What Now, King Lear?: A Gil Yates Private Investigator Novel (Gil Yates Private Investigator Novel, 6) [Hardcover]

Alistair Boyle (Author)

Book Description

Series: Gil Yates Private Investigator Novel, 6 | Publication Date: May 2001

When a self-made Texas tycoon is murdered, the obvious suspects are any of his three daughters and their husbands; kids who are suing their own father for access to their "rightful inheritance"—the division of a billion dollars.

Gil Yates (aka Malvin Stark), the dual-personality PI who secretly specializes in the mega-rich, is hired by the stunning widow to find the killer.

The billionaire’s will stipulates in the event of foul play the estate is not to be divided until the crime is solved. The widow thinks the murderer is one of the kids. The kids think it is their widowed stepmother, their father’s third wife.

Spoiled rich kids greedy enough to kill? A pampered young wife trying to get even? Switches and surprises abound in this, the exciting sixth installment of the Gil Yates series.

Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly

In What Now, King Lear?: A Gil Yates Private Investigator Novel, the sixth installment by Alistair Boyle (Ship Shapely), Yates sleuths and wisecracks his way through a privileged world of breathtaking inheritances, intra-family lawsuits, people who "marry rich" and a murdered patriarch.

Copyright 2001 Cahners Business Information, Inc.

From Booklist

Gil Yates (the alias of the nerdy, unsuccessful real estate agent Malvin Stark) has another mystery to solve, this time at the behest of Pamela, Orville Sampson's lovely widow and stepmother to Orville's three grown daughters. Pamela has made a career out of marrying well, but she insists that she loved her husband and blames her daughters' greedy husbands for her beloved's death. But death does not cause any wealth to pass to Orville's heirs, for he added a provision that should he be murdered, the case must be solved before the estate is divided. Boyle's clever storytelling and deft writing are a treat once again in this sixth installment of the Yates series. When you're not trying to solve the mystery, you're laughing out loud at the foibles of a man who calls his wife Tyranny Rex ("or Tyranny Wrecks, if you aren't too careful about spelling") and his father-in-law-cum-boss Daddypimple or Daddydandruff. For lighthearted, witty whodunits, it doesn't get much better than this. Mary Frances Wilkens
Copyright © American Library Association. All rights reserved

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Product Details

• Hardcover: 247 pages
• Publisher: Allen a Knoll Pubs; 1st edition (May 2001)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 1888310855
• ISBN-13: 978-1888310856
• Product Dimensions: 8.8 x 5.8 x 0.9 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.2 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.5 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (2 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #7,606,255 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

1 of 1 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Fast paced, funny, but with a cynical side, August 8, 2001

By 

booksforabuck "BooksForABuck" (Long Beach, CA) - See all my reviews
(VINE VOICE)   

This review is from: What Now, King Lear?: A Gil Yates Private Investigator Novel (Gil Yates Private Investigator Novel, 6) (Hardcover)

Private Investigator Gil Yates (known to his family as Malvin Stark)is hired to investigate the death of a Texas billionaire. The man's will left his huge estate to his three daughters and his widow, but with the stipulation that, in the event of a murder, nobody get anything until the killer is found.

The wife (Yates's boss) is the police's favorite suspect but they have no evidence. She favors any of the three daughters or, more to the point, their husbands.

Yates investigates and sure enough, all three of the sons in law are really terrible people. Still, did they kill the old man?

Yates brings a cynical outlook on the world that is often funny but sometimes over the top. His comments on his wife (Tyranny Rex) sometimes cross the line to cruelty. In fact, Yates doesn't seem to like anyone (which is fine), but also holds almost everyone in contempt (which isn't).

Author Alistair Boyle keeps up a fast pace and you'll plunge along behind. I read WHAT NOW, KING LEAR? in a single sitting.

5.0 out of 5 stars The Excitement of a Shakespearean Play with Easy-to-Understand Language, September 16, 2008

By 

Athalia Stoneback (Pennsylvania) - See all my reviews

This review is from: What Now, King Lear?: A Gil Yates Private Investigator Novel (Gil Yates Private Investigator Novel, 6) (Hardcover)

If you're a Shakespeare fan, you should definitely check out Alistair Boyle's "What Now, King Lear?" Like Shakespeare's plays, this story has mystery, murder and romance. The question in this case: "Who killed Orville Sampson? His wife, one of his daughters, or one of his daughter's husbands?" Anyone who's read Boyle's previous works, for example, "They Fall Hard", "The Missing Link" or "The Con", will recognize the persistent main character detective, as well as his "creative clichés" and love for palms. The surprise ending will have the reader on the edge of his/her seat, wanting more from Boyle. Recommended for mystery fans, plant and/or Shakespeare fans, and people high-school age and older.

-Athalia Stoneback