Kinky Friedman Books in Order

In his first outing as a fictional detective named Kinky Friedman, the singer turned sleuth prowls Greenwich Village after a young woman is found murdered. With the Village Irregulars in tow, he wades through clubs, street characters, and bad coffee to track a killer.

Thanksgiving Eve at Manhattan's Lone Star Cafe turns bloody when country singer Larry Barkin is found bludgeoned with his own guitar, a two dollar bill in his pocket. Kinky noses into the honky tonk's backstage feuds, drugs, and secrets to smoke out a killer.

A prizewinning tabby disappears from a Madison Square Garden cat show, then a tongue less literary agent turns up dead nearby. Kinky's hunt for the missing feline lands him between rival Colombian gangs, a mysterious woman, and a trail of darkly comic violence.

Summoned to what should be a close friend's funeral, Kinky finds a stranger in the coffin and his buddy missing. The search uncovers a Nazi trail, a vanished pilot, and a rare white tiger, pulling him into international intrigue far from Greenwich Village.

An ex Texas Jewboys guitarist turns up murdered in Kinky's shower, and other former bandmates start dying in suspicious accidents. Haunted by old tours and bad blood, Kinky and the Village Irregulars dig into past grudges to learn who is killing the Jewboys.

After actor Tom Baker dies suddenly and his documentary about Elvis impersonators vanishes, Kinky's friend Uptown Judy also disappears. Chasing the missing film drags him through snuff film rumors, mob history, and his own tangled love life with two different Judys.

Back home in the Texas Hill Country, Kinky helps Judge Pat Knox look into a string of elderly women who all died on their seventy sixth birthdays. Yellow roses on the graves hint at a pattern, and soon he is chasing a killer through small town grudges and gossip.

Ratso's dying father hints that proof of his son's true parentage lies in a Florida safe deposit box. When the first detective hired to find it turns up dead, Kinky and the Village Irregulars race between New York and Miami to untangle murder and inheritance.

Part travel guide and part tall tale, this slim book walks readers through Austin's clubs, diners, parks, odd landmarks, and music history. Along the way Kinky shares memories, local gossip, and side trips that make the city feel loose, loud, and very human.

When Ratso begs Kinky to find his birth mother, the trail runs from Greenwich Village to Chicago and straight into FBI business. As family secrets and federal interest collide, Kinky has to keep his friend alive long enough to learn who he really is.

A blow to the head drops Kinky back into the 1970s, when he was singing at the Lone Star Cafe and just learning to play detective. Protecting fugitive activist Abbie Hoffman, he traces bombs, stalkers, and fading ideals through a hazy, dangerous New York.

Taking a break from detective work, Kinky joins Willie Nelson's tour, only to be swept into trouble when the bus hits a Native American medicine man. Death threats, talk of a curse, and an apparent attempt on Willie's life push him reluctantly back into sleuthing.

Annoyed by the stomping lesbian dance class upstairs, Kinky sends a fake death threat as a prank and recruits the Village Irregulars to solve it. When a real stalker surfaces and people start dying, the contest to become his Watson turns suddenly deadly.

A casual flirtation on a flight from Dallas to New York leaves Kinky holding a mysterious woman's pink suitcase. Soon he is mixed up with fake passports, dead agents, nervous officials, and a very resourceful stranger who keeps reappearing in his Manhattan loft.

When Yorick, Kinky's beloved puppet head and talisman, disappears, his luck and love life start falling apart. Hunting the thief drags him through bohemian New York, a false murder charge against an old friend, and a case stranger than anything he has written.

This irreverent guide explains how Texans really talk, eat, drive, and misbehave. Kinky riffs on strange laws, last meal requests, regional slang, famous locals, and roadside lore, giving newcomers and natives a comic primer on surviving the Lone Star State.

Stuck in winter gloom in Manhattan, Kinky jumps at a call from Hawaii: his friend Mike McGovern has vanished from a beach. On the islands he and his crew chase leads through Don Ho shows, ancient myths, and hints of sacrificial cults before the trail comes clear.

Kinky juggles three cases at once: a missing autistic boy in New York, a three legged cat vanished from his cousin's rescue ranch in Texas, and a shadowy killer. The search pulls him between Greenwich Village streets and dusty Hill Country back roads.

Blocked novelist Walter Snow falls under the spell of free spirited Clyde Potts and her partner in mischief, Fox Harris. What begins as small time pranks against corporate sprawl slides into elaborate cons and real danger, forcing Walter to decide how far he will go.

This grab bag of essays and reminiscences finds Kinky swapping stories about country singers, presidents, talk show hosts, religion, cigars, pets, and busted tours. The tone swings from rude to reflective but always sounds like a long, late night conversation.

Laid low by malaria and confined to his Greenwich Village loft, Kinky passes the time staring out the kitchen window. When he believes he sees a woman attacked across the street, nobody else can confirm it, and he must prove he is seeing clearly at all.

Someone is killing men around Manhattan, and every trail seems to point back to Kinky himself. With the Village Irregulars under suspicion and the police closing in, he has to solve the murders, clear his name, and face how much his world has changed.

Texas Hold 'Em collects autobiographical pieces, Texas Monthly columns, and lists that roam from childhood memories to politics and small town eccentrics. Under the jokes runs a serious idea about holding on to the people and places that matter most.

Cowboy Logic gathers Kinky's favorite one liners, barroom philosophies, and off kilter jokes, along with cartoons by Ace Reid. It is a pocket guide to his brand of wisdom, where the punch line often hides a stubbornly simple truth about getting through life.

A fable set in a small kingdom, The Christmas Pig follows a mute boy chosen to paint the royal nativity scene just weeks before Christmas. Doubts and pressure mount until a peculiar, gifted pig appears and turns the king's tradition into a quiet miracle.

Part campaign memoir and part barstool manifesto, this book lays out Kinky's tongue in cheek ten commandments for fixing Texas politics. He digs into education, elections, borders, and corruption, arguing that honesty and humor could do more good than spin.

In this essay collection, Kinky swings from late night philosophizing to concrete ideas about politics, manners, music, and modern life. He riffs on everything from Willie Nelson to immigration and bad haircuts, asking what common sense might really look like.

Short biographical sketches of twenty three Texans Kinky admired as a kid, from soldiers and politicians to cartoonists and country singers. Told with plainspoken humor and respect, it reads like a love letter to the people who shaped Texas and him.

Kinky opens his address book and invites famous friends to talk about the animals they adore. Musicians, actors, politicians and writers share personal pet stories, while his sideways jokes and asides make the book as warm as it is odd.

A collection of Kinky Friedman's back page columns, Drinker With a Writing Problem gathers his sharp, funny takes on life on the road, Texas politics, music, animals, friendship, and aging, mixing barroom stories with moments that turn unexpectedly thoughtful.

Co written with Billy Bob Thornton, this oral history style memoir captures the actor's stories in Kinky's transcribed conversations. From a rough Southern childhood to Hollywood sets and odd phobias, it reads like a long, profane night of swapping tales on the porch.