Virtual Tour for Bigfoot Blues by Ricardo Sanchez

Welcome to my stop on the Virtual Tour, presented by Pump Up Your Book, for Bigfoot Blues by Ricardo Sanchez.  Please leave a comment or question for Ricardo to let him know you stopped by.  You can follow all of the stops on Ricardo’s tour by clicking on the tour banner above. 

Bigfoot Blues

By Ricardo Sanchez

An Elvis Sightings Mystery, Book 2

Publisher: Carina Press

Release Date:  May 4, 2015
Genre: Cozy Mystery

Length:  251 Pages (353 KB)

Format: eBook

ISBN:  9781426899850

ASIN:  B00T3FEQE4

About the book: 

She eloped with Bigfoot. Or maybe Bigfoot kidnapped her. Either way, I've been hired to uncover the truth behind Cindy Funk's disappearance. Me? I'm Floyd, and I'm a PI living my life as Elvis would have wanted. Not just in sequined jumpsuits. With character.

Cindy's trail leads me to River City, Oregon—aka the Mythical Creature Capital of the World—where I catch Case #2. This one from an eccentric billionaire who's lost a priceless piece of "art." Enter one dead body and I end up deputized to solve Case #3, tracking down a man-eating mountain lion. Or maybe it's a chupacabra. Or just an ordinary murderer. Hard to say.

I've handled my fair share of crazy, but River City's secrets have me spooked. With an influx of tourists arriving for the town's annual Elvis tribute contest—what are the chances?—I've got to save the girl, solve the rich guy's problem and leash that chupacabra before a second body is discovered. It might just be mine.

Read more about Floyd's adventures in Elvis Sightings, available now!

For More Information

Bigfoot Blues is available at Carina Press

Bigfoot Blues is available at Amazon.

Or Pick up your copy at Barnes & Noble.

Discuss this book at PUYB Virtual Book Club at Goodreads.

Excerpt

It was ten past two on a Wednesday and I was sitting behind my desk in the office I share with Franklin, a chiropractor. His wife had sent me looking for him almost four years ago, but she was such a harridan that once I’d found him, I couldn’t bring myself to turn over his location. He’d let me use his place as an office, rent-free, ever since.

I checked my watch again.

Wanda was flying back to Kresge today. I resented being dragged away from her, even for just an hour, but the man on the phone had insisted. It had been more than a month since my last case, so while Wanda packed, I came into the office to meet Peter Funk. And he was late.

The clock hit 2:15. I was about to leave when a very lost-looking man in his fifties opened the door.

“You must be Floyd,” he said, taking off his well-worn Caterpillar cap. His bald head had the baked look of someone who spent a lot of time under the hot Idaho sun. “Your Elvis outfit kinda gives it away,” he added.

“You’re Mr. Funk?”

He smiled weakly and bobbed his head up and down in the affirmative.

I pointed him to a seat and sat back down at my desk.

“So what can I do for you?” I asked.

Funk looked down at the cap in his hands and worried at a loose thread with his callused fingers.

“I need you to find my daughter,” he said and looked up at me. “You’ve got to help me. I don’t know who else to turn to.”

“I’d be happy to help, Mr. Funk, but with missing children you’re much better off going to the police.”

Funk stood up and slapped his hat against his thigh. A small cloud of dirt erupted from the dull blue denim of his pants.

“Oh, the cops won’t help me. Cindy’s eighteen. They said they can’t go looking for her if she’s just run off,” he said. “Besides…”

“Besides what, Mr. Funk?”

He took his seat again before finally blurting out, “She ran off to elope with Bigfoot.”

I would have laughed if Funk hadn’t looked so worried.

“Bigfoot?” I said. “That’s a nickname?”

“No, sir.”

Funk pulled a postcard out of his jeans pocket and handed it to me.

On one side was a teenage boy holding up a plaster casting of a giant footprint nearly three feet long. Across the bottom it read “River City—The Home of Bigfoot.” I turned it over. The postmark was three weeks ago in River City, Oregon. The note on the card read:

Dear Daddy,

I’ve fallen in love with Bigfoot and we’ve decided to elope. I won’t be coming back to Pocatello. I’ll write again soon.

