Well, not every FFB can be a winner. I picked this one up to read because of my affection for the Carleton Carpenter duet on "Aba Daba Honeymoon" in the movie Two Weeks with Love. I've had this and several other mystery novels by Carpenter on my shelves for many years, but I'd never looked inside them. It's just as well. Check out the description on the cover: "Death was a superstar in a Broadway horror show. A novel of shattering suspense!" I beg to differ.
The only suspense here is when someone will finally murder the execrable "producer" who's trying to mount a Broadway show. And after the murder, amateur sleuth and Hairdresser to the Stars Chester Long does precious little sleuthing. Like almost none. This is one of those novels in which the crime is solved in the in with a big coincidence and everything gets blurted out. As an aside, the cover doesn't represent anything in the book. The producer's strangled (and maybe ODs), but he's not shot.
That being said, the writing is breezy throughout, and there's plenty of backstage stuff about mounting a show, the kind of thing that makes for appealing reading. I'm glad I read it, but I won't be picking up any more Carpenter books to read, I'm afraid.
3 comments:
I have three or four of his books around here somewhere. I guess I won't make an effort to dig them out.
Just the cover would have kept me from buying it.
I second Richard's motive.
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