Friday, March 10, 2017

FFB: The Death Ride -- Neil MacNeil (W. T. Ballad)

Sometimes you just need to read a slick Gold Medal book.  The Death Ride fills the need.  Tony Costaine and Bert McCall are called in to look into a series of deadly accidents at an amusement pier.  They're a pair of seemingly mismatched p.i.'s who are as smart as they are slick, but this time they have a lot of trouble getting a handle on what's going on.  I lost count of the bodies.  There were a lot.  A heck of a lot.

The pier's hampering the development of some exclusive property.  A brother and sister are on opposing sides, and a good deal of money is involved.  So is a lot of drinking.  There's a lot of everything in this book.  There's also a picture of a time when a roller coaster going off the track and killing nine people not only doesn't shut down the park but it doesn't even slow down the attendance at the pier.  There's even a guy doing Sidney Greenstreet doing Kasper Gutman. 

The Costaine/McCall books aren't top shelf Gold Medal, but they're close enough: very well done and a good evening's entertainment.

2 comments:

George said...

You're right about the need to read a Gold Medal paperback every so often. Good choice!

Mathew Paust said...

By gad, sir, you are right. Sometimes you just need to read a slick Gold Medal book. Yes indeed!