Donald Westlake writing as Samuel Holt: What I Tell You Three Times is False (USA 2006)

From the Publisher:
Sam Holt played TV-detective Jack Packard for five years, and he doesn't want to do it again. Not in a movie, not in dinner theater, not even in a commercial for the American Cancer Society. But his tough minded girlfriend ("It's not about you") has carried the day, and now he's stuck on an isolated island, hunting "clues" to a cancer cure alongside "Charlie Chan," "Miss Marple," and "Sherlock Holmes."

The script says they're doomed to failure (translation: Donate money to cancer research). And when a genuine murder crops up, their sleuthing isn't likely to be much more successful; after all, these folks are not famous detectives, they just play'em on TV. But with the cops cut off by a storm and a killer stalking the island, Holt and Co. must play detective for real.

When the "Holt" books first came out, in the mid-80s, critics raved about this "new" author's wit and style, not realizing that "Holt" was a pseudonym for one of the wittiest -- and savviest -- pros in the business, Donald Westlake.

Donald Westlake writing as Samuel Holt: What I Tell You Three Times is False. The 3rd Sam Holt Mystery. Felony & Mayhem, ISBN: 1933397551 (December, 2006), 241 p., $14.95.