Customer Reviews

From Crime to Crime: Mind-Boggling Tales of Mystery and Murder

5 star:		(20)
4 star:		(0)
3 star:		(0)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

Dennis Palumbo will have most reader's hooked from page one of each murder mystery. Move over Agatha Christie and Edgar Allen Poe, there is a modern writer who has nudged his way into the murder mystery genre. This author is dynamite! In his own inimitable humorous and wry writing style, Palumbo introduces the reader to a group of men, called "the Smart Guys Marching Society" (Smart Guys) who meet once a month, for socialization, food and drinks and most importantly to solve a "mysterious murder". It all began on a lazy Sunday as the men, their wives and families were barbecuing in the Hollywood Hills ...

The Smart Guys began discussing world events, healthcare and politics ... then Uncle Isaac, a distant relative of Dennis's wife joined the group. The conversation drifted to unexplained phenomenon until it settled on the the unsolved murder of Tommy Slick, a small time hoodlum, who in the past had killed a cop. It was the bizarre circumstances of Tommy's death, or rather murder that was baffling. Sargeant D'Amato had been trailing Tommy for a long time, unable to catch him breaking the law. He had a score to settle, it was D'Amato's partner that Tommy had killed. D'Amato interviewed Carla, Tommy's girlfriend, trying to get some leads. She was willing to talk because Tommy had been cheating on her. D'Amato always carried a knife on him, even though it was against regulations, everyone looked the other way. Mark, a journalist and one of the Smart Guys, along with Carla, Tommy's girlfriend, trailed along on a raid of Tommy's establishment. Carla had ratted out Tommy's location. The bizarre circumstances were that it was D'Amato's knife that was found in Tommy's body. Tommy had been stabbed to death, despite D'Amato not being near the victim. Tommy was holed up in a closet, at the time of the ambush. It turns out, Carla had run up to Tommy's body after he fell out of the closet, found the knife in Tommy and tried stabbing D'Amato with his own knife ... The Smart Guys discussed the different possibilities of how this murder could have occurred but it was Uncle Isaac who magically nailed the likely details of "whodunit" and how. The cops working Internal Affairs and Homicide had not a clue, so Mark the journalist, called Vince the cop who worked this case, to inform him of the plausible scenario proposed by Uncle Isaac.

Primarily, it is the author's writing style and uniquely intriguing murder mysteries which keeps this reader hooked, wanting more. Each story is genuinely interesting and contains a special twist or turn, with clues presented throughout as suspense is built, until the unexpected climax and conclusion. His off beat sense of humor and choice of words is totally captivating and mesmerizing. Here are a few samples of writing which made this reader admire the author, gasp or laugh out loud.
p. 51 "I'm tellin' ya, it's gotta be the most dead-a$$, dried out piece of real estate I've ever seen. Like Mayberry on life support, ya know what I mean?
p. 71 "I was suddenly aware of the scent of her perfume. How different from the usual aroma of beer, burnt popcorn, and half-eaten burritos that usually permeated a meeting of the Smart Guys."
p. 131 "To be honest it was pathetic, four middle-aged married men, gawking like awestruck teenagers as Lisa gracefully pulled up a chair. Tanned and glistening, she had the warm smile of a beauty contestant and the gym-toned body of a fitness model." These are mere appetizers. All the stories are mysterious, unusual, fascinating and a fun reading experience. Erika Borsos [pepper flower]

There is always reason to celebrate whenever Dennis Palumbo breaks away from his busy psychotherapy practice in Los Angeles to crank out thoughtful essays on writing, or, in this case, to introduce us to the members of The Smart Guys Marching Society in this wonderful new collection of mystery short stories. For those of us who grew up on Ellery Queen and Alfred Hitchcock Presents, Palumbo strikes a familiar chord with these armchair detectives -- four regular guys who meet weekly to solve the great problems of the world, but end up solving mysteries instead.

As noted in the Introduction, this style of mystery writing dates all the way back to Poe and has been reinvented over the years from Agatha Christie to Issac Asimov. Palumbo hardly breaks new ground with his characters, but that's part of the joy of these stories. We all know the formula, but Palumbo gives us fresh characters and new problems to solve. Once you start a story, you stay with it, wanting, of course, to know whodunit, seeing if you can outguess The Smart Guys.

