Steppin' on a Rainbow

Kinky Friedman #14

by Kinky Friedman

When his friend mysteriously vanishes while in Hawaii, Kinky Friedman, accompanied by Stephanie DuPont and V. I. Rambam, journey to Hawaii and embark on a dangerous adventure filled with ancient myths, sacrificial cults, totems, and taboos. Reprint.

Genres: Fiction, Mystery, Humor, Crime, Detective

288 pages, Mass Market Paperback

First published August 28, 2001

About the author

Richard S. "Kinky" Friedman is an American singer, songwriter, novelist, humorist, politician and former columnist for Texas Monthly who styles himself in the mold of popular American satirists Will Rogers and Mark Twain. He was one of two independent candidates in the 2006 election for the office of Governor of Texas. Receiving 12.6% of the vote, Friedman placed fourth in the six-person race.

Friedman was born in Chicago to Jewish parents, Dr. S. Thomas Friedman and his wife Minnie (Samet) Friedman. The family moved to a ranch in central Texas a few years later. Friedman had an early interest in both music and chess, and was chosen at age 7 as one of 50 local players to challenge U.S. grandmaster Samuel Reshevsky to simultaneous matches in Houston. Reshevsky won all 50 matches, but Friedman was by far the youngest competitor.

Friedman graduated from Austin High School in Austin, Texas in 1962 and earned a Bachelor of Arts from the University of Texas at Austin in 1966, majoring in Psychology. He took part in the Plan II Honors program and was a member of the Tau Delta Phi fraternity. During his freshman year, Chinga Chavin gave Friedman the nickname "Kinky" because of his curly hair.

Friedman served two years in the United States Peace Corps, teaching on Borneo in Malaysia with John Gross. During his service in the Peace Corps, he met future Texas Jewboy road manager Dylan Ferrero, with whom he still works today. Friedman lives at Echo Hill Ranch, his family's summer camp near Kerrville, Texas. He founded Utopia Animal Rescue Ranch, also located near Kerrville, whose mission is to care for stray, abused and aging animals; more than 1,000 dogs have been saved from animal euthanasia.

Series:
* Kinky Friedman Mystery

Reviews

[Hunter Shea · Rating 4 out of 5]

Like all of his books, I wanted to ankle my way to the nearest bar, throw some booze down my neck and fire up a cigar. Always a great read.

[Anna · Rating 2 out of 5]

Kinky is funny but… only up to a point… I returned this to a bookshop after reading because I’m traveling and didn’t want to carry it around but also because I don’t need to keep it! The person working at the store and I laughed at how NOT politically correct Kinky Friedman was (RIP). But he sure knew how to tell stories!

[John · Rating 2 out of 5]

Up until now I have enjoyed the Kinky Friedman novels, provided that they did not appear on the reading list too frequently, because they were relatively repetitious. But this fell short of the standard, being nonsensical and consisting largely of insults from one character to another, many of them fairly crude in nature. Luckily I cannot see any more on my shelves!

[Zirk · Rating 2 out of 5]

Sentence for sentence, Kinky Friedman is one of my favourite authors. He's funny and often profound. It's when I read page after page that the grin sets into a grimace. You need more than relentless humour to keep a book entertaining.

[Sean Keefe · Rating 2 out of 5]

Atrocious.
Genuinely REALLY bad.
I LOVE the man. I miss the man. I’ve been out for a curry with the man.
But this is not his best work.
Nothing happens in it, except Kinky thinking about and recapping the fact that someone’s been kidnapped for 150 pages, then he gets the answer in a dream - A FUCKING DREAM - and off they all go to solve it.
This book commits the worst literary crime of all - it’s BORING.
And Kinky, as a person, was NEVER boring.
Go check out his better books.
You’ll be glad you did.

[Oliver Hodson · Rating 4 out of 5]

Reading this book the plusses are you get to be with Kinky Friedman’s sense of humour and some of his intimate reflections, and you get a mild mystery. But you also bear with how depressed and narrow that world can be. There are flashes of how beautiful friendships and the world can be, but there’s also a really rich vein of thinking that the world is not as it should be. Having read two of the series, I think I’m done.

[Vickie · Rating 2 out of 5]

Just meh. I used to really enjoy this series, but that was a long time ago and maybe my brain worked differently then. I only kept reading because of a 50 State challenge I joined and this took care of Hawaii. I really should have kept looking for something else.
What I liked about the book was the history of Hawaii that was at least part of the book. What I didn't like was everything else. I didn't care about the characters or the premise.

