Rating: 
Summary: Semi-Praise for the Kinkster....
Review: As a longtime Kinkster fan, i must admit i was ever-so-slightly disappointed with Steppin' on a Rainbow. I thoroughly enjoyed his previous outing ( The Mile High Club) and feel Rainbow is a step backward. NO Ratso! Rambam also makes a very minor appearance. These are stalwart characters who i look forward to seeing in each new adventure. Stephanie DuPont takes on her largest role so far and, i confess, was starting to get up my sleeve before the book ended. however, these are minor qualms and i liked the book, just not as much as his other work-- hence, the 4 star rating. As they say about both pizza and sex, "even when they're bad, they're still better than anything else." I think the Kinkster can be added to that list. .......As a side note, i would encourage anyone who is a fan and hasn't already done so, to get the audio versions of his books as read by Kinky himself. They're really killer bee....
Rating: 
Summary: Kinky's Pot of Gold
Review: As a mystery author with my debut novel in its initial release, I always thoroughly enjoy every fresh novel Kinky Friedman writes. STEPPIN' ON A RAINBOW is no exception. I'm not Nixoning you. Kinky's new adventure involves the disappearance of Village Irregular Mike McGovern. McGovern was in Hawaii to work on a book, and he disappears as he is strolling down a beach. While at first Kinky finds better things to do than worry about his missing McGovern, it is not long before everyone's favorite Texan-New Yorker/country-and-western performer/mystery author/sleuth assembles the rest of his Irregulars for a Hawaiian romp. This Kinky outing has everything the experienced reader expects in a fresh Kinky. It is well written with sharp humor lying over a basic humanity. It is another fine work from the creator of this terrific mystery series.
Rating: 
Summary: I hope Mr. Friedman's other books are better
Review: Contrived. Tedious. Irritating. Trying too hard. These are just a few of the ways I would describe "Steppin' on a Rainbow". I can tell that Friedman has talent as a writer. It is a real shame, however, that he insists upon insulting the intelligence of the reader with a constant barrage of quips and one-liners that aren't really even shockingly funny as much as they are merely sour comments made in poor taste (Example: he makes a reference to nurses being gone from the beach with the help of Richard Speck... or something along those lines. I got the joke, such as it was. It just really wasn't very funny or very clever). But this is the only book of Friedman's that I've read so far. I will read others, but I'm not going to be buying them with my own money. I'll borrow the next one or check it out from the library. So far, I may as well have flushed the cost of this oinker down the toilet. The man is skilled as a writer. I just don't know if he's got the talent to back up the skill. This story was dull and contrived. A festival of obnoxious, unlikable characters and plot conveniences. By the end of the book I was hoping that all of the major characters would get killed in a bus crash or something. Not a good sign when the author places himself in the story as the protagonist. Mr. Friedman-- I wish you all the best in the world and a long and happy life... but this story stinks.
Rating: 
Summary: Not a good introduction to Kinky
Review: Having read everything that Donald Westlake has written, I am always looking for other authors of comic mysteries. A friend suggested Kinky Friedman so I bought "Steppin On A Rainbow." I'll try another of his books because he is so popular that they have got to be better but it will be the last if it's like this one. The main character has some great lines and is certainly likeable enough and so are his cohorts but his love interest, Stephanie DuPont, has got to be the most obnoxious character in all of literature. I was hoping that she might get bumped off before the end so she doesn't reappear in any other books. I also had a problem with Kinky getting the solution to the case in a dream rather than by clever detective work. Not a great mystery but good enough to try another.
Rating:
Summary: Not a good introduction to Kinky
Review: Having read everything that Donald Westlake has written, I am always looking for other authors of comic mysteries. A friend suggested Kinky Friedman so I bought "Steppin On A Rainbow." I'll try another of his books because he is so popular that they have got to be better but it will be the last if it's like this one. The main character has some great lines and is certainly likeable enough and so are his cohorts but his love interest, Stephanie DuPont, has got to be the most obnoxious character in all of literature. I was hoping that she might get bumped off before the end so she doesn't reappear in any other books. I also had a problem with Kinky getting the solution to the case in a dream rather than by clever detective work. Not a great mystery but good enough to try another.
Rating:
Summary: He started out so good...
Review: I graduated from Kinky Friedman (the Lasso from El Paso) and the Texas Jewboys to his mysteries, and was more than pleased. Like his music, his first novels were great, and improved with age. Somewhere along the line, about six books into the series, he got lazy. The dialog is no longer witty, just trite. Steppin' on a Rainbow is awful. Kinky has just stopped trying.
Rating:
Summary: could do better
Review: I have the same reservations as most of the reviews below. It probably didn't help that I'd just finished re-reading Armadillos and Old Lace, but I found the Kinkster's latest a bit ponderous, poorly plotted and when the action eventually began it seemed to be dispatched far too quickly.
And you're right, Stephanie DuPont is a major, major irritation. She may be gorgeous but I think we'd all be a lot better off without her.
It's still a funny book, though, replete with the usual pearls of wisdom. Let's hope the slight loss of form, is just a blip on the radar.
Rating:
Summary: Who are these people????
Review: I've read all of The kinky Mysteries, save for "While the Cat's away" (which is a mystery in itself) and have loved them all and enjoyed seeing Kinky's style progress though the years. "Rainbow" reads as if it were written by someone trying to write like Kinky. Not only is he out of his element, New York, but worst of all, He's recycled a character and changed him completely. He's traveled before and wrote about it well, but to take a bee-keeping loner from Texas with a nervous twitch ("Armadillos and Old Lace") and turn him into a friendly news photographer who used to be a Nashville buddy. . .It's like reading a story set in the fifties that mentions FM Radio, Laptops or the space shuttle... Hopefully, the next book will actually be written BY the Kinkster.
Rating:
Summary: Who are these people????
Review: I've read all of The kinky Mysteries, save for "While the Cat's away" (which is a mystery in itself) and have loved them all and enjoyed seeing Kinky's style progress though the years. "Rainbow" reads as if it were written by someone trying to write like Kinky. Not only is he out of his element, New York, but worst of all, He's recycled a character and changed him completely. He's traveled before and wrote about it well, but to take a bee-keeping loner from Texas with a nervous twitch ("Armadillos and Old Lace") and turn him into a friendly news photographer who used to be a Nashville buddy. . .It's like reading a story set in the fifties that mentions FM Radio, Laptops or the space shuttle... Hopefully, the next book will actually be written BY the Kinkster.
Rating:
Summary: First Strike
Review: It's the first time I've been vaguely diappointed by one of Kinky's books. I won't repeat some of the quibbles other have pointed out (but boy, does Stephanie stink). My paperback edition was the UK one which was rather expensive for the few pages (208, to be precise) it contained. Add lots of white pages in this edition and 45 chapters and not too much text is left. Also, I thought at first that this book had been published in, well, 45 parts in some paper before, as much information is rehashed again and again. Kinky's dialogue always is a lot of fun, though and the change of location did the book good, too. I enjoyed the last third most, and even the plugs for his friend's works have a rather charming quality.
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