14 of 17 people found the following review helpful:
2.0 out of 5 stars
Read Hillerman's other books instead, October 26, 2001
This story is set in an unnamed Midwestern city. John Cotton is a reporter at the state's capitol. One of his colleagues tells him he is working on a really big story. Shortly after this the colleague falls several stories and dies. This starts Cotton investigating the same leads. Then another one of his friends is killed while driving Cotton's car.
I found this to be a very slow book. The characters were not well developed. Cotton's attraction to Jane seems to come out of the blue. Also, I had difficulties following the leads in the beginning. They were very technical.
The political intrigue did not get interesting until about 1/2 to 2/3 way through the book. One issue covered in the book is how much political corruption, stealing of public funds, etc. is allowable if it serves the purpose of getting or keeping the "better" politician in office.
Tony Hillerman's books set on the Navajo reservation are better. The characters are much more well developed in those books.
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8 of 9 people found the following review helpful:
3.0 out of 5 stars
"A Nice, Quick Read", June 5, 1999
By A Customer
One of Hillerman's few stories that doesn't take place on the Navajo Reservation. Here, newspaper reporter John Cotton stumbles onto a story of government corruption that has already led to the death of a friend and fellow reporter. It was kind of difficult to figure out where his investigation was going in the first half of the book. Things did start to make sense in the second half. Also, drama started to go up a bit. More should have been done to flesh out Cotton and other characters. You mainly see him as a reporter, not a human being. It also would have been nice if the city and state where the story took place was named. Still, all in all, it was an okay book.
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7 of 9 people found the following review helpful:
3.0 out of 5 stars
Anachronistic, September 24, 2004
Tony Hillerman's The Fly on the Wall has not aged particularly well. Written in 1971, early in his career, the book has been bypassed by technological advances as well as Hillerman's success with the Leaphorn/Chee series. Knowing that no future tales of John Cotton, newspaperman, have been written made getting into the book a little more difficult than I expected.
The characters and setting don't fit well with what one has come to think of as a "Tony Hillerman" book - that combination of Native Americans, their folklore, and the Southwest. To a man (and a woman), the characters are all extremely liberal in their political viewpoint. If you're convinced there's a liberal bias in the mainstream press, this novel will do nothing to disabuse you of that notion. Even if you do subscribe to the dominant point of view, you may be disappointed by some of the things liberalism's used to excuse in the final chapter. Perhaps the book's greatest weakness is the lack of alternate viewpoints explored: there are no real Republican characters either as foils or villains and this makes for some uninspired conflict and ultimately an unsatisfying resolution.
Part way through the book I found myself wishing Cotton would get himself out of a jam by making a cellphone call, or fax or e-mail his stories in to his editor, then I remembered - 1971! None of those things existed. Teletype machines and direct-dial long distance were the high tech of the day; even though photocopiers existed, Cotton still uses carbon paper throughout the story to make duplicates of his stories written on a manual typewriter. If you're nostalgic for these things, then you'll probably get more out of the story than I did.
The Southwest makes a brief appearance in the middle of the book when Cotton tries to find sanctuary there. While not quite as picturesque as in the Leaphorn/Chee books, this brief respite in New Mexico marks the point where the novel really picks up steam. Here and in Cotton's escape from the vacant Capitol building near the end of the novel are the two parts where Hillerman's pacing and plotting really shine. Compared to these fast-paced action scenes, the talky final chapter and the lengthy set-up in the first half of the book are big disappointments.
The Fly on the Wall isn't a terrible book, but it's clearly not Hillerman's best. If you're caught up on the latest Navajo novels, go ahead and tackle this one, but there's really no reason to go out of your way for it.
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