Go to Helena Handbasket [Hardcover]

Donna Moore (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: February 4, 2007

On her latest case, wisecracking Private Investigator, Helena Handbasket, is faced with a lot of tough questions. Did Robin Banks have a hand in the theft of Evan Stubezzi's jewels? And if so, was the hand one of those packed in ice in the freezer box that was delivered to his brother, Owen? Is there a serial killer on the loose? Or are all those handless corpses with scarlet fish sewn into their chest cavities purely coincidental? What shoes should you wear for a meeting with a killer? Why does her next-door neighbour smell of cheese? Which of her true loves is her real true love? And, more importantly, is there anything in the fridge for dinner? Can our man-loving, cocktail-loving, food-loving, not-so-very-intrepid heroine answer these questions-any of them-without leaving a cliché unturned?

Product Details

• Hardcover: 156 pages
• Publisher: PointBlank (February 4, 2007)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0809557355
• ISBN-13: 978-0809557356
• Product Dimensions: 5.5 x 8.5 x 0.5 inches
• Shipping Weight: 12 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 2.7 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (3 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #5,282,287 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

8 of 11 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Sam Spade in a skirt on acid. . ., July 28, 2006

By 

B. Wooten "Avid Reader" (TX USA) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Go to Helena Handbasket (Paperback)

Bridget Jones meets Raymond Chandler meets Jeffrey Dahmer in Go To Helena Handbasket, Donna Moore's brilliant absurd romp of a detective novel. Kudos to PointBlank Press for unearthing yet another gem. The humour is black, the narrative surreal, the author insane. Helena Handbasket elbowed her way into my fantasy life, replacing several Hollywood starlets at one stroke.

9 of 16 people found the following review helpful:

2.0 out of 5 stars Funny, but the story is second to the gags, June 14, 2006

By 

Craig Clarke "Living After Midnight: Hard and... (New England) - See all my reviews
(VINE VOICE)   

This review is from: Go to Helena Handbasket (Hardcover)

Inept, man-crazy, booze-loving, overweight (and, apparently, big-nosed) private investigator Helena Handbasket stumbles upon the solution to a case involving thirty million in diamonds and more murders than you can shake a stick at in Donna Moore's debut mystery spoof, ...Go to Helena Handbasket, out from Point Blank Press (run by Kiss Her Goodbye author Allan Guthrie).

When Owen Banks crashes through her office door holding his brother's hands -- his severed hands -- Helena is reluctantly pleased because "business had been slower than a knee-capped snail with arthritis." Owen's brother, Robin Banks, is missing (except for his hands, of course) and Owen suspects foul play, specifically the involvement of Evan Stubezzi, the local crime lord. With very little to work with (both in clues and brains), Helena only takes the case, mostly because Owen is "a fine specimen of manhood."

From the start, author Donna Moore lets her readers know that ...Go to Helena Handbasket is not going to take itself seriously in the slightest. All of the characters' names involve puns, and I kept thinking Moore would eventually run out of silly names, but they just keep on coming. They're mostly good for a quick chuckle, since they aren't related to the characters' personalities, but you have to admire Moore's skill in mining every possible word for its humor potential.

The prologue is quite promising, with a serial killer wannabe purchasing Serial Killing for Dummies and calling his mother to find out the dark secrets of his childhood, a necessity if he is "to have any sort of future as a serial killer." There are a few surprises at the conclusion, but ...Go to Helena Handbasket is a disappointment as a novel. I wish Moore had taken her writing just a little more seriously, and had given us some characters to care about, or even respect. It is practically impossible to identify with Helena Handbasket because she is so utterly stupid. And she is surrounded by people you wouldn't even have crash your enemy's wedding.

I also would have liked a plot that offered some suspense, instead Helena continually being put into one implausible situation after another. Things improved around Chapter Four, when the plot began moving along nicely, but Moore tends to lose focus, or just drop it altogether, in favor of fitting in a wisecrack, or presenting a contrived situation for the sake of a cheap joke.

But Moore is obviously clever, and has a quick wit (she reportedly wrote this in a month). She could be the Terry Pratchett of the PI novel, just by simply putting the story first and the humor second. In this case, less is definitely more. There are enough jokes in ...Go to Helena Handbasket to provide for three or four similar novels. The book tries to be the Airplane! of private-eye novels, but unfortunately ends up being more like Mafia! instead -- by no means a classic, but still a pleasant time-passer.

2 of 5 people found the following review helpful:

1.0 out of 5 stars The name says it all, March 21, 2008

By 

Christopher Laird - See all my reviews
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Amazon Verified Purchase

This review is from: Go to Helena Handbasket (Paperback)

Sorry, It was one of those books that suckered me in the blurb but I couldn't get past the first few pages. Rarely do I put a book down without finishing it, or walk out of a movie before the end. i gave it all the chance I could, all the benefit of doubt but in the end it was just a waste of time to read. Comedy is a matter of personal taste and this was not funny for me nor was it clever and it was going nowhere fast.I really don't know how it got published and I still can't believe that the well produced volume in such an attractive cover could be so inane and such a con.