When Professor Nick Hoffman and his partner, Stefan, return from a Caribbean vacation it‘s time to get back in shape, but their posh health club, Michigan Muscle, throws a kink into Nick‘s workout routine when he finds a dead trainer in a steam room. Suspects abound among the affluent patrons, gym personnel, and the town-and-gown denizens of Michiganopolis.
Hot Rocks is the perfect book to read on the Stairmaster, stationary bike or treadmill—or chilling out while someone else works up a sweat. Acclaimed by the Los Angeles Times for his “clever and sharp social satire,” Lev Raphael (Tropic of Murder, The German Money) turns his mordant gaze here onto health club culture and American society at large. Nick Hoffman learns more than he could have imagined about wealthy civilization and its discontents, while his professional and personal lives each take a wild turn, giving Nick a real workout in the surprising denouement.
A prize-winning author of seventeen books in several genres (mystery, literary fiction, memoir, essays, self-help), author Lev Raphael has reviewed for NPR and many periodicals and was the long-time mystery columnist at the Detroit Free Press. His books have been translated into nearly a dozen languages. He lives in Michigan with his partner of twenty-one years, and they recently married in Canada.
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