MCNALLY'S TRIAL

Rating:
Summary: I'm addicted and want to meet the author
Review: A few months ago I picked up McNally's Trial and read it. I enjoyed it so much, I have now read all the McNally books and look forward to more. Archy and his pals make me laugh out loud as I'm reading. Sanders writes in such as manner that I feel I could recognize Archy anywhere. Solving the crime is only part of the fun when reading these books.

Rating:
Summary: It's a Hardy Boys For Gownups!
Review: I have read three of the "McNally Series" and enjoyed them tremendously. Take them for what they are - a good fun read. Don't expect to be enlightened (although your vocabulary might improve) shocked or deeply engrossed in a serious puzzel. Unashamedly, the plots are as thin as a Hardy Boys/Nancy Drew Mystery but with a healthy dose of Bertie Wooster style. That is half their fun.

So do yourself a favour this summer. Find yourself a beautiful sun drenched beach (with lots of pretty girls in bikinies - Archy would approve) bring a few imported beers (or if your in the right mood - a fine bottle of chilled crisp white wine or maybe a thermos of exotic cocktails) sit back and enjoy. Oh also bring some food - after reading about the wonderful meals you will be hungry.

I look forward to finding my next "McNally" in my far from home bookstore.

Rating:
Summary: It's a Hardy Boys For Gownups!
Review: People who enjoyed the stories about Jeeves and Wooster will undoubtedly like the series of books about Archibald "Archy" McNally, the son a a successful attorney. Archy's specialty is carrying out investigations for his father when he is not carrying on with women and hanging out at the Pelican Club. Lawrence Sanders was undoubtedly influenced by P. G. Wodehouse in creating this series, as Archy is a modern day counterpart of Bertie Wooster. The plot of this particular book is somewhat transparent - that ploy of sealed caskets being shipped from one place to another has been used before. However, the story and the characters are entertaining light reading as Archy introduces his erstwhile friend Binky Watrous into the world of private investigations.

Rating:
Summary: Throw the Binky away
Review: Perhaps it's because I haven't been in a good mood lately, but this book wasn't up to the McNally series standard. New sidekick Binky Wautrous is annoying and incompetant. Please get rid of him Mr Sanders. The story never engaged me completely either. Who cares about some smuggling shenanigans involving funeral homes?

Rating:
Summary: Throw the Binky away
Review: Perhaps it's because I haven't been in a good mood lately, but this book wasn't up to the McNally series standard. New sidekick Binky Wautrous is annoying and incompetant. Please get rid of him Mr Sanders. The story never engaged me completely either. Who cares about some smuggling shenanigans involving funeral homes?

Rating:
Summary: Cary Grant in a Screwball Comedy!
Review: The pleasure of reading the Archy McNally mysteries is NOT in solving each mystery, but in enjoying the witty and sophisticated humor along the way. Archy often speaks directly to the reader, making you a "partner" in the case. His puns and double entendres are unexpected and witty, and enliven what could otherwise be a dry, predictable mystery. I eagerly await each new McNally mystery!

Rating:
Summary: A laid-back detective
Review: When you think of a fictional detective, you normally picture a hard-boiled man or woman, who carries a gun, lurks under windows with a pair of binoculars, and has three or four fistfights each week. In McNally's Trial, Lawrence Sanders gives us a different picture.

The hero of this series is Archibald McNally, the son of a successful Palm Beach attorney. Archy (as his friends call him) is less than successful himself. He made it through law school, all right, but he was kicked out for streaking naked across the stage during a performance of the New York Philharmonic. His father gave him a office known as "Archy's Locker" due to its rather small size and now uses him as an unofficial investigator whenever the firm has need of such services.

He carries no gun, for he abhors violence. He doesn't spend time outside windows, for he would rather be eating a good meal. But he does have one of the characteristics of detective fiction: He is constantly in the arms of a beautiful woman. Unfortunately, his own true love, Constance Garcia, has an excellent spy network herself, and he always regrets these rather
painful affairs!

His involvement in this case begins when beautiful Sunny Fogarty, the financial manager of the Whitcomb Funeral Home, comes by to ask Archy's father to find out why her employer is suddenly making so much money, in particular why they are shipping so many caskets to New York, Boston, and Chicago.

To complicate matters, Archy's favorite air headed bum, Binky Watrous wants to help. He knows nothing about detecting, other than it sounds like fun, and he's totally incompetent; but Archy doesn't want to hurt his feelings.

As the two investigate, they run into a number of nasty characters, men who just don't fit the upperclass social image of the Whitcombs. How are they involved? Then they discover that Whitcomb's son and daughter-in-law seem to be involved with the gangster types. Luckily Mitzi seems to be infatuated with Binky (though Archy can think of no reason why any woman would find him attractive) and may be a source of information-or is it disinformation?

After a few murders Archy has the solution. But will he live long enough to reveal what he has found to his father? And will another innocent person have to die as well?

This isn't great literature, but it's a great beach book.