Alone in his New York loft, the private detective Kinky Friedman, reflects on friendship and why all his friends are out of town. With time on his hands and feeling a little melancholy his mind turns to Stephanie DuPont - very hot but pretty much resistant to all his advances. The phone rings and Kinky's old contact Hoover from Honolulu is on the blower to report that Kinky's great friend Mike McGovern has disappeared while in the process of researching and writing his cookbook Eat, Drink and Be Kinky. He was last seen heading for the beach. Our hero flies to Hawaii, and in a series of farcical wild goose chases, that includes identifying a faceless corpse in the morgue and trying to ensnare what turn out to be hoax kidnappers, Kinky ends up visiting the local museum on the island and in a room full of ancient relics he stumbles upon a full size, sculpted wooden head that is a dead ringer for McGovern. But what on earth can a bust of an ancient high chief have in common with Kinky's missing friend?

'Kinky Friedman is the best whodunnit writer to come along since Dashiell what's-his-name.' Willie Nelson

Kinky Friedman - commonly known to his many fans as 'The Kinkster' - first found fame as the lead singer of the country-and-western band 'The Texas Jewboys'. He is also the author of a series of highly acclaimed detective stories, featuring himself as the wise-cracking, cigar-smoking, cat-loving sleuth. He populates his novels with many of his friends and associates, portraying them (to their great delight) as villains, cheats and con-men. In the words of the great Willie Nelson, he is the 'best whodunnit writer to come along since Dashiel Whats-his-name'. Kinky Friedman lives in a trailer in the South Texas Hills with two dogs, two cats and Dilly, his pet armadillo.