I have three well reviewed novels (and counting) in two different series. Please check them out below & in the links – longer excerpts/previews on Amazon, and Amazon Prime people get a deal on the Kindle versions!
And please leave Amazon reviews of your own! Thanks in advance.
Phigg & Clyde Save Breakfast
The first entry in the new YA scifi adventure series!
And since it’s written by yours truly, expect that special brand of Wagstaffian humor throughout! That way, kids and grownups can all enjoy it.
Phigg & Clyde are sister and brother. Phigg solves every puzzle. Clyde can build and fix anything.But all of history has changed! Breakfast has turned into garbage! Can they solve the puzzle of time and fix it?It’s usually Uncle Phineas’ job to travel through history and fix the timelines – but he’s been kidnapped! Without him, Phigg & Clyde must use The Watcher to put history right again. And evil forces within the timesphere have plans of their own – for all of history and especially for Phigg & Clyde…Join them as they journey across thousands of years, all around the world, saving what you love to eat! Recipes Included! Taste along!
That’s right – two smart little kids must learn to be Timekeepers like their Uncle Phineas – guardians of the proper timelines of history! Evil forces have changed the course of history by destroying what we’re supposed to be having for breakfast. Only Phigg & Clyde can put things right again by saving the invention of everything from cereal to the microwave oven to dim sum as they travel all over the world all across time!
Tag along with ’em to find out where everything in your kitchen came from, and pick up some recipes from foods across the world & time.
Just don’t let the Timegoblins or their evil master trick you or trap you somewhere in the past. After all, they have very special plans for Phigg and Clyde…
With wonderful illustrations by Elinor Shapiro, who also did the cover.
In this fantasy, Berkin (Cut to Wagstaff, 2012) forges humor and intellect into quite a sharp narrative. His employment of time-travel motifs is sometimes goofy, like the dwarfish Timegoblins, who eat vital artifacts and bring chaos to history. Other devices, like quantum linkage, help the siblings borrow their appearances “from alternate versions” of themselves, and introduce young readers to a complicated scientific field. Gastronomic themes also prevail, as time disturbances focus on the invention of the microwave in 1946; the creation of hot sauce in Louisiana in 1868; and the first baking of bread in ancient Egypt. The author offers young and older readers excellent wisdom: “Our world” is “an ongoing experiment of the dreams, ideas, successes and failures of billions of minds.” Timegoblin antics ensure an irresistible sequel. – Kirkus Reviews
Get Your Copy On Amazon By Clicking Here!
Wagstaff & Meatballs
The second entry in the Professor Wagstaff mystery series!
On his way back to Providence for a college reunion weekend, Wagstaff saves the life of an art professor who turns out to be the son of a longtime Rhode Island Mafia chief. From there, our mix of Sherlock, Bond and Groucho concocts a trail through feuding mob factions, old college friends and rivals, a long lost Caravaggio masterpiece, and the ecstasies of Rhode Island cuisine. As bodies begin to pile up, Wagstaff realizes the stakes are higher than who will run the local bookmaking rackets, and the flirtations from the Don’s daughter might literally be playing with fire… which means, once again, it’s time for another edition of “You Bet Your Life!”
High-spirited, high-stakes mayhem fills every page; there are nonstop scrapes and chases, wise-guy jokes, and references to everything from The Gong Show to Star Trek, The Godfather, and even the 1990 film The Freshman. Berkin’s story is preposterous and his leading man improbable—but the novel’s endearing goofiness makes this a winning combination. Film buffs will love spotting the various movie references (and Wagstaff’s disquisition on Alfred Hitchcock’s Rear Window), while action fans will find plenty here to raise their heart rates. Readers shouldn’t read this book while hungry, though, as Wagstaff’s most intense nostalgia is for Rhode Island cuisine—all described in detail that will leave readers drooling.
Wacky, worldly Wagstaff is a winner. - Kirkus Reviews
Order Your Copy on Amazon Here! (Paperback or Kindle)
Order Your Copy From Barnes & Noble Here!
Cut To Wagstaff
Professor Wagstaff – freelance intelligence agent, true Renaissance man, insouciant socially spastic pain in the ass – believes the universe reveals its hidden truths to him and him alone via pop culture Jungian synchronicities. He then creates his own missions accordingly.
The subplots to the over-arching narrative of the universe are all around us. That song playing over the speakers in a restaurant, the face of a stranger reminding you of an actor in an old movie, the dream about a television show you had last night… all become driving clues for Wagstaff, sending him on his way to solve mysteries, murders, and even save the world! And of course, living up to his Groucho Marx inspired code name spouting nonstop irreverence. For Wagstaff, there are no accidents. There are no coincidences. There are only set-ups for punch lines.
Those boutique off-the-books psy-ops will employ anyone these days.
In this first of the series, one of Wagstaff’s colleagues goes missing, taking Wagstaff down a trail of not-so-coincidental coincidences that lead to stolen diamonds, missing lady scientists, accidents that look more like murders and a secret plot to take over the brains of everyone on Earth. Wagstaff follows the narrative he concocts in his unique mind combining synchronicities only he can see from The Third Man, Diamonds Are Forever, Rigoletto and a little David Bowie. Is a reclusive billionaire hot dog magnate behind the murders? Or are larger sinister forces involved? Wagstaff’s old flame keeps turning up wherever the clues lead… is that because a Groucho always needs a Margaret Dumont to play off of … or is she more involved than she’s telling? Wagstaff knows better than anyone that there are no such things as coincidences.
“Berkin pulls out all the stops; no big screen moment is lost in this tale.
A quirky conglomeration of popular culture that’s worth the price of admission.” — Kirkus Reviews
“This book is nothing like anything I have ever read. I really enjoyed the writing and personality of Professor Wagstaff, the very intriguing plot, and the hard to put down suspense! There was NO way to tell how this book was going to end, kudos to the author for the suspenseful twists and turns.”
Order It In Paperback or Kindle on Amazon! (Read A Preview Here!)
Jim Berkin 