Laurence Shames

Laurence Shames is best known for his series of comic mysteries, all set in Key West, Florida.^[1][2][3] One of his most popular books, however, Bad Twin, was written under the pseudonym Gary Troup, in a cross promotion between publisher Hyperion Books (now Hachette Books) and ABC, the network which produced the TV series, Lost. In Lost, Troup was a fictional character who was presumed dead in the airline crash that was the basis for the TV series, and he left a manuscript behind, leading viewers of the series to buy the book to find clues to the mysteries of Lost.^[4] Shames was the ghostwriter for the bestseller, Boss of Bosses,^[5] and was the Ethics columnist for Esquire.^[6]

Laurence Shames was born in Newark, New Jersey in 1951. He graduated from New York University in 1972. He now lives in Ojai, California.^[7]

Key West novels

• Florida Straits (1992)^[8]
• Scavenger Reef (1994)^[9]
• Sunburn (1995)^[10]
• Tropical Depression (1996)^[11]
• Virgin Heat (1996)^[12]
• Mangrove Squeeze (1998)^[13]
• Welcome to Paradise (1999)^[14]
• The Naked Detective (2000)^[15]
• Shot on Location (2013)
• Tropical Swap (2014)
• Chickens (short stories) (2014)
• Key West Luck (2015)
• One Strange Date (2017)^[16]
• One Big Joke (2018)
• Nacho Unleashed (2019)
• The Paradise Gig (2020)
• Key West Normal (2021)
• Relative Humidity (2023)
• Sunset Bluff (2024)

Others

• The Big Time: The Harvard Business School's Most Successful Class and How It Shaped America (The Class of 1949) (1986)^[17]
• Living Large: A Big Man's Ideas on Weight, Success, and Acceptance (with Michael S. Berman) (2006)^[18]
• The Angels' Share (2012)^[19]
• Not Fade Away: A Short Life Well Lived (with Peter R. Barton) (2004)^[20]
• The Hunger for More: Searching for Values in an Age of Greed (2015)^[21]