8 of 8 people found the following review helpful:
4.0 out of 5 stars
funny GROUCHO MARX amateur sleuth, June 28, 2005
This review is from: Groucho Marx, King of the Jungle: A Mystery Featuring Groucho Marx (Hardcover)
In 1940 former Los Angeles Times crime reporter Frank Denby takes his sleuthing pal Groucho Marx to meet director Joel Farber who wants to use the comedian in a supportting ole as J. Darwin Underbush in his film Ty-Gor and the Lost City. The meeting is cancelled as someone killed the title star Randy Spellman. Joel wants to hire Groucho and Frank to investigate the homicide, but they say no because the screenwriter promised is pregnant wife cartoonist Jane Danner that he would not conduct any murder inquiries.
Jane shocks Frank when she asks him to prove that the prime suspect stuntwoman Dorothy Woodrow did not kill her former lover over his rejecting her as the cops believe. Instead family friend Enery McBride insists Dorothy is his girlfriend, but cannot go to the police because of the bias towards interracial couples. Groucho and Frank learn that Randy was a nasty sort blackmailing people; many individuals would want him dead. The detectives know that a happy Hollywood ending may not occur since Dorothy seems too involved with the late Randy for someone who had not seen him for months.
Though one-liner Grouchoitis has spread to Frank and Jane, fans of Hollywood amateur sleuth tales will appreciate the amusing GROUCHO MARX, KING OF THE JUNGLE, a take off of his role in Animal Crackers. The who-done-it is cleverly devised so that the readers along with the wannabe detectives begin to wonder if Dorothy actually killed Randy. Ron Goulart writes a funny historical mystery that brings to life 1940 Hollywood especially Groucho Marx at a time when his last movie was a bomb.
Harriet Klausner
Help other customers find the most helpful reviews
Was this review helpful to you? Yes
No
2 of 2 people found the following review helpful:
4.0 out of 5 stars
The silly sleuth returns!, December 30, 2006
This review is from: Groucho Marx, King of the Jungle: A Mystery Featuring Groucho Marx (Hardcover)
"Groucho Marx, King of the Jungle" is one of those books I stumbled on pretty much entirely by accident, browsing on Amazon.com and reaching this when it was recommended due to my love for old-fashioned radio shows. It went on my Wish List just for the heck of it, and when I got it for Christmas, I was pleasantly surprised.
I was even more surprised when I started reading the book. Written by Ron Goulart, this is a novel, a mystery about Groucho and a screenwriter named Frank Denby who solve mysteries on the side of their day jobs. Evidently, this is the latest novel in a series, something I didn't know (else I would have tried to get the first novel, "Groucho Marx, Secret Agent"), but I was glad to find that my unfamiliarity with the series didn't hurt my enjoyment of the book at all. Frank is called in to do rewrites on the set of the newest Ty-Gor film, a series about a Tarzan-esque jungle warrior, but the picture is put on hold when Randy Spellman, the actor playing Ty-Gor, is found shot to death on the lot.
Groucho and Frank get pulled into the case, certain that the prime suspect - Spellman's stuntwoman ex-girlfriend - is innocent. What follows is a really entertaining old-fashioned potboiler mystery, tempered with Goulart's spot-on characterization of Groucho. The zingers and one-liners he gets off are every bit as clever and whimsical as those the real Groucho fired off in the movies and on the radio. He nails the character perfectly.
The book itself isn't flawless - it's written from Frank's first-person viewpoint, which is fine, but several times it lapses into third person as it follows Groucho for scenes where Frank isn't present, and that got kind of distracting. To a lesser degree, there's a subplot about Frank's wife pregnant with their first child which doesn't really add anything to the main story, but that's forgivable, as it clearly advances in the series as a whole and not this novel specifically.
In short - this book was a lot of fun, and I anticipate going back to find the earlier installments. Nice job by Goulart.
Help other customers find the most helpful reviews
Was this review helpful to you? Yes
No
0 of 3 people found the following review helpful:
4.0 out of 5 stars
entertaining, June 25, 2006
This review is from: Groucho Marx, King of the Jungle: A Mystery Featuring Groucho Marx (Hardcover)
If you aren't familiar with Groucho Marx you will not get the subtleties of this novel. It was a quick satisfying read. I enjoyed it.
Help other customers find the most helpful reviews
Was this review helpful to you? Yes
No
