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Samuel French, NY

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If Publisher (above) is underlined then the play may be purchased by direct click, otherwise
(below) are AbeBooks for secondhand & 1st eds and other Booksellers for new copies

Mystery and romantic comedy

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4

2

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Full-length, two acts

Christmas Eve is no bed of roses for struggling private eye Cactus O'Riley, a fiery redhead with a bad case of the holiday blues. It's a tough business; is she really cut out to be a detective? Should she try to scrape up the rent, or close up shop for good? The last surprise package she needs is a lovelorn deputy D.A., a pair of armed-and-goofy fugitives hunting some dead private eye, and her male secretary's overbearing mother, who mistakes a tense hostage situation for just the perfect little holiday murder mystery party. It's a "Dickens" of a Christmas for Cactus as she digs up long-buried mysteries, looks for a few small miracles, and takes a second chance on love, luck, and the life of a private eye.

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Samuel French, NY

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If Publisher (above) is underlined then the play may be purchased by direct click, otherwise
(below) are AbeBooks for secondhand & 1st eds and other Booksellers for new copies

Mystery and romantic comedy

Mystery

2

2

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Two connected and sequential one-act plays, Remedial Surveillance and Deja Rendezvous.

Remedial Surveillance: As if teaching this cheap night school private eye class isn't enough aggravation for a burned-out detective named Buzz, now he's got star pupil Irene, a bored Bloomingdale's buyer with a Bogart-Bacall obsession. She's a spunky gumshoe wannabe who drives him nuts with her so-called "fashion clues." Buzz has her pegged as a dizzy dame who's seen too many old movies, but Irene is full of surprises. Her surveillance homework project not only catches Buzz with his pants down, it might just save his hide. Deja Rendezvous: Buzz and Irene: partners? The seen-it-all ex-cop trying for a comeback and the worn-it-all ex-Bloomie's buyer living out her film-noir fantasy can't seem to agree on anything, not even on splitting up. And the detective biz isn't booming in their shabby little office next to a singing telegram company. When a flamboyant femme fatale out of Buzz's past threatens to poison their partnership (and a lot more), it looks like Buzz and Irene's last case, unless they discover that together they might just have what it takes.