![]() ![]() The McNally stories are always over the top but I think this time it is a bit much. Ty Beaumont wants Archy to see if it is really his dead twin's ghost. Connie has been dating a dashing Cuban and seems to be losing interest in Archy.Īt the same time the abandoned Beaumont house has been seen to have lights flickering in the windows. At the same time he hopes to make Connie his long-time girlfriend jealous. Archy has no trouble in securing a date, of course only to discuss the case. The problem is Archy is conked on the head and loses both the manuscript and the money and furthermore a man is found dead in the room where he had just concluded the deal.Įnter Georgia O'Hara, the beautiful cop in charge of the murder investigation. But either much sharper editing, or a plot with more complexity or more sustained action, was needed to salvage this book from being anything but an also-ran in the series.Īrchy McNally is hired to be the go-between for the wealthy collector Fortesque and the seller of Truman Capote's original manuscript of Answered Prayers. McNally is a character who continues to make for fun reading - had this been a 100-page novella, we'd rate this right up with the best. In many of the chapters, some competition to Connie (for Archy) in the form of state trooper Georgy O'Hara was about the only entertainment at hand. Trelawney, and Father himself - did little more than add conversational filler to that long stretch in the books mid-section. ![]() The usual cast of supporting characters - cop friend Al Rogoff law firm mail boy Binky Watrous Father's secretary Mrs. ![]() And the "romance" with Archy's girlfriend Connie Garcia, who has been actively dating a Miami Cuban, also tires as Archy tosses all book-long with what to do about her. A weak and almost useless sub-plot involving a long unoccupied mansion that has ghostly overtones was a pretty silly attempt to use up ink. Once the initial crime takes place - a murder that occurs while Archy is playing delivery boy and getting mugged for his efforts - and the three suspects and their version of the "facts" get aired, nothing advances the solution of the crime until near the end when it all gets wrapped up. Our trouble with this fourth Lardo outing is that all the action takes place in the first 40 and the last 40 pages of the book - leaving over 200 in between as pretty dry going. We'll also acknowledge up front we think Lardo has done a most credible job carrying on the qualities and personalities of the characters, as well as the tone and setting of these mysteries. We'll start by admitting we have immensely enjoyed the ten prior novels in the Archy McNally series - including the seven written by (or at least during the lifetime of) Lawrence Sanders, and the three prior to this one by Vincent Lardo for the Sanders' estate. A deficit of plot starves out the usual Archy McNally fun. ![]()
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