Customer Reviews

Murder On Theatre Row (Bill Donovan Mysteries)

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"Murder on Theatre Row" is a good book. Have no doubt about it--if you enjoy a detailed setting, local color, well crafted plot, plenty of humor and human interest, some good writing, and a surprise ending, this is the book. I enjoy the hero, Captain Bill Donovan. He has a good girlfriend, he's afraid of marriage, he's a recovering alcoholic, and a self-taught Renaissance Man who enjoys learning and solves cases with his intelligence and research. The women in the book are the blackbelts and the tough 'guys'; the men are less stereotypical and more human. But the main character is the City of New York, its ambiance and energy; Times Square; and the Theater District. Only in this setting could this story occur...and that's a tribute to the quality of this book.

I just finished this novel, which I bought because I thought it might contain a magician, albeit a dead one. Milos the Magnificent turned out to be a vaudevillian expert with a crossbow and possibly now a ghost who has decided to take up murder with the crossbow he used in his performances. Thus, Captain Bill Donovan of the NYPD investigates murder in a theater being refurbished to put on, of all things, "Casablanca: The Musical."

I don't read many current mysteries, they seemingly being much of a muchness. But this one was most enjoyable in plot, dialogue, and characterization. The solution was weak, but did not detract from what had gone before.