LADY LEFT [Hardcover]

Robert Westbrook (Author)

Product Details

• Hardcover
• Publisher: Unknown (January 1, 1990)
• ASIN: B0028QECDU
• Average Customer Review: 4.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (2 customer reviews)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

3 of 3 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Besides learning about Nicaragua, it made me laugh outloud!, June 3, 1998

By 

F. L Prowse (Anza, CA USA) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Lady Left (Hardcover)

If I want to escape into a detective novel, I prefer amusing ones with realistic characters, well-researched settings, clever plots and plenty of sex. I found all of these in abundance in Lady Left. Now I'll have to check out his other books, having recently chosen to give male authors a chance. Westbrook's understanding of the male and female adolescent mind must come from experience! Great diversion!

1 of 1 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars Better than some, and funny, August 16, 2004

By 

David W. Nicholas (Van Nuys, CA USA) - See all my reviews
(TOP 1000 REVIEWER)    (REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Lady Left (Hardcover)

Robert Westbrook did three of these left-handed Detective novels back in the early and mid 80s. The premise is a bit weak and convoluted: the main character is a rumpled, smart-mouthed homicide detective named Nicky Rachmaninoff, who plays jazz piano left-handed. He's divorced, and his wife is now a reasonably successful TV star.

In the current entry in the series, Nicky journeys to Nicaragua with his ex-wife and their daughter, riding along on a Hollywood junket with the intent of solving that country's problems by reinstalling a Sandanista government in power, by hook or by crook. The star of the production, of course, is an actress who is modelled somewhat on the Jane Fonda/Barbara Streisand line, with a superficial political stance based on how it will make her look in the papers, and a very unrealistic view of the world and how people in it live. Everything must revolve around her, and her idiot husband, a college professor who makes Hollywood's liberal elite look like Birchers, and who wishes to overthrow Nicaragua's government violently, if need be.

This is a light, fun novel, with Rachmaninoff wandering through the scenes, blundering around not having much luck finding the crime, let alone the criminals, until halfway through the book. It's (as far as I can tell) the last of the left-handed policeman novels, so perhaps the character outran his own premise and has been permanently retired. I would still recommend the book to mystery fans, but only if they were interested in the premise and knew what they were getting themselves into.