Kinky Friedman Books In Order

Publication Order of Kinky Friedman Books

Publication Order of Standalone Novels

Publication Order of Non-Fiction Books

Publication Order of Anthologies

Kinky Friedman is the pseudonym of Richard S. Friedman, who is a renowned singer, novelist, politician, humorist, and songwriter from The United States. He is particularly popular for writing the Kinky Friedman series and for styling himself in the styles of famous American satirists Mark Twain and Will Rogers. Other than his multiple professions, Friedman used to writer columns for the Texas Monthly. His novels and stories were typically in the genres of mystery, thrillers, biographies, memoirs, and politics. In 2006, Friedman had contested election as an independent candidate for the Texas Governor’s office. Among the 6 people who contested that election, he had come 4th with close to 13% votes. Author Friedman was born on November 01, 1944 in Chicago, Illinois, US. His parents, Dr. S. Thomas and Minnie Friedman were of the Jewish origin. After a few years of his birth, Friedman’s family shifted to a ranch located in central Texas. From a very young age, author Friedman had developed interests in chess and music.

When Friedman was 7 years old, he was selected among the fifty local players for challenging United States grand-master Samuel Reshevsky in simultaneous games of chess in Houston. Even though Samuel won all the 50 games, Friedman was praised for his efforts and for being the youngest opponent. Author Friedman went on to complete his schooling from the Austin High School in 1962. He obtained his Bachelor of Arts degree from the Texas University in 1966. He majored in Psychology. Following his degree, Friedman participated in Part Two Honors Program. He was a member of the fraternity of Tau Delta Phi. When author Friedman was in freshman year, he was given the nickname ‘Kinky’ by Chinga Chavin for his typically curly hair. Friedman kept the name and became popular with it. Later, Friedman decided to keep it for all his life. After his graduation, Friedman spent a couple of years serving in the US Peace Corps. He was involved in teaching in Malaysia and was joined by John Gross. It was during this service that he came across the future Jewboy road manager of Texas named Dylan Ferrero. Friedman works with Ferrero even today.

As of today, author Friedman resides at Echo Hill Ranch. It is a summer camp house of his family and is located near Kerrville in Texas. Friedman has laid the foundation of an animal rescue shelter called Utopia Ranch. It serves to look after abused, aging, and stray animals and is also located nearby Kerrville. The foundation has saved over 1,000 dogs from euthanasia. Friedman says he likes to do this kind of work as it brings his peace of mind. In the Kinky Friedman novel series, Friedman has described the chief protagonist as wisecracking, cigar smoking, hard living, New York based, reluctant private eye named Kinky Friedman. Throughout the series, he is shown as get involved a number of mysteries and solving them with the help of his wit and intelligence. The first few books of the series became very much successful and enabled author Friedman to establish himself in the ranks of the noteworthy novelists. Before attempting to write his first story, Friedman had a widely successful music career. But, it got stalled in the 80s, forcing Friedman to shift his artistic creativity towards writing mystery novels. Another character that appears recurringly in his mystery books is Ramabam. He is depicted as a friend of Friedman, who assists him in the investigations. Author Friedman based this character on a real investigator named Steven Ramabam, who is also author Friedman’s technical adviser.

The Kinky Friedman series written by author Kinky Friedman is comprised of a total of 18 books, which were released between the years 1986 and 2005. A successful novel of this series is entitled ‘Elvis, Jesus and Coca Cola’. It was released by the Bantam publishers in the year 1994. The main characters of the book include Tom Baker, Uptown Judy, Kinky Friedman, Downtown Judy, and Legs. At the beginning of the book’s story, it is depicted that Tom Baker is a legendary actor and a tough guy, who dies suddenly. Kinky Friedman knew Baker very well and suspects that there is foul play. His suspicion becomes much stronger when Friedman learns that a documentary that Tom Baker had been working on based on the impersonators of Elvis has disappeared. Also, the assistant of Baker named Legs has also disappeared, who is believed to be the only man other than Baker to have seen the documentary.

While looking for the missing documentary, Friedman ends up exploring his own dark past involving two affairs with named Downtown Judy and Uptown Judy. Suddenly, Downtown Judy appears in Friedman’s life again and the other Judy disappears mysteriously. Friedman thinks that the vanishing of the film, reappearance of one Judy, and disappearance of the other is somehow linked. He tries everything in his capacity to unravel the mysteries and let justice be served. Author Friedman has depicted detective Friedman as having a sassy, blistering, feisty, enchanting, irreverent, incredibly entertaining, and mesmerizing voice, which was liked by all the readers.

Another entertaining book penned by Friedman is called ‘The Mile High Club’. It was published in 2001 by the Gallery Books. At the start of the story of the book, it is shown that Kinky Friedman indulges in a flirtation with a woman a flight to New York. He finds the woman mysterious and gorgeous. After getting down, the woman asks Friedman to look after her bag while she visits the latrine. Friedman senses a foul play when the woman does not turn up. Later, he meets her again, but he has already gotten his hands full with several suits from State Department. He makes a narrow escape from a kidnapping attempt from some Arab terrorists and has to answer how an Israeli agent turned up dead in his Manhattan loft. Friedman engages the help of his trustworthy sidekicks and decides to clear his name once and for all. Also, he trails the mysterious lady and makes her pay for involving him in all the mess. He rests only after solving this mysterious case and then proceeds with his normal routines in life. This book appears raunchy, hilarious, and offbeat; and consists of a surprising ending. The novel was appreciated very much by the fans all over the globe. They responded with great comments and hailed author Friedman for his efforts in developing such an good story. The readers and critics loved the intriguing characters and suspenseful plots. Even the unique style of writing of author Friedman was praised by them.