The Owl Taxi

A man running from his life stumbles into someone else's. That's the setup for this fizzy 1921 comedy of errors, one part mistaken identity and one part Manhattan murder mystery. Greg Parr was supposed to be on a ship to London, fleeing a recent humiliation. Instead, he's wearing a stranger's cap, driving a taxi called the Owl, and discovers a corpse in his backseat. The switch happened fast: a taxi driver named Hickey Meech offered to trade wheels for Greg's good suit, and Greg, reckless, heartsore, maybe a little unhinged, said yes. What follows is a delightfully tangled web. Greg becomes the driver he hired to be, picking up fares that lead him deeper into trouble. A dead man. Mysterious passengers. A city that feels both intimate and threatening. Footner writes with a light touch, making you laugh even as the body count rises. It's early noir with a comic instinct, a New York story about the strange freedom of becoming someone else. This is for readers who want their mysteries with a grin, who enjoy watching an ordinary man improvise his way through danger.