Customer Reviews

Columbo : The Grassy Knoll

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3 star:		(1)
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I believe that Columbo is the best character in the history of television and I was delighted to learn that there is a mystery series with him as the leading character. The Grassy Knoll involves the murder of a talk show host/investigative reporter who made many enemies by exposing embarrassing and incriminating acts. One of the stories he was preparing involved new evidence concerning the assassination of President Kennedy, and this may or may not have been a motive for his murder. As in all Columbo episodes, we know whodunit and the question is where did he or she slip up and how will Lt. Columbo catch him or her. But in this book motive is also a mystery. We know who and how but we don't know why--not until the end, which also features an interesting fictional twist to the story of the assassination. I loved this book. The character of Columbo rang true to me and I'm sure his many fans will enjoy it as much as I did.

i've read the other reviews but went and bought this book anyway. the book is great. it reads like the tv show, and could have been an episode. it actually gets into columbo's mindset more than a tv show could without that show becoming boring. i'm currently buying the other books in the series, and would recommend these to any fan of the dumb, devious cop. it's an awesome premise to stake columbo's wits against some of america's most baffling acts of society, and the way this first book unfolds, it's a story within a story. what else should it be?

The book successfully makes the jump from tv to novel. If you know Columbo (Peter Falk!) then you'll hear his voice throughout the book. If you don't, this is still a pretty good mystery novel, although, as a mystery per se, it is a little lacking. i.e., the Columbo tie-in makes this work, where it wouldn't really "click" on its own. Faint praise? No, because the tv tie-in really is the whole point here, and that part succeeds very well indeed.