Suspense, excess, danger, and exuberant fun come together in Chuck Barris's unlikely autobiography- the tale of a wildly amboyant '70s television producer nationally known as the host of The Gong Show. What most people don't know is that Barris also spent close to two decades as a decorated covert assassin for the CIA, claiming to have killed over thirty people. Honestly. Barris, who achieved tremendous success as the creator of the hit game shows The Dating Game and The Newlywed Game, joined the CIA as an agent in the early 1960s. He inltrated the Civil Rights movement, met with militant Muslims in Harlem, and was sent abroad to kill enemies of the American state, even as his game shows began to soar to ratings success. Originally published in 1982, Confessions of a Dangerous Mind has been out of print for a number of years, but interest in Barris is about to reach an all-time high, with a major movie based on the book coming from Miramax Films in December 2002. The all-star cast includes Sam Rockwell, Julia Roberts, George Clooney, Brad Pitt, and Drew Barrymore. Barris will be covered extensively in the media this fall. Confessions of a Dangerous Mind is a wild and improbable tale spiced with intrigue, sex, bad behavior, and plenty of one-liners....

Art Deco Jr. is heir to a vast fortune, scion of one of America's most powerful men -- Art Deco Sr. -- though by the time we meet him in these pages, Art has fallen into a life of depravity: booze, drugs, you name it. The Deco family is almost too embarrassed to acknowledge him as their own. And by the time Art is found shot dead in his elegant Manhattan apartment, there is a long list of friends and family who may have wanted to kill him -- so the police have their work cut out for them.

NYPD detectives Eddie Roach and Jackie Hallerhan are up against a wall when private investigator Jimmy Netts is called on the case by Art Deco Sr. His first case, no less! Netts teams with the NYPD (mostly because he's not exactly sure how to go about solving crimes, much less understands the procedure, and doesn't have a detective's license) to find out who killed poor Art Jr. It could be just about anyone.

As a storyteller, the infamous Chuck Barris is the blackest comedian there is. As a satirist, his is a wickedly razor-sharp voice. The deadpan dialogue, investigative snafus, crime drama parody, and cast of hilarious characters in Who Killed Art Deco? bring to mind an unholy combination of Agatha Christie and the Pink Panther, with just a dash of Homicide. This is a dark and delightfully funny book from an equally, delightfully, troubled mind....

Good killers are hard to find. But the CIA has no trouble finding the legendary TV producer and game show king Chuck Barris. In Bad Grass Never Dies, Barris picks up the fast-paced intrigue in Hollywood, where his emotional life lies in ruins, his career careens out of control, and he can't get a break anyplace he turns. Then one day a high-ranking CIA boss appears unannounced on Barris' doorstep. The CIA needs the cooperation of a Mexican terrorist, and Barris is ordered to recruit the killer as a paid assassin. Complicating matters is the fact that this same assassin is responsible for the death of two of Barris' fellow operatives. What's to prevent him from facing the same fate on arrival in Mexico? Barris' beguiling humor and a crack-shot taxi driver hold the answer. The stakes continue to build in this eagerly awaited sequel from the author who dazzled and amused readers-and later movie audiences-with the publication of his first book of memoirs, Confessions of a Dangerous Mind....