Can you imagine having Elvis Presley in the ranks of Sherlock Holmes and Hercule Poirot? Daniel Klein does in the fictional murder mystery "Blues Suede Clues", a semi-sequel to "Kill Me Tender" another mystery featuring the King. It's a fictional work depicting Elvis as his real self (singer, movie star etc.) while solving a mystery on the side.
In this book, Elvis is at a stage in his life where everything seems to be toppling on to him. His current movie project sucks, his relationship with Ann-Margaret is being blown out of proportion, and he's tired of being babied. He wants some direction in his life, something to take his focus off what a tripe it's become.
One day after a shooting of one of his movies on the MGM Studios lot, Elvis finds a crumpled up photo in his agent's office. It is a picture of him during his Army years, stationed in Germany. It shows him playing guitar in front of a Christmas tree with some of his other buddies around him. He remembers playing "Silent Night" for his pals that night. A sleepy-eyed face is circled with the word "me" by it. Elvis doesn't really recognize the face. He then goes digging in the wastebasket and finds the crumpled letter that goes with the picture. It says:
Dear Mr. Presley,
No reason for you to remember me, but this little photograph holds one of the happiest
memories of my young life. It's a memory of a Christmas carol that raised my spirits up
at a time when they were kind of sagging.
Let me be honest with you, Mr. Presley, I'm just another guy down on his luck who is reaching
out to you. I bet you get letters like this all the time, so I wouldn't be surprised if you just crumpled
this up and threw it away along about right now.
Thing is, I'm in prison, California Correctional Institution up in Tehachapi, and I'm not just doing time,
I'm doing the rest of my life. Murder first degree of a young girl. But you see, I didn't do it. I swear I
didn't on the grave of my mother, Agnes P. Littlejon, may she rest in peace.
So here goes: I need someone to stand up for me. Stand up and prove they got the wrong man.
It's gotta be somebody folks would really listen to. And you're the only person in the world I ever
met who fits that bill. You don't owe me nothing, Mr. Presley, I know that. I'm just asking.
Gratefully yours for that long ago "Silent Night,"
Freddy "Squirm" Littlejohn
After reading the letter from Squirm, Elvis' heart gets tugged and he goes to visit his old Army buddy. At Tehachapi he sits down and talks to Squirm. Squirm can't believe that he actually came to see him. Neither can Elvis. Squirm begins to tell Elvis of how he became a stuntman after the service. He said he seemed to have a natural talent for it seeing as how he could "squirm" out of anything.
Squirm told of how he settled down in California, married a beautiful actress, and made tons of money as a stuntman. On the MGM lot there was a girl named Holly McDougal. "The truth is, Holly may have been only seventeen, but she'd been around the block more times than most women twice her age", Squirm said. He then began to say how Holly would take a bunch of the stuntmen (individually) and show 'em some fun on a cot in the stunt shack. Squirm admitted to having sex with Holly a few times, but he said he never knew she was that young. She claimed to be eighteen.
One day, after dancing the horizontal tango with Holly, Squirm left her in the shack while he continued on with his work. Several hours later he was arrested for the rape and murder of Holly McDougal. Squirm continues throughout their conversation that he is innocent.
Squirm says that the trial was a mockery. He was guilty before he even entered the courtroom. All the witnesses condemned him and his lawyer tried his best, but he seemed to have something on his mind that distracted him.
Elvis leaves the jail and decides to solve this case and clear Squirm's name. He is then lead to the office of Squirm's former lawyer, an alcoholic, Freud-spouting man named Regis Clifford. Elvis convinces Regis to help him solve the case and they are both lead on a train-ride going down into the world of stuntmen, a genetics lab in Mexico and even a plot that puts Elvis up as a suspect.
If you want to know what happens to Elvis and Squirm, you have to read this book for yourself. It's hilarious and easy to follow.
Reviews for Blue Suede Clues
"This book is enthralling. It's riveting. The King as a gumshoe, who'd have thought?. I will read it over and over again." -El Vez, The Mexican Elvis.
"Daniel Klein really knows his stuff. I weeped when Elvis almost broke his leg. Oh wait. Am I not supposed to say that? Sorry."-Aunt Maude
Node your homework.