Lady Left [Hardcover]

Robert Westbrook (Author)

Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly

In this newest addition to the Lt. Nicky Rachmaninoff thrillers, Westbrook ( Nostalgia Kills ) once again delivers a mercilessly witty social satire, this time about the Hollywood leftist community. While vacationing with his family in Nicaragua, Rachmaninoff of the Beverly Hills police department becomes embroiled in a scheme to restore the Sandinistas to power. Masterminded by activist professor Cory Heard, the plan calls for digging up $1 billion worth of loot buried by former dictator Somoza. Rachmaninoff has barely survived the discovery of the treasure when Heard disappears into the jungle with the goods. The lieutenant picks up his trail in Beverly Hills, where a drug kingpin is plotting to steal the money from Heard in order to buy a movie studio. After Rachmaninoff finds the body of the drug dealer's closest competitor for the studio in front of police headquarters, he is pitted against killers and rapists, armed for the most part only with his wit. His repartee stands him in good stead when he has to outtalk a machine gun-wielding Sandinista who has his own plans for the money. Westbrook adeptly exercises the sophisticted riposte in a book distinguished by its poignant characters and well-paced plot.
Copyright 1990 Reed Business Information, Inc.

Product Details

• Hardcover: 295 pages
• Publisher: Crown; 1st edition (January 9, 1991)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0517571315
• ISBN-13: 978-0517571316
• Product Dimensions: 9.1 x 6 x 1.2 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.4 pounds
• Average Customer Review: 4.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (2 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #7,364,663 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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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.