"Body of Evidence" and "Freud Slept Here" were my two favorite stories in The Smart Guys section. Three other short mysteries are added at the end and I absolutely loved "A Theory of Murder," which features the detecting of a young patent official named Einstein. This story has all the makings of a separate mystery novel and I would encourage the author to explore that option.

No gunplay here. No damsels in distress. No violence. It's all in the mind as four ordinary guys try to solve complex mysteries they stumble across, always to be guided by Issac who somehow seems to know it all. Bravo to Dennis Palumbo. Be sure to share this book with any friends or book clubs who enjoy a good mystery. I hope to see further adventures in future books.

This is a welcome update to the armchair detective genre, particularly for those of us who grew up on the tales written by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle and Agatha Christie. The added bonus for readers who tag along with the Smart Guys Marching Society is the ability to participate in the deliberations with contemporaries -- the type of guys we can see ourselves hanging out with. A most enjoyable read. The book also showcases Dennis Palumbo's great versatility as a writer. Whether he is writing for the screen, for the writer to help him improve his craft, or for his fellow psychologists, Palumbo is always a pleasure to read.

The author openly follows the form used by Isaac Asimov in his "Black Widowers" series of stories and pulls it off as well as the great Asimov. Palumbo's group of married men is immodestly titled "Smart Guys Marching Society" and they meet on a regular basis on Sunday afternoons and it is stag. Not by design, it is just that their spouses found their conversations too annoying to tolerate. They are extremely opinionated and eat and drink like it is their only full meal of the week.
In Asimov's stories, the primary solver of the puzzle is the waiter Henry, an extremely intelligent man with great pride in his talents as a waiter. Palumbo uses "Uncle Isaac", a relative of the narrator that is called "Uncle" because no one can figure out exactly what the familial connection is. Isaac is a man that has worked at many jobs and two of his greatest pleasures are drinking tea and reading mystery stories, including ones by Agatha Christie and Isaac Asimov. Calling this character Isaac was a nice touch and I commend Palumbo for it.
Most of the stories revolve around a mystery that appears unsolvable, after it is factually presented, there appears to be no logical or plausible explanation for the situation. After the primary group tosses it around and ends up at what seems to be a dead end, Isaac calmly states the solution, which is obvious once it is voiced. The final three stories involve other characters, with the last featuring a young Albert Einstein when he was an unknown patent clerk.
In this book, Palumbo demonstrates he is a superb writer, openly stating that he is mimicking a style used by a master and then doing it as well as the master did. The stories are engaging and so modern, the men suffer from some of the angst so common in modern men yet they demonstrate that they do have brains and can use them, even when their primary goal seems to be eating everything in sight. Isaac is a character in both the fictional and emphatic sense; I hope Palumbo continues to write stories featuring this group.

