Customer Reviews

The Society Ball Murders

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

 

 

Jack Anderson's first stab at satire and mystery rolled into a suspenseful read is quite good. It flows and frollicks like a day at the arcade. While the mystery and suspense of the who-dunnit prose is engaging. Reminds me of some of the early Robin Gail novels I would read in tahoe on snowy winter nights.
Great first novel for the young scribe and I look forward to his next one. Spark the log in the fireplace, curl up in the leather with a brandy, and read this. You will be delighted...I was.

Jack Albin Anderson's "The Society Ball Murders" tries to change up the mystery genre a little by using a bored society columnist and having her try to piece together the suspictious deaths of three mavens of high society in San Fransisco. The police, who are portrayed as highly inept believe that bad plastic surgery is to blame, but our society page heroine, Patty Nottingham, belives that someone is poisoning these ladies. The reletively short book has some jabs at the vapidity of high-society "charity" balls and debutantes, but the main characters whom we are supposed to relate to are as shallow as the rich folk that it makes fun of. Eventually, with the help of a couple of chemists(and one red herring death), Patty discovers what the murder weapon is, and she sets a trap in order to catch a cold-blooded killer. Decent enough for a rainy day, but not good enough to recommend otherwise.