![]() Apparently, he has all kinds of affairs with various members of the fair sex, but seems to have settled on one particular member of that class with whom he is out of favor during this entire book, only to get back together with her at the end. His affectations are legion, from his dress style(s), to his pompous, affected speech, and related witticisms. He now works, with no credentials, as a kind of para-legal/private detective for his father's law firm. He apparently got ejected from Harvard Law School (or was it Yale? No matter.), for unspecified reasons. The main character, Archy McNally, is a self-indulgent offspring of a rich lawyer. ![]() I think the whole book is intended to be satire. I've read a number of other Lawrence Sanders' novels, but this one was very different from the others. I had been told by the merchant the calligraphy could be translated as: 'May you have a happy life.' But I suspected it meant, 'Suffer, you miserable schlub,' or some other invidious imprecation." Marginal recommendation, only for the prose. Ornate prose rules until the end of the story - who cares about the plot and denouement when one can read: "I donned a new pongee robe embroidered with Chinese characters. The cliché persona of Binky is almost balanced by the presence of parrots and by the author's attention to all "matters psittacine," (check it out in a dictionary!) The beginning pages are wonderful to read: "I occasionally suffer an attack of the guilts and have found the best cure is a good night's sleep, when a mambo with Morpheus dilutes crass behavior to impish mischief." Alas, quite early in the story "the King of Duncedom", Binky Watrous, makes his entrance into the plot, which made me groan 'Ugh.' To me, Binky's presence in a story significantly reduces its readability. Gottschalk, requests precisely such a discreet inquiry as he fears someone has been trying to kill him. Yet this is only a teaser and Archy's distinguished father, the head of the firm, gives Archy - who's in charge of 'discreet inquiries' - a new job. I need to add that - true to Archy's common modus operandi - the retrieval is achieved after seducing the thief and consummating a short affair with her. In this installment we meet the intrepid and suave Archy as he retrieves - 'steals back' would be a more proper term - a valuable baseball card from an ex-wife of McNally law firm's client. Sanders' death, and one day I will find courage to try one of the "posthumous" novels. Vincent Lardo continued the series after Mr. (One cannot be sure about the authorship: the seven McNally novels are so much better than most other works by the author who used Lawrence Sanders' name that it is hard to imagine they were all written by the same person.) Mr. But boohoo! McNally's Puzzle (1996) is the last Archy McNally novel written by the original author, signed as Mr. I love reading this kind of prose, ornate, flowery, full of circumlocutions, puns, and even clever spoonerisms. But that I realized was an ignoble snivel and so, as the Reverend Spooner might say, I lirded my groins and phoned the Gottschalk residence." I was tempted to delay a confrontation with Peter Gottschalk to another day. " We all have our wonts, do we not, and one of mine is to dither when faced with a difficult decision. It was almost as if the author was running out of paper and had to get it ended then and now. ![]() The villain tried to kill Archy in the end and it just didn't make sense that that is what would happen. ![]() The only niggle was that it was summed up too fast. The plot was funny in parts and had a satisfying number of twists. He needs to be kicked to the curb but not for this reason. His girlfriend, Connie is nowhere to be seen this time as she is mad at Archy for thinking 'dirty' thoughts. ![]() The first 25 pages were the same as the other books in the series. To round out the menagerie there is the housekeeper who could organize the military and the manager of the bird shop who makes Archy look slovenly. The son and heir is mentally unstable and the twin daughters are very twisted and not at all nice. The Gottschalk are to say it mildly dysfunctional. He can not contact the police because there are no definite threats. Wealthy bird shop owner, Hiram Gottschalk feels his life is threatened. ![]()
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