[Sascha Nolte · Rating 3 out of 5]

Man merkt, dass Kinky mit jedem neuen Kapitel die Ideen ausgingen, bis die Geschichte in einem einzigen Logikloch endet. Trotzdem hat man durchaus Spaß beim Lesen, auch wenn das Mindesthalbarkeitsdatum des Großen und Ganzen nun doch schon längst überschritten ist.

[Clare · Rating 2 out of 5]

I was amused despite myself.

[Lisa Stethem · Rating 2 out of 5]

This was the worst Kinky book I’ve read. I hope it was just a fluke because I usually enjoy his books.

[Ernest Hogan · Rating 4 out of 5]

A romp through Hawaii disguised as a detective story. There's enough verbal slapstick and absurdity to keep me smiling.

[Alec Downie · Rating 2 out of 5]

I have been a Kinky fan for years but not one of his best and the sexist jokes really need to be consigned to the historical dustbin marked, run out of ideas.

[Joyce Wagner · Rating 1 out of 5]

Supposed to be a comedic PI. I found nothing humorous and very little about being an investigator. Solved the mystery by accident. Couldn't relate to any of the characters.

[Olly Colluphid · Rating 2 out of 5]

Rather let down by the total lack of concern for the murder victim...

Not KF's best.

[Beck Wakefield · Rating 4 out of 5]

Easy, quick read and a sure laugh. I love Kinky's witty humor. If you like comedy read this! Long live Kinky!

[Don · Rating 2 out of 5]

Considering Kinky just passed away last week, I feel bad knocking this book. Whew, this one is a bomb. It has all the elements of his continuing crazy cast of characters and their banter. But, this one felt too much like a simple formula using a lot of his previous material to just have something to publish. Not worth reading. 2 stars.

[Louise · Rating 2 out of 5]

A very weak plot serves to string together clever dialog, literary trivia and the local color of Hawaii.

It starts off cute and devolves.

KF dutifully works in references to all of Hawaii's pop culture, but somehow misses Spam. Not all the Hawaiiana is on target. One error is saying that Queen Lilioukalani was married to David Kalakua. She was his sister and was married to John Dominis.

Can those who enter Hawaii on private planes really avoid the pet quarantine?

[Carol · Rating 3 out of 5]

Kinky Friedman the writer, writes about Kinky Friedman the private investigator. He is witty,rude and crude.This was the fourteenth book by Friedman and rumor has it he has quit writing. A shame, for he is fun to read.Kinky, the writer, is also a singer and runs an animal rescue in Medina, Texas.In this story Kinky and crew fly to Hawaii in search of a lost friend.His crew, the Village Irregulars make for an interesting fun time.

[Drew · Rating 4 out of 5]

This was a weird, funny mystery. Kinky's friend disappears in Hawaii and after waiting for a few days, he and a gang of friends head off the islands in search of him. Kinky's friends are hilarious, ball-busting and sometimes cruel, which only adds to fun. Was turned onto the author by Warren Ellis.

[Lisa · Rating 3 out of 5]

This was a pretty raunchy novel, but I had to appreciate how Friedman inserted some historical fiction into his romp of a mystery novel. I did enjoy reading about Hawaii but the dialog was a little to low brow for me.

[Slarson6 · Rating 3 out of 5]

Kinky in Hawaii!

[bigmuzz · Rating 4 out of 5]

the kinkster and co. go on a mystery-solving holiday to hawaii....

[Frank Shedd · Rating 5 out of 5]

great typical Kinky
terrific

[David Saliba · Rating 1 out of 5]

Seemed to be going nowhere, and the interplay between Stephanie Dupont and Kinky was grating.

Life is too short...

[Kbg503 · Rating 4 out of 5]

Still funny and suspenseful as a re-read. A quick study on ancient Hawaiian culture and history, too. Reading about the glory days and the decay of the Natatorium always brings a tear.

[Kelly · Rating 3 out of 5]

It was an okay read, dont have too much to say about it.

[Beth · Rating 2 out of 5]

Mostly silly. But it was good for a laugh or two. The plot was lacking, the characters were unique, but what they were doing in Hawaii was rather a mystery.

[Jean · Rating 2 out of 5]

Not the Kinkster's best, I think. The plot is pretty weak and the Stephanie character is anoying.

[Julie · Rating 1 out of 5]

I guess this is the kind of book I should have expected from a guy named Kinky Friedman. Very weird.

[AustinT · Rating 2 out of 5]

2017