Customer Reviews

The Film Mystery

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

 

 

Craig Kennedy is Reeves' Sherlock Holmes, Philo Vance, Ellery Queen. He is the scientific detective, skilled in the laboratory, a logician, a Master Detective. He has his Dr. Watson, his one-time college room-mate and current reporter, with whom he lives, but always is free to participate in the detecting and, of course, to narrate the tales of genius at work. This is one of a series of, perhaps, fifteen books, featuring Kennedy. Reeves is a good but not first rank author of mysteries, the language and style somewhat redolent of the 20th century American writer of detective stories, mildly quaint but not sufficiently so, to hinder ones enjoyment. The robotic reading has the usual pronunciation problems but, in general, is quite listenable for the one accustomed to its style.
This book involves the production of a silent film mystery, in which the leading lady and great star, mysteriously dies while a scene is being shot in the home of one of the Movie companies financial backers (located in New Yorks Westchester County just north of NYC). From there, the filming, with a replacement for the star, shifts to the Bronx in New York City. (In reality, much filming was still being done in Brooklyn as well as other locales in the City.) What Killed Her? The Master Detective finds out only after much research in his lab. Who killed her. That emerges only after much more action and attempts at filming take place with Kennedy and his sidekick actively probing the affairs of the film company.
A good mystery, in the style of the period, with a good slice of life in the Silent Film era. Kennedy is a rather remote figure but his amanuensis, and other characters associated with the film, are well drawn. Those who like the early figures in American detectival literature should enjoy this one, both as a lively mystery and as a period piece from a bygone era.

This is a fun read. It's not Ross Macdonald but...

It seems to try a little hard to be an "old classic" detective piece/ Sherlock Holms mystery. So it ends up a touch campy. But I finished it and it wasn't hard to. I didn't "need" to keep reading but I also didn't stop and delete it. Makes it great for when you have to be able to put the book down.

Wow that doesn't make it sound great does it. Well if you like the "cat" mysteries by Lilian Jackson Brown and the alphabet series by Sue Grafton then this is kind of a light version of those with a touch of Sherlock Holms.

To be fair, I started in the middle of this series about Professor Craig Kennedy. I should try an earlier story.

Interestingly, the author talks about three schools of detection, his character prefers the scientific method. Prof. Kennedy solves the case with blood stains. You'll hear a lot about bodily fluids and stomach contents. Ick. Also, you'll get a good dose of scientific language that didn't mean much to me.

The sidekick, a newspaper reporter, appears to have never seen a pretty girl before, from the way he acts. Just not an engaging personality.

Also interesting is that this series started in Cosmoplitan.

3 stars sums this up for me - an OK read, but not amazing. If you like mysteries, give it a shot, as you have a lot of material to read if you like it. Honestly, I think the old movie information was the best part.