Review by Booklist Review
The rousing return of Stanley Hastings in his fourteenth adventure finds the New York detective unwillingly vacationing at a New England B & B. Naturally, it's not long before one of the guests is murdered. As in the past, Hall both illuminates and parodies the private-detective formula. This time a local police chief turns every clue and circumstance on its ear until he appears to have made a fine case that Hastings is the murderer, assisted by his wife, the loquacious Alice. In a sly ending, Hastings uses both a cat and a Christie-style assemblage of all the suspects to solve the crime. One might quibble with a few particulars (a second murder never really makes much sense, even after the reason for it is disclosed), but like many a Christie mystery--or like Lawrence Block's Burglar in the Library (1997), in which another New Yorker, Bernie Rhodenbarr, solves a murder in a New England B & B--this one is so clever and so much fun that whodunit takes a backseat to the delicious style with which the tale is told. --Ilene Cooper
From Booklist, Copyright (c) American Library Association. Used with permission.
Review by Publisher's Weekly Review
Ingenious plotting and a hefty dose of humor offset an underlying silliness in Edgar and Shamus-nominee Hall's 14th novel featuring his New York City PI, Stanley Hastings (Detective; Murder; Blackmail; etc.). Stanley and his henpecking wife, Alice, slip away for a week's vacation in the New Hampshire mountains while their son, Tommie, goes off to his first sleep-away camp in Vermont. Unfortunately, after all his tiring hiking and less than romantic nights at the Blue Frogs Inn with its paper-thin walls, Stanley finds himself on a busman's holiday when two guests at the B and B are murdered. The first victim, gorgeous blonde Christine, is poisoned in the middle of the cocktail hour while sharing a booth with lean, handsome Lars her boyfriend (or is it husband?). Just a day or two later a nosy tourist, Mrs. McInnerny, is found in her room with a kitchen knife sticking out of her chest. Since Pinehurst, the local police chief, is incompetent, Stanley must take over the investigation. Eventually, a frisky dog and a dour cat come into the picture, not to mention blue frogs of every nature, particularly those on the guest-room doors. The coziness often verges on gooeyness, while the author makes no effort to convey the beauty of the mountain setting. The book's real strength is its plot, which has a certain crazed logic that will keep most readers turning the pages. The B and B chef's yummy recipes are also a plus. (July 1) FYI: Rights have been sold to France, Germany, Japan, and the U.K. (c) Copyright PWxyz, LLC. All rights reserved
(c) Copyright PWxyz, LLC. All rights reserved
Review by Library Journal Review
In his 14th outing, Stanley Hastings (Movie) and wife Alice vacation in New England but find themselves suspect when someone begins killing guests at their bed-and-breakfast. Caught without his usual New York police support group, Hastings must deal with the local chief. A good choice for most libraries. (c) Copyright 2010. Library Journals LLC, a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted.
(c) Copyright Library Journals LLC, a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted.
Review by Kirkus Book Review
Fortified by his two-volume sojourn among the Puzzle Lady and her neighbors in Bakerhaven, Connecticut (Last Puzzle and Testament, 2000, etc.), Hall plucks personal-injury shamus Stanley Hastings from Gotham's mean streets, where his clients are forever slipping and falling, and packs him off on vacation in bucolic New Hampshire, where the leading activities are hiking, dining, swimming, and murder. No sooner has Stanley caught attractive Christine Cobb, first glimpsed hiking in Champney Falls with her boyfriend Lars Heinrick, kissing Dartmouth busboy Randy Winthrop outside Blue Frog Pond, Randy's parents' B&B (though perhaps, as Stanley's wife Alice insists, it's really an inn), than she's fatally poisoned at dinner in front of half a dozen gossipy witnesses who didn't see a thing. After subjecting Stanley to interminable pages of cross-examination about what he saw in the dining room and how many times he and Alice got up from their table, plodding Chief Pinehurst arrests Florence Baker, whose marriage had fallen victim to one of Christine's earlier flirtations. But Stanley, noting the isolated setting, the genteel suspects, the incompetent cop, and the universal obsession with recipes (three of which are faithfully reprinted), accurately predicts that Max, the Blue Frog's resident cat, will solve the case. As always, Hall, though no very subtle parodist of the cozy whodunit, provides a smart pace and some gossamer fun. But the one-dimensional suspects and labored, inconsequential detection make Stanley's earlier adventures (Suspense, 1998, etc.) look downright substantial by comparison.
Copyright (c) Kirkus Reviews, used with permission.
