Customer Reviews

Die Laughing

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

 

 

Steve Allen is an extraordinary man. His achievements in television comedy, educational tv, and songwriting have made him a hou sehold name and presence to millions. His mystery series, the latest being "Die Laughing", revolve around himself,or at least the conceit that the real Steverino, his wife Jayne Meadows and other real people are involved in solving murders which just happen to take place when he's around. In "Die Laughing", Steve is called to the bedside of a dying comic great who makes Steve promise to emcee a one-time awards ceremony with the "funniest Person Alive" to receive $1 million to be paid from the dying comedian's estate. The elderly comic dies and before a few pages have passed several famous comedians are found stabbed to death . All the knives used turn out to have come from an expensive set of cutlery given to the now dead comic great by,surprise, Mr. and Mrs. Steve Allen many years earlier. The denouement, as in all Allen's novels turns out to be both complicated and fascinating. The charm of this and the other books is not really the mystery. It's Steve's comments on society and culture,fame,politics,food and just about anything else that gets into the story.

Having been a Steve Allen fan for many years, I find these mysteries a charming way to meet Mr. and Mrs. Allen and share some time with them and their friends, if only on the printed page. "Die Laughing" and all the other mysteries are fun to read and well above the ordinary.

I've always respected Steve Allen's intelligence and his use of language; it follows that I would believe that he would write a good mystery novel. I am genuinely sorry that this isn't the case, at least with this particular novel. Allen's first-hand knowledge of the Hollywood industry and the physical environs provide wholly believable background; less believable is the overall presentation.

Allen, and his wife Jayne Meadows, are the principle characters in the novel, which is told through Allen's first person narrative. A mystery presented in first-person can offer the writer the means to ponder over clues, circumstances, etc., in ways that third-person narratives must resort to dialog to accomplish (e.g., Holmes explaining to Watson, and therefore to the reader). Unfortunately, Allen is too present in his narrative; he frequently pauses to ponder not the story but some few paragraphs of pedantry. The goal appears not to provide education to the reader for the purpose of solving the puzzle, but rather to show Allen's intellect and steadfast belief in his own infallible opinion-as-fact. It's a tempting trap that good writers of fiction do all they can to avoid.

This same tendency to be "overly thorough" creates a stilted narrative that uses far too much verbiage to describe the action. (To my more astute readers: Yes, I'm probably doing the same thing now! My apologies.) The final page of this paperback edition far over-tells the action of someone slipping on a banana peel, with Allen mentally groaning over the event: "No, I thought, this would be too impossibly ironic an ending, ever for an ill-fated comedy show!" Yes, Steverino, it is -- or for an ill-fated mystery novel, for that matter.

For a man who wrote comedy, as well as writing so much about comedy, Allen has a terrible sense of timing when describing certain scenes in the book, such as this one at the end. The reader knows far too much about the upcoming joke, so that when the "snapper" (punch line) occurs, it's no longer funny. Even worse, Allen does precisely the opposite with his clues to the mystery. It's one thing to focus on red herrings to distract a good sleuth; it's another to withhold information until the last 30 pages of the book in order to surprise us all with whodunit.

This is the first Steve Allen mystery that I've read; perhaps his others will be better.

This is another excellent entry in Mr Allen's light murder mystery series, where Steve and real life wife Jayne Meadows get entangled in another murder among their show biz friends. Steve is asked by dieing friend Benny Hartmann to host an awards show in his honor, giving out a collection of comedy awards including a million dollar prize for "funniest person alive". Meanwhile, some old time comedians are lining up to win the money, and some end up with knives in their backs. Complicating matters, the knives originated from a purchase by Mr Allen himself! And is Benny really dead or not? Why are people seeing glimpses of him around Beverly Hills?

As with most of Mr Allen's mysteries, he explains the whole thing in the end in a dramatic stage presentation.

The story of a joke that backfired. I appreciated this book which contains elements of a murder mystery interspersed with humour that brought a smile to my face, literally right up to the last page.

I thoroughly enjoyed the mystery. I had no idea that Steve Allen wrote this type of book. It was a page turner and I stayed up until it was done. There were many chuckles and it was great that Jayne gets involved in the story. Highly recommend it as a light mystery.

I am a fan of Steve Allen's works especially of his mystery novels. This one was a page turner of the classic sense. I stayed up late late late because I couldn't put this book down.

His mysteries seem to get better by the book. When I put a book down and exclaim to myself that he couldn't write a better mystery than the present, he does!

My one problem with this book (and why I couldn't give it five stars) is there is a minor supporting character who is the key to a kidnapping sub-sub plot. You never find out who this character is/was and how they were able to give a false address, yet be at that address when someone shows up to interview them. (does this supporting character break into this one home every day between 9 and 5 in case someone falls for bait and show up to interview them?

It may sound confusing, but it leaves a little bit of a hole in what otherwise is a fantastic read!

Steve Allen is asked by legendary dying comedian Benny Hartman to organize and be host of the Benny Hartman Memorial Comedy Awards. During the preparation of the show, three people are literally stabbed in the back, another is shot, and another is kidnapped. Despite this, the story moves slowly but the dramatic and clever ending makes it all worthwhile. The characters, while distinctive, don't have distinctive voices, that is, they all sound alike. But sometimes they're recognizable. For instance, one character is clearly modelled after Woody Allen and in one funny scene, Jayne catches "Woody" and a married woman in a motel room and "Woody" proceeds to whine and complain while the married woman wonders what she ever saw in him. But the biggest mystery to me is, when does Steve Allen, one of the busiest people in show business, ever have time to solve murder mysteries?