Two to Tango

“Brilliant one-liners, lightning action, lots of suspense and very funny—self-deprecating Madrid is fast becoming my favorite hero.”—Good Housekeeping (UK)

Journalist Nick Madrid finds himself up the proverbial creek—the Amazon—without a paddle when he’s dispatched to South America to report on a Rock Against Drugs tour.

As if monstrous spiders, piranhas, kidnapping and tiny, spiky fish that swim up a stream of urine to lodge where a man least wants a tiny, spiky fish to lodge aren’t enough, Madrid is drawn into the mystery of who is trying to kill the tour’s headlining, larger-than-life, pain-in-the-posterior rock megastar Otis Barnes.

Madrid soon discovers that the murdering queue forms on the left for Mr. Barnes. The question is: Can he prevent Barnes’ date with death at the final concert at Machu Picchu?

Peter Guttridge is the Royal Literary Fund writing fellow at the University of Southampton and teaches creative writing. His career was launched when he wrote a comic piece for a British magazine about his woeful experiences attempting to busk in New Orleans when he could neither sing nor play guitar. This same magazine sent him on a dizzying range of assignments, from going on a tour of Scandinavia with a rock band to performing as a male stripper in London’s Soho. He has written about music, film, literature and the comedy industry for The Times, The Guardian, The Telegraph, The Observer and The Sunday Times. He lives in Sussex on the edge of the South Downs National Park.

Guttridge's humor and sense of the absurd reach their zenith in South America.

Library Journal

Before arriving in Bogota, Colombia, to cover the Rock Against Drugs Tour, British journalists Nick Madrid (No Laughing Matter) and Bridget Frost, glaringly arrayed in Armani and a red cocktail dress, respectively, take a side jaunt to the Amazon River. Unfortunately, they are promptly kidnapped by guerillas (after Madrid has been robbed in the over-the-river outhouse). They quickly escape, however, then proceed to Bogot , where the lead rock singer-who happens to have stolen the guerilla leader's wife-receives death threats. Madrid stands in the middle of the subsequent uproarious action, comically brave, wryly self-deprecating, and head-shakingly naive. Highly recommended. Guttridge lives in Sussex, England. Copyright 2005 Reed Business Information.

Peter Guttridge is the Royal Literary Fund Writing Fellow at Southampton University and teaches creative writing. Between 1998 and 2002 he was the Director of the Brighton Literature Festival. Since 1998 he has been the mystery reviewer for The Observer, one of Britain's most prestigious Sunday newspapers. He lives in Sussex on the edge of the South Downs National Park.