Customer Reviews

Columbo: The Hoffa Connection

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What happened? Columbo would be deeply saddened to read how his character has been so trivialized and packaged for sensational appeal. So much of this story is padded with solicitous sex and violence. What dose oral sex have to do with case? Do we need to read how some second-level victims are "blown apart" by a large caliber weapon? Who can't tell what the Hoffa connection is going to be from the very start? I was very disappointed in the handling of this. There is a very minimal story line to begin with and the superfluous verbiage just makes it more tedious. Mr. Harrington can do better than this. You don't have to print ANYTHING; wait until you have the kind of story line that was so evident in the original TV series. That's what brings in the interest. What we've been given is an overdose of rumpled fluff and all the references to semen, gore and peek-a-boo sex don't make this a hotter, more palatable bowl of chili.

Compared to his other 'Columbo' works, this is by far Harrington's worst. I never thought I'd see the day when I couldn't wait to finish a Columbo mystery just to finish it and get it over with, rather than for the finale where our hero normally breaks down the case and explains all. As it is in this one he explains bugger all and the 'Hoffa connection' is both ludicrous AND unnecessary. Top that with the fact that the Columbo we see in this book is so far removed from our beloved Columbo on TV that it looks like an entirely different detective PLUS the fact that one of the main characters, Mickey, switches from a last name of Newcastle to Newhouse with irritating regularity and you've got yourself a pretty lame effort... sorry!

this book is amazing although the title may be a little misleading. anyway, i found the book to be thoroughly entertaining. (i believe this is the first and only fictional account of jimmy hoffa, and it features our "dumb" cop columbo.) this may be the most "gangster-ish" case columbo has ever been involved in, and the story is definitely "gangster-land".

this series in NOT written as a historical who-done-it. 4 of the books use historical references, and it looks like 2 are pure fiction. but as always, whether reading or watching columbo... reading between the lines is good for your brain.

i hope somebody does a mrs. columbo series before she got divorced from mr. columbo.