KLEIN, Daniel M(artin) 1939-

(Antony Amato, Daniella Martina)

PERSONAL:

Born April 20, 1939, in Wilmington, DE; son of David Xavier (a chemist) and Sophia (a teacher; maiden name, Posner) Klein; married Freke Quirine Vuijst, 1976. Education: Harvard University, A.B., 1961. Religion: Jewish.

ADDRESSES:

Home—P.O. Box 629, Great Barrington, MA 01230. Agent—Howard Morhaim, Morhaim Literary Agency, 11 John St., Ste. 407, New York, NY 10038.

CAREER:

Social worker and welfare worker in New York, NY, 1962-63; high school teacher in Boiceville, NY, 1963-64; television writer in New York, NY, 1963-65; freelance writer, 1965—.

WRITINGS:

NOVELS

Embryo, Doubleday (New York, NY), 1980.

Wavelengths, Doubleday (New York, NY), 1982.

Magic Time, Doubleday (New York, NY), 1984.

Beauty Sleep, St. Martin's (New York, NY), 1990.

Kill Me Tender: A Murder Mystery Featuring the Singing Sleuth Elvis Presley, St. Martin's (New York, NY), 2000.

Blue Suede Clues: A Murder Mystery Featuring Elvis Presley, St. Martin's (New York, NY), 2002.

Viva Las Vengeance: A Murder Mystery Featuring Elvis Presley, St. Martin's (New York, NY), 2003.

Such Vicious Minds, St. Martin's (New York, NY), 2004.

HUMOR

(With Lee Kalcheim) 101 Reasons for Not Having Sex, Price, Stern & Sloan (New York, NY), 1984.

(With Tom Cathcart) Macho Meditations, Avon (New York, NY), 1997.

(With Hans Teensma) Where's Elvis? Documented Sightings Prove That He Lives, Penguin (New York, NY), 1997.

(Under a pseudonym) Holy Mother, Three Rivers Press (New York, NY), 2002.

NONFICTION

(With Susan Haven) Seven Perfect Marriages That Failed, Stein & Day (New York, NY), 1975.

(As Antony Amato; with Katherine Edwards) Affair, Putnam (New York, NY), 1978.

(Ghostwriter) Dagmar O'Connor, How to Make Love to the Same Person for the Rest of Your Life, Doubleday (New York, NY), 1985.

(Ghostwriter) How to Put the Love Back into Making Love, Doubleday (New York, NY), 1989.

(Coauthor) Family Tales/Family Wisdom, Morrow (New York, NY), 1991.

(Ghostwriter) Tales from a Traveling Couch, Norton (New York, NY), 1995.

(Ghostwriter) Heavenly Bodies, Avon (New York, NY), 1998.

(Ghostwriter) Feel 30 for the Next 40 Years, Avon (New York, NY), 1998.

(Ghostwriter) Marathon Dad, Avon (New York, NY), 1998.

The Happily Ever After Handbook: 52 Things You Can Do to Freshen Up Your Marriage, Andrews McMeel (Kansas City, MO), 1999.

(With wife, Freke Vuijst) The Half-Jewish Book: A Celebration, Villard (New York, NY), 2001.

(As Daniella Martina) The Dating Compatibility Test, Citadel (New York, NY), 2001.

WORK IN PROGRESS:

More "Singing Sleuth" novels.

SIDELIGHTS:

Daniel M. Klein once told CA: "Somehow it took me until I was forty to write a novel and here I am at fifty at work on my fourth and actually making a living doing exactly what I've always wanted to do." Following a brief career as a social worker and then a high school teacher, Klein began writing for television and freelancing. His first two novels, Embryo and Wavelengths, are medical thrillers. Magic Time, his third novel, is based on Timothy Leary's initial experiments with psychedelic drugs in the early 1960s. Beauty Sleep, which a Publishers Weekly contributor deemed "spinechilling," is another medical thriller; its plot concerns the exposure of the La Douce cosmetic company, whose new luxury face cream, which turns average women into spectacular beauties, is actually made from the blood of supermodels held captive in secret hospitals. The Publishers Weekly reviewer enjoyed the novel's "overtones of Faust and Frankenstein" as well as its thought-provoking themes.

With Kill Me Tender: A Murder Mystery Featuring the Singing Sleuth Elvis Presley, Klein achieved a popular and critically acclaimed blend of mystery and popular culture. Rock idol Elvis Presley, who has just returned from Army service in Germany, discovers that the presidents of his Tennessee fan clubs, all teenage girls, are dying under mysterious circumstances. Determined to find out what is really going on, Elvis learns that the girls have all been poisoned and that he must stop the killer from murdering again. "Nothing seems forced or ridiculous" in the novel, wrote a contributor to Publishers Weekly, "so cleverly does Klein… use actual Elvis lore to serve his plot." And the characterization of Elvis, the reviewer added, is "irresistible."

Klein followed with Blue Suede Clues: A Murder Mystery Featuring Elvis Presley, which finds the pop icon in Hollywood. After being contacted by an incarcerated stuntman who claims he has been framed for murder, Elvis decides to investigate. A writer for Kirkus Reviews found Klein's Elvis "a surprisingly generic sleuth, with few quirks and little appeal," but a Publishers Weekly reviewer felt that "What intrigues most about Klein's treatment of the rock-and-roll icon… is the King's moral center." The reviewer added that Klein's honest writing "reminds us what made Presley the astonishing artistic force that he was."

Klein told Publishers Weekly interviewer Peter Cannon that he intends to continue with his Elvis series. "My idea is to keep moving the series forward," he said, "keeping it consistent with the major facts of Elvis's life."

In addition to his novels, Klein has also written humor books and other nonfiction, including The Half-Jewish Book: A Celebration, which he coauthored with his wife, Freke Vuijst.

BIOGRAPHICAL AND CRITICAL SOURCES:

PERIODICALS

Kirkus Reviews, December 15, 2001, review of Blue Suede Clues: A Murder Mystery Featuring Elvis Presley, p. 1725.

Library Journal, June 1, 1990, Joyce Smothers, review of Beauty Sleep, p. 179; March 1, 2002, Rex E. Klett, review of Blue Suede Clues, p. 144.

Los Angeles Times, June 1, 1984.

Los Angeles Times Book Review, October 10, 1982.

New York Times Book Review, February 8, 1981, May 13, 1984; July 22, 1990, Lewis Burke Frumkes, review of Beauty Sleep, p. 20.

Publishers Weekly, May 25, 1990, review of Beauty Sleep, p. 48; May 29, 2000, review of Kill Me Tender: A Murder Mystery Featuring the Singing Sleuth Elvis Presley, p. 55; May 29, 2000, Peter Cannon, "PW Talks with Daniel Klein," p. 55; August 28, 2000, review of The Half-Jewish Book: A Celebration, p. 76; February 25, 2002, review of Blue Suede Clues, p. 47.

ONLINE

MostlyFiction.com,http://mostlyfiction.com/sleuths/klein.htm (August 20, 2002), "Daniel Klein."