by Hal Ackerman

Available for: Kindle | NOOK | Apple

“Pot smokers, past and present, will best appreciate the fiction debut of UCLA theater professor Ackerman…”
—Publishers Weekly

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Download the beginning of Stein, Stoned by Hal Ackerman

A Harry Stein Soft-Boiled Murder Mystery!

In the sixties, Harry Stein was the foremost authority on cannabis; writing the book on indoor cultivation, inventing thirteen different hybrids, and planting “Victory Gardens” across America behind police precincts, legislature courtyards, and legendarily in the rose garden of the Nixon White House.

Flash forward to the 20th anniversary of John Lennon’s death and Stein is now employed by a “product liability re-insurance firm” and spending his 50th birthday counting a warehouse full of shampoo bottles. Although not the revolutionary of the future he once imagined himself to be, staying on the path of the straight and narrow allows Stein to keep that which he holds most precious in his life: joint custody of his teenage daughter, Angie. When Stein comes up 1,000 shampoo bottles short in his count and his investigations lead him to stumble upon the body of a brutally murdered supermodel, he is forced down a trail littered with old friends, new enemies, and one final journey into the world he long since left behind

PRAISE

“Just when you thought you’d seen everything in detective fiction, along comes P.I. Harry Stein, a shambling, abstaining dope connoisseur, trying to make a living and be a good father against the oddest of odds. This book is so funny, surprising, and compelling that, dare I say it, it practically gets you high. It’s Hal Ackerman’s first in what is sure to be a sensational series of Stein mysteries.”
—John Lithgow

“Harry fits comfortably into that delightfully comic line of slacker sleuths—a tradition that runs from the Fletch novels through Newton Thornburg’s 1976 cult classic Cutter and Bone and, of course, The Big Lebowski. The Dude abides with Harry Stein.”
—Booklist

“Pot smokers, past and present, will best appreciate the fiction debut of UCLA theater professor Ackerman…”
—Publishers Weekly

“The venerable Hal Ackerman’s Stein, Stoned is a knowing romp with enough nostalgia to make us all sigh for the noir of yesteryear and enough attitude to show that this terrific writer has all of his chops. This is great fun — a grab your hat pace even though we no longer wear the hats — and along the sweet twists and turns as well comes that old thing: the human heart.”
—Ron Carlson, author of The Signal

“Smart, witty, and wonderfully observed. But what really raises Stein,Stoned above the run-of-the-mill mysteries is the character of Harry Stein. Hal Ackerman has created a poignant, middle-aged Jewish hero worthy of Saul Bellow.”
—Loraine Despres, The Scandalous Summer of Sissy LeBlanc

“Riding along with Stein is like sprinting barefoot across the forest floor; there are twigs and brambles, poison oak and bear traps, and even the map may be lying to you. For Hal Ackerman, the real national pastimes are marijuana and murder, and he has turned the detective genre on its head and blown smoke in its face. This book does for the pot trade what Melville did for whaling.”
—Nicholas Griffin, screenwriter of Matchstick Men

“I can’t escape an abiding belief that Raymond Chandler and Damon Runyon are back in the writing business, sharing the pseudonym – Hal Ackerman. Stein, Stoned (Ackerman’s first book but definitely not his last), is an idiosyncratic mystery with more surprising twists and turns than an episode of Dancing with the Stars. And in Harry Stein (who seldom responds to or uses his first name), Ackerman has created a P.I. with an allegiance to the sixties (after all, he was a marijuana maven) who effortlessly links past and present brilliantly and satirically. Plus, Stein is the only detective I know who functions in current fiction as a DWF (Detective with Family). In a highly imaginative story of corporate malfeasance and murder, Stein spends equal time solving the mystery and resolving his relationship with his teenage daughter. All in all, a must read… from a writer capable of perfect prose and rollicking humor. “
—Leonard B. Stern, Creator and Executive Producer of McMillan and Wife, Get Smart and Co-Creator of Mad Libs