Henry James once observed, "there are few hours in life more agreeable than the hour dedicated to the ceremony known as the afternoon tea." Agatha Christie sinisterly subverted that very British indulgence into the "tea cozy," a genre of murder mystery presided over by her alter egoist Miss Marple, who solved baffling crimes while sipping in her settee in the Tuesday Night Club. In "From Crime to Crime" Dennis Palumbo has now mutated the armchair mystery into an entertaining new Los Angeles-set genre--the beer, chips and guacamole cozy.
A group of middle-aged married men--a journalist, a lawyer, and an actor--gather in the game room of the San Fernando Valley home of the fourth, a therapist who is the narrator of these exercises in deduction. They sardonically dub themselves the Smart Guys Marching Society, but in truth the only action is confined to spreading Cheese Whiz on a cracker or jousting for the assorted cold cuts. In each of the nine Smart Guys stories a mystery is presented ranging from the classic locked room to a the murder of a comic whose dying words are, `Take my wife..."
Deduction is apparently hungry work, and smarties Mark, Fred, Bill, and a kibitzer, the narrator's mutton-chopped uncle Isaac, continuously nosh on peanuts, leftover Christmas cookies, chili, cheese platters, onion dip and potato chips, eggplant appetizer on sesame crackers, and crab wonton with apricot glaze and quaff brewskis while laying out the facts in evidence. Copies of "From Crime to Crime" should carry a cautionary label from Weight Watchers.
On occasion there is a change of venue to the conference room at LAPD headquarters in the case of "Time Served" with an appropriate change in menu to chocolate donuts and coffee in paper cups, then to a 40-foot yacht in Los Angeles harbor in "Body of Evidence" with hors d'oeuvres and pina coladas, and a Beverly Hills restaurant in "Freud Slept Here" with a celebratory dinner and a choice of lobster, filet mignon, or prime ribs accompanied by a fine Merlot.
But the fun and format remain constant. Between mouthfuls all the clues of each case have been laid out, and the game is for the reader to put the pieces of the puzzle together before wise old uncle Isaac drinks up, leans back, puts his fingertips together, and solves the mystery. "From Crime to Crime" is a very pleasant entertainment, an escape from the fiction of nightmare-churning sexual psychopaths and grisly autopsy procedurals. It is notable that Palumbo in the past has written stories for the Ellery Queen Magazine. Uncle Isaac is Palumbo's Ellery Queen, the most cerebral of sleuths.
The volume is capped by a trio of three brief, classically structured stories, finishing with "A Theory of Murder" solved by a young Swiss patent clerk named Albert Einstein in 1904, between bites of steaming sausage rolls.

###

Dennis Palumbo makes his Smart Guys Marching Society's Sunday afternoon get-togethers something I want to join... and I'm a girl. Each chapter could be a 'stand alone'... but I found this book one I couldn't put down! The characters are so vivid I feel like I know them. I'd like to adopt Isaac as MY uncle!

I read few mysteries and hadn't actually heard of the genre "armchair mysteries" per se, but this book of short armchair mysteries is a pleasure to read. The group of men who gather to philosophize and, oh by the way, solve a murder mystery every so often, seems very real. All in all, a pleasing combo of rough-and-tough realism (the language, the crimes, the Los Angeles settings) and quirky subthemes. A nice change of pace from heavier fare.

Dennis Palumbo hits this one out of the park. I've rarely been so immediately pulled into a collection of mysteries as quickly as I was by Crime to Crime. The characters in the Smart Guys Marching Society are so naturally and beautifully drawn you'd think the author was a master calligrapher. The dialogue does such a fast and funny pinball bounce that I wouldn't dare take a break for fear of missing the next great line as the plot speeds forward with an enviable rhythm and flow. And the setup for solving these crimes, with beloved Isaac at the lead (boy, could I use an Isaac in my life!) is one of the most enjoyable approaches to crime solving I have ever read. Okay, best part last: every story is so thoroughly inventive that I couldn't wait to read the next one, though I knew I had little chance of solving the crime myself. This book made me absolutely delighted to be mistaken! Pick it up and read it - you'll see.

"From Crime to Crime" is in the Sherlock Holmes school of crime fiction -- when something is askew in the world, it takes a truly observant detective, schooled in human psychology and scientific logic to make it right. The joy in these stories comes from that moment when the inexplicable is explained. Whether prime numbers or a century-old poem is the clue, there is always an answer, and the reader delights in the deft and trustworthy characters (be they members of "The Smart Guy Society" or Albert Einstein himself) explaining to us precisely what, how and why something has gone horribly wrong. In a marketplace full of crime stories that are gritty, dark and seem to dwell on what is vacant and irredeemable about our society, "From Crime to Crime" is full of stories determined to make order out of chaos -- that any smart guy with logic and observation truly can save the world. This was an absolute joy to read -- truly engaging, entertaining and pleasurable.

A terrific read from start to finish. Loved these tales by Dennis Palumbo. Not only are the stories interesting puzzles to solve-- "Okay, Isaac, what do you think?" which allows the reader to participate fully in solving the crime given the clues presented--they are also great fun to read. The characters have unique voices and the stories are laced with a lot of humor. I can't imagine anyone not enjoying these short stories. Better yet, I challenge anyone to just read one of them and stop. I couldn't put this book down. It's that addicting. Bravo, Dennis! Loved your book.