Blue Heaven

Written by one of the head writers of Frasier, this novel relocates Wodehouse/Evelyn Waugh-style hijinks to upper-class Manhattan homes, featuring an ebullient cast of loud and proud characters all scheming and scamming to get what they want.

It's about four friends who get caught up in ill-fated attempt to scam a Mafia family by faking a marriage and absconding with the cash and gifts that the prospective in-laws will shower on the lucky couple. The effervescent plot is high concept and ludicrous, involving Mafia politics, blackmail, transvestitism, funding a Broadway production, the cologne business, seduction and building to a knowingly contrived climax where flowers and bullets clash in the wedding of the social calendar.

Keenan, known for his multi-layered episodes of Frasier, constructs a tale that hinges on pomp, circumstance and coincidence, but fills it with such style and wit that the reader is sold into this world.

The camaraderie and interplay between the two lead characters, Gilbert and Phillip is hilarious with their over-knowing about each other's lives, natural one-upmanship and subtle unrequited love for each other. The book builds and builds from set piece to catastrophe before finally reaching the potentially disastrous wedding day. Consistently laugh-out loud funny.