2 of 2 people found the following review helpful:
4.0 out of 5 stars
Hershey bars of mystery lit, February 28, 2005
This review is from: The Waking Nightmare (Diagnosis Murder #4) (Paperback)
Lee Goldberg's "Diagnosis Murder" series are the Hershey bars of the mystery genre. They're fast-paced, traditional mysteries that are meant solely to entertain and keep alive the memory of the TV series starring Dick Van Dyke as the crime-solving Dr. Mark Sloan.
Suicides haunt the fourth novel in the series. Dr. Sloan has as patients an actress who has beaten cancer several times but who refuses to quit smoking, and a woman who he saw jumping from a fifth-floor window but survived. Both resist Mark's efforts to help them, and he wants to know why. In addition, his son is investigating the death of a publisher of an extreme-sports magazine, who died from a knife in the chest during a parachute jump.
Goldberg was a producer on the series, so he has a thorough knowledge of the characters. Like their TV counterparts, they banter, argue and sass each other, sometimes sidetracking serious conversations into something that sounds like, well, a TV show. There's Steve the detective, caging bear claws from a baker visiting the injured jumper, or a conversation stopping dead because someone says "hinky" ("I watched a lot of seventies cop shows" / "That explains your hair.").
Those who like their mysteries earnest will crab about realism. I find these quirks human. Maybe its because I like bear claws.
"Waking Nightmare" is a tightly plotted mystery that contains several plot twists and series of false solutions in the Agatha Christie tradition. Goldberg effortlessly carries over the flavor of the series to the written word, so if you liked the show, you'd probably like the books.
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1 of 1 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
A Highlight, April 17, 2005
This review is from: The Waking Nightmare (Diagnosis Murder #4) (Paperback)
He did it again! Mr. Goldberg again topped his earlier Diagnosis Murder books, though I didn't believe this could be possible. The Waking Nightmare fascinated me to the utmost from the first to the last page.
In this book we get to know Dr. Mark Sloan in a way we never saw him before. And I like what I get to see. Mark is a human being!
The story will not allow you to put the book aside. It keeps your attention, even when you are asleep, though you should be prepared not to sleep until you finished the book. Expect the unexpected! You will not be disappointed!
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1 of 1 people found the following review helpful:
4.0 out of 5 stars
A Good Dream, April 6, 2005
This review is from: The Waking Nightmare (Diagnosis Murder #4) (Paperback)
Another satisfying mystery in the Diagnosis Murder series. I have enjoyed them all so far, but this was definitely the weakest mystery of the bunch. There are 3 mysteries going on simultaneously, but the `thread' between them all is easy to identify. The reason this book was lacking, in my opinion, is because 2 of the people Mark was helping this time were actually alive; the books work better with a murder where Mark is actively solving something. Still, it was a light and quick read and parallels the show nicely.
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