting the encroaching years with straight bourbon and a lover 20 years her junior. Saxon's investigation leads him in two directions at once, and climaxes with a sudden and fiery death.
"Roberts' second novel... is another winner. If anything, it is a better novel than An Infinite Number of Monkeys." (The Orlando Sentinel)
Excerpt: Raina Stone in her prime had been one of the loveliest women ever to walk in front of a camera. Black-haired and blue-eyed, there was never a moment when her on-screen persona was not radiating sensuality, an exotic promise of delights far beyond the experience of the countless male movie fans who made her the reigning sex goddess, along with Marilyn Monroe, of the '50s. Monroe was the vulnerable innocent whose overwhelming sexiness seemed to be an afterthought. Raina Stone was the slut, the corrupter, the Mother Goddamn of the Eisenhower era who knew more than she'd ever tell and who held back nothing, the Susie Homewrecker doll who walked away from the wreckage laughing. Raina Stone in her early fifties was still drop-dead gorgeous and still promised delights. I was impressed as hell just to meet her.
Publisher: St. Martin's Press
Publication Year: 1988
Pages: 215
A Carrot for the Donkey
Hotshot producer Mark Evering can't understand why his daughter Merissa has run off with a shady lawyer twice her age when her father has given her everything--including a Betty Ford detox for her high-school graduation. Saxon, hired to bring her back home, follows the trail to the wide-open Mexican border town of Tijuana, where he confronts a powerful landowner and his beautiful wife, an arrogant matador, a tough and humorless Tijuana cop--and the most gruesome murder of his career.
"Roberts is fine-tuning his plotting skill with each new Saxon novel." (Booklist)
Excerpt: From her school picture, Merissa Evering was no exception, a pretty kid. Guys like Mark Evering always had gorgeous daughters, whom they managed to screw up through indifference and neglect. Now, at the age of 21, she had run off with a shady lawyer twice her age and her father had hired me to find her, a California golden girl whose glitter had tarnished from overuse.
Publisher: St. Martin's Press
Publication Year: 1989
Pages: 228
Snake Oil
A wealthy and unlikable real-estate developer hires Saxon to determine whether his young wife Nanette is having an affair. Saxon hates "domestic" cases, but takes this one on just in time to discover Nanette's lover, a petroleum engineer, has been strangled with a white silk scarf. That puts Saxon right in the middle of the oil business, engaging some unsavory characters and eventually having to face an examination of his own courage.
"As Roberts matures in his writing, Saxon matures as a character in this, his most complex story to date." (Mystery News)
Excerpt: And then I broke out in a sticky, cold sweat, and a wave of icy fear shook me right down to my shoes: Khali's pet cobra had to be somewhere in the apartment, and I had no idea where. When I turned to move for the door, I found him. He was curled up in the middle of the room and had raised himself up so that his head was about 30 inches off the floor, quivering slightly as he nailed me with his gaze. He weaved back and forth on his elongated backbone, his hood enlarged and flattened, and he never took his eyes off me for a second. I returned the favor. I had never been so frightened in my life.
Publisher: St. Martin's Press
Publication Year: 1990
Pages: 230
Seeing the Elephant
Saxon returns to his hometown, Chicago, where one of his oldest pals, cop Gavin Cassidy, has died of a lethal combination of drugs and alcohol in a cheap hotel. But his death might not have been accidental after all--and, while pursuing leads, Saxon must deal with the inner demons that confront him in a cast of friends and enemies from his youth, including his first lover and even his own ex-con father. Had Gavin Cassidy "seen the elephant" and been unable to extricate himself from a life-threatening situation until it was too late?
"Facile but oddly touching in the father-son rapprochement scenes. A semi-hardboiled trip down memory lane, guided by a capable old pro." (Kirkus Reviews)
Excerpt: The man who opened the door was old, over 70. Somehow I'd expected him to look the way he had the last time I'd seen him, and the fact that he didn't was a severe shock to me. He was shorter than I remembered, about five seven, but perhaps age had shrunk him an inch or two. He had a full head of coarse, iron gray hair that he'd combed with his fingers, and his day-old beard stubble was white, making him look even older. His eyes were yellow-brown and dull; they'd seen too much in too many years. The skin on his face was puffy and wrinkled, the color and texture of an old grocery bag. He looked at me and his cigarette wiggled a bit as he attempted the smallest of smiles.
"Hello, kiddo. I heard you was in town. C'mon in," my father said.
Publisher: St. Martin's Press
Publication Year: 1992
Pages: 278
The Lemon Chicken Jones
Coarse, tired old Borscht-Belt comedian Nappy Kane is a dinosaur--his career is a shambles and his bank balance anemic. Then his wife of less than a year, a Chinese mail-order bride, disappears, taking most of whatever money he had left. Saxon, hired to find her, winds up in a small town near Sacramento, where the wife of a love-connection mail-order agency is found dead in the river. When too many different people end up wanting to kill him, Saxon stays busy trying to save his own skin and that of his adopted son, Marvel.
"Saxon continues to be a glib commentator on California mores... Roberts plots with finesse and an admirable economy." (Publisher's Weekly)
Excerpt: The Chinese people have a particular god for every occasion, a system that predates our current age of specialization by several thousand years. There's the Kitchen God, for instance, the Sea God, the God of Business, the God of Love and Romance, and lots of others whose names and functions elude me right now. It's a much more efficient arrangement than monotheism, when you think about it. We who worship one deity have a run of bad luck and we believe that God is punishing us because we've done something to make him angry. The Chinese, on the other had, simply assume it is only the Kitchen God who is pissed off when the souffl falls, and there's no reason to think that their business will fail, their ship will sink, or that they'll be unable to sustain an erection. They just eat out for a while until it passes.
Publisher: St. Martin's Press
Publication Year: 1994
Pages: 282
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