The Secret Sign of the Lizard People by Kevin E. Buckley

Even minor characters are distinctive and play their parts well. Their well-crafted personalities lend themselves to natural, fluid interactions, and they are enjoyable characters despite their numerous flaws. In the aggravating heat of a Los Angeles summer, Leafy and Beefy disagree about everything except the importance of fighting for justice.

The reveal of the dead model’s true (in)significance is a nice twist, while the text’s variety of settings and suspects keeps it all interesting.

The mystery unfurls at a good pace and demonstrates that Leafy and Beefy, regardless of whatever else can be said about them, are devoted and logical professionals. It starts off as a send-up of police procedurals, but becomes more and more absurd as it rolls toward its startling conclusion. The narrative jumps straight into the action with the discovery of the model’s sensationalist demise. The closer Leafy and Beefy draw to solving the case, the closer they are to unmasking the greatest conspiracy in human history. They come to the realization that the model’s death is only the tip of an insidious iceberg. The clues lead them through the best and worst of California, from drought-dried sewers to a posh country club.

Two homicide detectives stumble upon an alien plot in Kevin Buckley’s humorous novel, The Secret Sign of the Lizard People.Īn aspiring model is murdered, and the LAPD’s greatest homicide detectives, Leafy and Beefy, are on the case. The Secret Sign of the Lizard People is an eccentric satirical novel that thumbs its nose at the current world order.

The Secret Sign of the Lizard People by Kevin E. Buckley