“With quirky characters, highly amusing dialogue, and an intricate web of clues, spies, old friends, new enemies and mischief, Ackerman’s debut novel pulses with real life. The author’s pleasure in reminiscing about the sixties is contagious; and mystery fans should delight in Harry Stein, an aging hippie, now an unlikely detective, as he stumbles through solving his first murder in this entertaining read.”
—Michele Samit, author of No Sanctuary, and the screenwriter of Uncaged Heart, Lethal Vows, and Maternal Instincts

“Legendary 60’s “hempecurian” Harry Stein and champion young pot cultivator Brian Goodpasture take you on an exotic trip to recover a stolen medical crop grown to relieve hospice patients. This exciting trip leads from the backwaters of Los Angeles to the cafes of Amsterdam’s Cannabis Cup competition. Hal Ackerman writes with the pen of one who has been in the thick of the drug war. His screenwriting skills are very apparent in this novel. You will visually see it, smell it, taste it. Hempsters! It is a trip you won’t want to miss.”
—Richard M. Davis, Curator USA Hemp Museum

Stein, Stung

by Hal Ackerman

Coming: March 2012

“Sly humor abounds in Ackerman’s second mystery featuring aging L.A. hippie Harry Stein.”–Publishers Weekly

Last time it was stolen weed and knockoff designer shampoo.  This time it is the seemingly trivial occurrence of a few pilfered honeybee colonies that propel former hippie and merry prankster, Harry Stein into the multi-trillion dollar world of the honeybee industry.  In the presence of six trillion bees to pollinate millions of acres of almond trees, Stein who is deathly allergic to bee stings, discovers the natural catastrophe of colony collapse, and a corrupt grab by organized AGROBIZ for all of the available water in Southern California.

In his absence, Harry’s daughter Angie and Lila’s very attractive 17 year-old Stepson find an elephant tusk that has seeped into Lila’s pool from the la Brea tar pits.  When the rest of the skeleton emerges, it turns out not to be the prehistoric mammoth they’d hoped it would be, but a human being who just might have been murdered in the 1920s The perpetrator of the 80 year-old murder is still alive and the most powerful man in Los Angeles and will do anything necessary to keep the secret hidden.

PRAISE FOR HAL ACKERMAN’S STEIN, STONED

“Just when you thought you’d seen everything in detective fiction, along comes P.I. Harry Stein, a shambling, abstaining dope connoisseur, trying to make a living and be a good father against the oddest of odds. This book is so funny, surprising, and compelling that, dare I say it, it practically gets you high. It’s Hal Ackerman’s first in what is sure to be a sensational series of Stein mysteries.”
—John Lithgow

“Harry fits comfortably into that delightfully comic line of slacker sleuths—a tradition that runs from the Fletch novels through Newton Thornburg’s 1976 cult classic Cutter and Bone and, of course, The Big Lebowski. The Dude abides with Harry Stein.”
—Booklist

“Pot smokers, past and present, will best appreciate the fiction debut of UCLA theater professor Ackerman…”
—Publishers Weekly

“Smart, witty, and wonderfully observed. But what really raises Stein,Stoned above the run-of-the-mill mysteries is the character of Harry Stein. Hal Ackerman has created a poignant, middle-aged Jewish hero worthy of Saul Bellow.”
—Loraine Despres, The Scandalous Summer of Sissy LeBlanc

“I can’t escape an abiding belief that Raymond Chandler and Damon Runyon are back in the writing business, sharing the pseudonym – Hal Ackerman. Stein, Stoned (Ackerman’s first book but definitely not his last), is an idiosyncratic mystery with more surprising twists and turns than an episode of Dancing with the Stars. And in Harry Stein (who seldom responds to or uses his first name), Ackerman has created a P.I. with an allegiance to the sixties (after all, he was a marijuana maven) who effortlessly links past and present brilliantly and satirically. Plus, Stein is the only detective I know who functions in current fiction as a DWF (Detective with Family). In a highly imaginative story of corporate malfeasance and murder, Stein spends equal time solving the mystery and resolving his relationship with his teenage daughter. All in all, a must read… from a writer capable of perfect prose and rollicking humor. “
—Leonard B. Stern, Creator and Executive Producer of McMillan and Wife, Get Smart and Co-Creator of Mad Libs