It’s been twenty years since we left Benjamin Kritzer having just graduated high school in Kritzer Time (which followed Benjamin Kritzer and Kritzerland). Now, Benjamin is back, picking up where Kritzer Time left off, as he begins the next three years of his life, which will take him on many new adventures—some thrilling, some funny, some touching, some scary.

Making new friends, having a few romances, meeting a whole array of fascinating people, touring with a play around the country, working a few fun survival jobs, learning from great theater teachers, and most of all, coming of age as an actor, appearing in plays and musicals at Los Angeles City College, then considered one of the top drama departments in the country.

Along the way, he still has a contentious relationship with his mother, his father has taken it on the lam and disappeared, Grandpa Gelfinbaum still says, “What is it, fish?” at every opportunity, Grandma Gelfinbaum still pinches his cheeks until they’re red, but mostly this is a joyous journey through Benjamin’s final teen years into his adulthood from the summer of 1965 to Christmas of 1968.

It’s February of 1976. Harry, former actor agent, then literary agent, then private detective, is once again happily retired—going to the office daily, reading the trades, lunching at the Hamburger Hamlet, sparring with his secretary Bernice, and listening to his beloved opera recordings—until he gets a call from Las Vegas lounge singer Buddy DeMarco. A decade earlier, one of Harry’s writer clients had written Buddy’s jokes and patter which Buddy is still doing at the Las Vegas Hilton. Buddy is receiving threatening notes, each more ominous than the last, and he implores Harry to take the case. Harry hates Vegas and has no intention of taking this or any other case there, but he goes as a favor to Buddy, fully intending to say no. Before returning home, however, Harry in turn gets a threatening note, warning him not to get involved. Of course, Harry takes the case.

What follows is a colorful, often hilarious, frequently baffling, mystery as Harry goes down the rabbit hole list of suspects, each of them someone Buddy has seriously mistreated at one time or another. As the notes become more threatening, they know the clock is ticking before whoever is behind them follows through on the threats.

Taking place in Los Angeles and Las Vegas, Vegas Can Be Murder features guest appearances by the likes of Liberace and Frank Sinatra, Bernice running amok in the casino, and Harry remaining doggedly on the case.