Customer Reviews

The Love Potion Murders in the Museum of Man: A Norman de Ratour Mystery

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

 

 

As Alcorn's unlikely hero muses toward the end of this wonderful mystery, "We often end up speaking about the nature of evil and the nature of comedy. What intrigues us, I think, is the way comedy relies in large part on pain, mishap, even cruelty." Alcorn's genius (and he IS a comic genius) is to exploit the enormous gap that opens up between extreme pain, mishap, cruelty and the pitiful, ineffectual, but strangely admirable attempts of ordinary venal humans to make sense of such things. Another reviewer here asks why anyone would want to write (or read) about such "tasteless trash" as cannibalism, incest, and the like; well, the answer is because the most delicious humor can emerge from the banality (even absurdity) of the way Alcorn's quite ordinary academic characters respond.

Anyone who has spent any time in academia (as I have for nigh upon these past 30 years) will recognize the petty turf squabbles, the outsize egos, the preening and political correctness that he exposes in many hilarious accounts of meetings, lectures, and various research agendas. These are oh-so-even-more delicious because they are embedded in a plot of really horrifying implications.

The plot is intricate but not hard to follow. It is comprehensive. As the narrator explains, "The plot is thickening like one of those soups you throw things into without being quite sure how it's going to turn out." But Alcorn is always in control, and by the end every loose end (and some ends are very loose here) is neatly tied up by the redoubtable Norman de Ratour.

Here you will meet such tantalizing characters as the Rapper Sixy Shakur (whose lyric on pp. 103-04 is a true classic but would probably get this review banned by amazon if I quoted from it), the luscious escort Celeste Tangent, the resourceful lawyer Ariel Dearth, the divine Diantha, members of the Amazonian tribe the Yomamas and many others including our indefatigable protagonist de Ratour, who manages to remain courtly, ethical, even heroic where lesser souls would quail and falter. There are also memorable return appearances of beloved characters from the first mystery in this series (also highly recommended), Murder in the Museum of Man: the indomitable Cornelius ("Corny") Chard, cool-as-ice Lieutenant Tracy, dry-as-ice Izzy Landes, dear Elsbeth and others.

If Mr. Alcorn ever reads his amazon reviews, I wonder if he might let us know whether a third mystery is in the works. There is no tempting first chapter at the end of this volume to lure one into a buying mood. But I'm hoping very much that we will have more of Norman de Ratour and the MOM.

Sensitive readers should be warned that this contains graphic and realistic descriptions of what happens in university committees. Professor Ratour has a university appointment and is also director of a museum that the university thinks it should control. The museum is in some way part of the university but has a separate board of trustees and its own endowment. It also derives income from renting space to a research institute that is staffed by university faculty and generates substantial money from patents. The university has established an "Oversight Committee" for the museum. The Russian Mob and fundraisers and lawyers are involved. There's poisoning, cannibalism, dismemberment and mutual rape.

I loved "Murder in the Museum of Man" so so so much! It's sweet, funny, quirky, intelligent - and just totally, weirdly unexpected! I love the crusty perfectionist Norman de Ratour, and had such high hopes for his sequel! Well, I think author Alfred Alcorn must be having some kind of late life/mid life/existential crisis... he seems to be shamelessly imposing his own fantasies on the innocent Mr. de Ratour, and consequently on his readers. Please, do read "Murder in the Museum of Man" - but if you love it as I do, skip "The Love Potion Murders", or you'll never think of Norman the same way again.

To be honest, I had high hopes and expectations when I began reading "The Love Potion Murders in the Museum of Man". Sadly, these hopes were not fulfilled. I got through the first 100 pages, which is the amount I usually read when I can see the book sucks but I want to give it a chance. That being said, the book plods along. There are a lot of characters with really strange names. I felt at times that I should be making a list to keep track of them. The main character, Norman de Ratour, is supposed to be the director of the Museum of Man and a part-time detective (?). I wasn't really sure why he considered himself a detective. The reader must have had to have read the first book in the series to get that. None of the seemingly hundred characters that I came across were in the least bit likable, even Norman. His main goal in life, beside solving crime, was to keep his museum out of the hands of the University with which it was loosely affiliated. Why? Who knows, probably ego. He seemed to think that he was the only thing standing in the way of a terrible catastrophe. I came away really not caring if the University took over the Museum.

Also, there was a bit of 'ick' factor in here. Norman's wife is dying of cancer. His step-daughter flirts with him and he, I expect, will follow through on it. I wonder if he will wait until his wife is dead? I refuse to find out. Reading this book has been a thorough waste of time: hours I will never recover. (Yes, unbelievably it took me hours to get through 100 pages.) Reading a mystery/detective novel should not be this much work.

PS The author likes to use $20 words when an ordinary word would suffice. Showing off, I think. You might want to have a dictionary at your side if you don't know what amanuensis means. You'll encounter it on the first page. Also, brush up on your French. He peppers French phrases all over the book.

Don't miss this one, a sleeping find. "Love Potion Murders" is an exciting story told in prose tight as a drum. Sex, humor, gibes at academic pomposity, wisdom about life delivered with a light touch, portraits of New England characters - "Love Potion Murders" has all this. Norman Ratour is unforgettable as he handles a crazy world. I loved the book. I think Alcorn now establishes his reputation as a novelist of wry humor, suspense, eccentric characters, and beautiful writing.

Alfred Alcorn is a very good writer and could have written a book that was both thoughtful and highly entertaining. I will not repeat the synopsis of the plot given in the Product Description, but he has drawn an unusual situation, peopled the story with quirky interesting characters, and seasoned the whole dish with a strong dose of wry, enjoyable observations on human nature, such as when he says soap operas "blend into one another with the same people saying the same things to one another again and again. ( Perhaps they are more realistic than I give them credit for.)"

Given the plot description, I was prepared for some broad humor and a lot of sex. I was put off at the humorous treatment of Norman's lust for his stepdaughter while his wife is dying of cancer, although, to do him credit, he is disturbed by his feelings. However, I drew the line and stopped reading halfway through the book when he views a videotape of a colleague being dismembered and cannibalized, said character narrating the tape for posterity while he is dying. Why would anyone write such a scene in a work of entertainment? And why would anyone want to read it?

I had wondered why such a good writer was being published by a house I had never heard of. I now can understand why this book might have had difficulty being published at all.