Cindy

She’d put a little heart in place of the dot above the is in both Bigfoot and Cindy.

River City… The name was familiar, but I couldn’t quite place it.

“My girl, she’s a willful one she is, but Cindy’s never lied to me. Not once,” Funk said. “If Cindy says she’s eloped with Bigfoot, that’s exactly what she’s done.”

Why did I get all the weirdos? Was it the suit? Or the Lifestyle Elvis thing? Or maybe this was some sort of elaborate practical joke. I let out a low sigh.

A case is a case, I told myself. And this one was just too absurd to be someone shining me on. 

About the Author

Ricardo Sanchez is a writer, toy buff, and lifelong comic book fan.

Elvis Sightings, the first novel in his Elvis Sightings Mysteries series, was released in September , 2014. Bigfoot Blues, the follow up, was released in May, 2015.

Ricardo has written several books for DC Comics, including Batman: Legends of the Dark Knight, Teen Titans Go! and Resident Evil among many others. His original project, A Hero’s Death, was a successful Kickstarter released in May, 2015.

In addition to writing, Ricardo is an Emmy award winning video and animation producer. When he’s not writing, Ricardo maintains a vintage toy blog, drives 70's muscle cars, and shops year round for Halloween decorations for his home in California.

For More Information

Visit Ricardo Sanchez’s website.

Connect with Ricardo on Facebook and Twitter.

Find out more about Ricardo at Goodreads.

A cozy mystery with colorful characters, snappy dialogue, and touch of comedy, Bigfoot Blues by Ricardo Sanchez is the second book in the Elvis Sightings Mystery series.   Filled with plenty of twists and turns, I found myself quickly turning the pages to discover what would happen next as Floyd, the main character in the series, leaves Pocatello, Idaho for River City, Oregon on quite the road trip that begins as a missing person case.  If you like small town mysteries, a good laugh and a detective who dresses like Elvis, this is the book for you!  

Mr. Sanchez does a good job developing Floyd’s character from the first page.  A private investigator who is a practicing “Lifestyle Elvis” kind of guy, Floyd may dress up in Elvis costumes but is quick to point out that he’s not an Elvis impersonator.  Determined to behave like he thinks Elvis would behave, Floyd seems to attract every strange case in town.  Approached by a concerned father, whose daughter claims to have married Bigfoot, Floyd finds himself on the road in his trusty Camero and headed to River City where he soon finds himself trying to solve three cases.  He’ll have to survive an angry little person, Bigfoot’s Brides, a missing swampdog, an Elvis Impersonator’s convention and a possible Chupacabra attack if he wants to make it home alive.

Mr. Sanchez also does a good job developing the secondary characters and I especially enjoyed getting to meet Goliath, a little person, who made an appearance in the first book and is back for the second.  While Goliath may be short in stature, he’s stronger than he looks, fights dirty, and has a mouth that just won’t quit.  He’s very fond and protective of Floyd’s girlfriend Wanda, the sheriff of Kresge (where Floyd solved his first case), and is determined to drag Floyd home to Wanda.  He’s so determined that he becomes Floyd’s “assistant”, and becomes attached to him, whether Floyd wants him or not. 

While the story starts out a little slowly at first, and there’s the whole Bigfoot and Bigfoot’s Brides issue which is good for laughs but not much else, it quickly moves into a theft with murder mystery, which is a much stronger part of the story.  This is where Floyd, with Goliath’s help, really begins to shine when he agrees to temporarily become a “deputy” for the River City Sheriff, who may or may not have been bitten in the butt by a cougar or “something else”.  Though Goliath swears he will run for the hills if the “something else” turns out to be a “Chupacabra” because after all “My people are like candy for those things”. 

Will Floyd and Goliath identify the killer before another body shows up?  Will Floyd and Goliath become partners for more than just this case?  And does Floyd ever locate the missing “Bigfoot Bride”? You’ll have to read Bigfoot Blues to find out.  I enjoyed it and look forward to finding out what happens to Floyd and his interesting sidekicks next.

My Rating:  3.5 out of 5 Crowns