Actor (Stanley Hastings Mysteries) (Paperback)

by Parnell Hall (Author)

Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly
Stanley Hastings is a frenzied PI whose six comic misadventures while investigating accident cases for a Manhattan law firm have been chronicled in Shot , Detective et al. Having interviewed people with broken legs and photographed holes in the sidewalks for 20 years, Stanley has nearly forgotten that he was an aspiring actor before he took up detecting. He's overjoyed when an old theater chum asks him to step into a production of Shaw's Arms and the Man in the wilds of Connecticut just two short days before opening. There he runs afoul of a persnickety stage manager and the arrogant no-talent, soap opera-trained star and gets to share a dressing room with a young actress of few inhibitions. When the stage manager is stabbed to death, Stanley must call on his real-life skills to extricate himself from the role of leading suspect. Removed from his urban setting, Stanley stumbles through a few uncharacteristically slow moments, but soon he is up to his painted face in leads, tangled motives and cold sweat as he faces a matinee audience, planning to resolve the case with a surprising deviation from the Shavian script. The standing ovation is well-deserved.
Copyright 1993 Reed Business Information, Inc. --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

From Kirkus Reviews
Ambulance-chasing shamus and long-ago amateur thespian Stanley Hastings (Juror, Shot, etc.) runs up to Connecticut to help out his old college friend Herbert Drake by taking over the role of Bluntschli, in Arms and the Man, from the late Walter Penbridge. Opening night, which Stanley miraculously survives, is marred when he discovers the corpse of stage manager Goobie Wheatly, who had loudly humiliated him just the day before--so that he naturally becomes friendly local Chief Bob's chief suspect, beating out even such competitors as hammy TV actor Avery Allington and leading lady Margie Miller, whose amorous exploits can't leave her much time to sleep. The usual Hastings formula--mystery-mongering with amusingly lowbrow byplay substituting for detection. Middling for the series. -- Copyright ©1993, Kirkus Associates, LP. All rights reserved. --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

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Product Details

• Paperback
• Publisher: Warner Books (March 1994)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0446403644
• ISBN-13: 978-0446403641
• Product Dimensions: 6.6 x 3.9 x 0.9 inches
• Shipping Weight: 2.4 ounces
• Average Customer Review: 5.0 out of 5 stars See all reviews (3 customer reviews)
• Amazon.com Sales Rank: #1,489,329 in Books (See Bestsellers in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

2 of 2 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Stanley Hastings is an adorable sleuth, January 31, 2002

By A Customer

This review is from: Actor (Hardcover)

I am in the process of collecting all of the Stanley Hastings books in hardcover. I have read them all and he is the most entertaining sleuth in the business. His reluctance at being drawn into the mystery makes the plots all the more irresistable and as a result, they are not predictable. He makes me laugh out loud...never have I read a more charming character.

2 of 2 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Among the very best of the Stanley Hastings series, February 6, 2001

By A Customer

I have read at least five other books featuring the unique Stanley Hastings, but this one is special because of the different setting. Instead of his usual ambulance-chasing, Stanley gets to play a major part in a production of "Arms and the Man". I had read the play long ago, and that added to my enjoyment of the book. Rarely has a protagonist risen so triumphantly over countless humiliating circumstances; you have to admire the almost masochistic determination of actors who put up with all he describes in hilarious, but still almost depressing detail. Ambulance-chasing in the Bronx seems a picnic compared to Stanley's experiences in this book.

0 of 1 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Hilarious!, March 18, 2000

By	Christina P. Branson "killer_b_books" (Farmington) - See all my reviews (REAL NAME)

PI Stanley Hastings is called by an old college buddy to fill in for an actor who died right before opening night of ARMS AND THE MAN in a tiny New England town. The stage manager promptly gets himself murdered, and Stanley has to help Chief Bob (an amateur actor himself) find the killer. The search is a comically depressing examination of backstage life and midlife crisis that leaves the reader amazed at Stanley's emotional resilience.

The amount of theatrical detail Hall included was impressive, and I enjoyed his use of internal dialogue, which ranks right up there with Lawrence Block's. And it's the rare mystery author who can sneak a Pinter joke into the dialogue like Hall does. I did find Stanley's hang-up on the spelling of the word "actor" mildly distracting, but it would take an awful lot more than that to detract from the fun of this book.