Woman Trouble

Where the hell is Carrie Crowfoot? Jim Otis, police chief of Hercules, Wis., doesn't know. But he suspects that the disappearance of the popular high-school cheerleader connects somehow to his nemesis, teenage femme fatale, Josie Dobbs. But Josie has left town for college in Philadelphia. How does a scheming seductress in Philly pull off an abduction a thousand miles away? Meanwhile, how can Jim Otis — who does NOT understand women — cope with all the other women in his life? His "trouble" includes his girlfriend Carol, his ex-wife Connie, his daughter Natalie, his ex-paramour Elena, Native American activist Angelina Killdeer, superannuated hippie Crystal MacDougal and Town Council scold Electra Grimes — not to mention Minnie Trout, Maisie Hopkins and the enigmatic Professor Swerdlow. All Jim Otis can do — to save Carrie — is plug away, follow his cop instincts, and get by with the help of his (female) friends. 

David Benjamin began his career as a storyteller in Mrs. Poss’ second-grade class at St. Mary’s School in Tomah, Wisconsin. His fictional memoir, The Life and Times of the Last Kid Picked, originally published by Random House, was reprinted by Last Kid Books in 2019. His Last Kid Books include a collection of his essays, Almost Killed by a Train of Thought, two  short story anthologies, The Melting Grandmother and Other Short Works and Christmas in a Jugular Vein and sixteen novels, Three’s a Crowd, A Sunday Kind of Love, Summer of ’68, Skulduggery in the Latin Quarter, Black Dragon, They Shot Kennedy, Fat Vinny’s Forbidden Love, Witness to the Crucifixion, Choose Moose, Bistro Nights, The Voice of the Dog and Benjamin’s Jim Otis mystery series, Jailbait, Bastard’s Bluff, Woman Trouble, Dead Shot and Cheat. As a journalist, Benjamin has edited newspapers, published and edited several magazines, and authored SUMO: A Thinking Fan’s Guide to Japan’s National Sport.

Since its launch in 2019, Benjamin’s publishing imprint, Last Kid Books, has won more than forty independent-press awards. These include, for They Shot Kennedy, the Midwest Book Awards’ 2021 grand prize for literary/historical/contemporary fiction, and a 2022 Silver Medal for Humor to Fat Vinny’s Forbidden Love in the Independent Book Publishers Association’s prestigious Benjamin Franklin Awards.

Benjamin and his wife, Junko Yoshida, have been married for ages. They live sometimes in Madison, Wis., and the rest of the time in Paris.