Created by Kirk Fox
Billed as a “dirtbag noir,” comedian Kirk Fox‘s first novel, Palmdale (2026), features two local private eyes from the high desert SoCal suburban shithole of the title who get tangled up in the murder of a wealthy heir, amidst enough criminal stupidity to fill an Elmore Leonard novel. Or at least a short story.
One night, two Guatemalan gardeners, recent immigrants with a shaky grasp of SoCal geography and neither one a candidate for MENSA, are hired to kidnap a wealthy heir, and end up dumping his body out in the high desert boonies of the Antelope Valley, at the northern edge of Los Angeles County.
Ooops!
And then they inadvertently get two local private eyes involved.
BILLY WEBER is twenty-four and seriously ambitious, trying to get her fledgling “Bureau of Security and Investigative Services” off the ground, but it’s a struggle. She’s striving to be professional, but when we first meet her, she’s fretting over having just spent $136.23 on new business cards.
But “It was worth it, she thought.”
Maybe if she keeps repeating it, she’ll even believe it.
And then a case that could really pay off comes her way. Only problem?
It’s also attracted the attention of JOE SOPERTON, another local PI. Joe is a bottom feeder, a grimy scam artist who drinks too much and isn’t exactly brimming over with scruples. Show him a corner, and he’ll cut it.
Suffice it to say that he and Billy don’t get along.
But what makes it even more difficult for Billy?
Joe is her father.
Still, with big bucks in the offing, the two reluctantly team up to crack the case. If they don’t kill each other first.
The characters are a hoot, and drive the story along. It’s a fun debut, especially since I actually live in Palmdale. Which, perhaps not surprisingly, doesn’t come off so well.
Still, I hope there’s a return visit…
ABOUT THE AUTHOR
Born in San Diego, very tall Kirk Fox is a comedian and actor (Forgetting Sarah Marshall, Wyatt Earp, Parks and Recreation, Reservation Dogs, etc.) and was at one time Clint Eastwood’s son-in-law. He was also — according to one online bio — a former tennis instructor and private investigator. Although he later explained to the New York Post, “Everyone I was teaching tennis to wanted me to look into something, so you can call it whatever you want… so, I think at the end of the day, we’re all private investigators. I don’t know anyone that’s not investigating something.”
Palmdale is his first novel, and that may just be him on its cover. Sure looks like him…
UNDER OATH
- “I thought this was very well done, and believe me I wanted to hate it.”
— David Spade
NOVELS
- Palmdale (2026) | Buy this book | Kindle it!
FURTHER INVESTIGATION
- At Least Palmdale…
A Place to Call Home
Respectfully submitted by Kevin Burton Smith.
