No homicides or explicit sex, but rated PG-13 for politically insensitive speech, poop jokes (and actual poop), maimings,...
Who does a New York City radio shock-jock well-known for his anti–PC invective call when he becomes the target of a stinky harassing campaign for which a long-moribund gay rights group claims responsibility? Gay Albany shamus Donald Strachey, of course, because the ties he had to FFF—the Forces of Free Faggotry—back in the 1970s will give him an inside track against those Forces threatening to besmirch Jay (“J-Bird”) Plankton’s pristine image. The only problems are (1) that FFF effectively disbanded 20 years ago—the few surviving members Strachey can find, equable New Jersey Amish farmer Thad Diefendorfer and ex-firebrand Kurt Zinsser, reborn as the neoconservative manufacturer of Woolly Llama Cheese, pooh-pooh the idea that their old chums could be involved—and (2) that whoever’s behind the nefarious plot doesn’t stay content with dirty tricks for long but rapidly escalates to kidnapping Leo Moyle, the J-Bird sidekick who specializes in gay-baiting, and then exchanging him for an even-higher-profile victim. Joining forces with tempting Thad to rescue the abductee with or without the help of New York’s most closeted, Strachey soon finds himself in over his head. The rollicking mystery isn’t up to much, but it does give Stevenson (Strachey’s Folly,1998, etc.) the chance for dozens of sharp digs, and a few more telling ruminations, about sexual-preference politics back in the last days before the 2000 elections.
No homicides or explicit sex, but rated PG-13 for politically insensitive speech, poop jokes (and actual poop), maimings, amputations, and the licentious and demeaning use of a tattoo gun.Pub Date: March 12, 2003
ISBN: 0-312-30974-0
Page Count: 224
Publisher: Minotaur
Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Jan. 15, 2003
A murder is committed in a stalled transcontinental train in the Balkans, and every passenger has a watertight alibi. But Hercule Poirot finds a way.
**Note: This classic Agatha Christie mystery was originally published in England as Murder on the Orient Express, but in the United States as Murder in the Calais Coach. Kirkus reviewed the book in 1934 under the original US title, but we changed the title in our database to the now recognizable title Murder on the Orient Express. This is the only name now known for the book. The reason the US publisher, Dodd Mead, did not use the UK title in 1934 was to avoid confusion with the 1932 Graham Greene novel, Orient Express.
Pub Date: Feb. 28, 1934
ISBN: 978-0062073495
Page Count: -
Publisher: Dodd, Mead
Review Posted Online: Sept. 20, 2011
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Feb. 1, 1934
The parts with Nero Wolfe, the only character Goldsborough brings to life, are almost worth waiting for.
In Archie Goodwin's 15th adventure since the death of his creator, Rex Stout, his gossipy Aunt Edna Wainwright lures him from 34th Street to his carefully unnamed hometown in Ohio to investigate the death of a well-hated bank president.
Tom Blankenship, the local police chief, thinks there’s no case since Logan Mulgrew shot himself. But Archie’s mother, Marjorie Goodwin, and Aunt Edna know lots of people with reason to have killed him. Mulgrew drove rival banker Charles Purcell out of business, forcing Purcell to get work as an auto mechanic, and foreclosed on dairy farmer Harold Mapes’ spread. Lester Newman is convinced that Mulgrew murdered his ailing wife, Lester’s sister, so that he could romance her nurse, Carrie Yeager. And Donna Newman, Lester’s granddaughter, might have had an eye on her great-uncle’s substantial estate. Nor is Archie limited to mulling over his relatives’ gossip, for Trumpet reporter Verna Kay Padgett, whose apartment window was shot out the night her column raised questions about the alleged suicide, is perfectly willing to publish a floridly actionable summary of the leading suspects that delights her editor, shocks Archie, and infuriates everyone else. The one person missing is Archie’s boss, Nero Wolfe (Death of an Art Collector, 2019, etc.), and fans will breathe a sigh of relief when he appears at Marjorie’s door, debriefs Archie, notices a telltale clue, prepares dinner for everyone, sleeps on his discovery, and arranges a meeting of all parties in Marjorie’s living room in which he names the killer.
The parts with Nero Wolfe, the only character Goldsborough brings to life, are almost worth waiting for.Pub Date: May 19, 2020
ISBN: 978-1-5040-5988-6
Page Count: 248
Publisher: Mysterious Press
Review Posted Online: March 1, 2020
Kirkus Reviews Issue: March 15, 2020
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