I have just finished reading The Uncertainty Principle?, an oddball detective novel (or maybe, as the text says, an "anti-detective novel,") by Robert Anton Wilson's longtime friend, D. Scott Apel. It is quite a wild ride, and I found it hard to stop reading. The hero is private investigator Alec Smart, there are I think three novels that feature him.
Several real people appear in the book under fictional names, including Robert Anton Wilson, Arlen Riley Wilson and Philip K. Dick. Here is one of the descriptions of the RAW character, "Timothy Aleister Finnegan,":
From my perspective, I stood facing an avuncular guy who couldn't be mistaken for anything other than a writer. He was middle-aged, a few inches shorter than my six feet, but well-matched with his wife. He had a large, round face which tapered down to a pointed gray goatee, and he wore his salt-and-pepper hair slicked straight back against his head. He looked like nothing so much as the unlikely offspring of a cherub and a satyr. He had an infectious smile, accentuated by laugh lines radiating around his sharp blue eyes. In those eyes was a hint of endearing devilishness; a touch of the Trickster. The cherub as confidence man. There's an old joke that says, "After you shake hands with him, be sure to count your fingers." I felt like if I counted mine now I might find six.
The Uncertainty Principle? is available as a paperback (about $15) and a Kindle ebook (about $1). I have published a couple of interviews with Scott, here is one.
