McNally's Bluff

Rating:
Summary: Very cute light mystery
Review: All of Palm Beach society is gathered at the home of a new arrival--former carnival owner Matthew Hayes. The party, a first look at a huge maze the carney built on his expensive property. But the prize turns out to be something none of the party-goers expected--a dead body at the center of the maze. Private Investigator (and man about town) Archy McNally was at the party and now Matt is asking for Archy's help in finding his wife's killer. Archy resists at first--but the case just might tie into another one that his father has been asked to provide legal services to.

As always, Archy finds himself swimming through a sea of beautiful women. There's his longtime-but-no-longer lover, Consuela. There's new love interest, Georgie. But there's also the beautiful and rich widow of a Florida billionaire--who just might have killed that very billionaire. And Archy can't help being attracted to the T.V. star--despite her being quite married. With his erstwhile sidekick, Binky, off providing services to a muckraking reporter, Archy is on his own in trying to find a killer.

The Vincent Lardo/Lawrence Sanders stories attempt and sometimes achieve a modern remake of the suave private eyes of the 1930s. Archy is always well (if sometimes ostentatiously) dressed, likes his alcohol, treats women like cute puppies, and is fastidious with his grammar. In several earlier stories, I objected to a streak of cruelty in Archy's treatment of Binky and others. Here, Archy seems not less full of himself but at least less cruel to others. His run-in with a several-year-old suit even exposed a bit of well-hidden self-doubt.

Lardo keeps a quick light tone, maintains a steady diet of beautiful women, corpses, high society, and murder, and delivers a page-turning mystery read. It's fluff, of course, but it's enjoyable fluff.


Rating:
Summary: Archy Is Conned!
Review: Another nouveau riche has arrived in Palm Beach and wants to make a social splash. The only thing that's different is that this nouveau riche has a more scandalous background than usual. Archy finds himself invited to the opening of an amazing maze in the back yard of an Ocean Boulevard mansion. It's quite a show . . . which ends in the mysterious death of the host's wife. Before the police can even begin their investigation, the host has hired Archy to help him find the murderer. Archy dislikes his host, but agrees to take on the task in order to be sure that something bad happens to the host.

The story is notable for Binky developing some backbone . . . much to Archy's annoyance.

The mystery's solution is a clever variation on the old locked room problem. I enjoyed the twist at the end, which I did not expect. I had come up with another solution that was dismissed by the author. That's all right. I liked Mr. Lardo's solution better.

I would have graded the book a little higher but the dialogue and action were a little more vapid than is my taste. This book could have been edited down into a much stronger book. Have publishers started paying by the word again? I wonder.

If you have liked the other Vincent Lardo books based on Lawrence Sanders's character, Archy McNally, you will probably find this to be an average or slightly below average offering.

Rating:
Summary: 6TH TIME IS A CHARM FOR LARDO !
Review: Characters remain interesting and fresh while maintaining an airtight plot!

Rating:
Summary: Lardo is faltering
Review: I enjoyed the original McNally books by Lawrence Sanders and have generally enjoyed the follow-up books by Vince Lardo. From the beginning, this series has been lightweight stuff, suitable for a pleasant quick read and easy to forget. I found "McNally's Bluff" the lightest of the series so far. Archie McNally is back as Palm Beach PI to the rich and famous. Still ensconced in a tiny office in his father's law firm, Archie is the man about town always surrounded by some beautiful woman or two. His long-time squeeze, Consuela, has taken up with a dashing Cuban expatriate. Archie's newest love, Georgie, is a Florida state trooper who played a more prominent role in the previous novel.

The plot this time revolves around Matthew Hayes, a former carnival operator and his sidekick and wife, Marlena Marvel. Ms Marvel is quickly disposed of at the opening gala to celebrate the new arrivals to Palm Beach and their amazing maze. How her body came to be in the center of the maze moments after the guests have been taipsing through it, and who killed her, is the puzzle Archie is hired to solve by Matthew Hayes. Although suspicion is cast on several characters, the villain is fairly clear from the start.

The McNally novels have been fluffy from the start. This one is the fluffiest of the lot.

Rating:
Summary: The normal spark wasn't there this time...
Review: I finally finished McNally's Bluff by Laurence Sanders and Vincent Lardo. I say *finally* as this one took me about a week when generally it'd be a two day book...

Archy McNally is called to investigate a murder when a party he's attending turns into a crime scene. A carnival owner who has moved into town has a maze built on the property, and during a grand opening party his wife is murdered and found dead in the goal of the maze. It's nearly impossible that she was able to appear earlier as a performer at the party and then be found dead, but that's apparently what happened. There are a number of people who might be connected to the death in some way, but none appear to have a clear-cut motive. When one of these people shows up dead, the plot gets even more complicated. Archy is trying to solve the murder and unravel the mystery before anyone else dies in the process...

Normally I'm a big fan of the McNally series written by Lardo since Sanders passed away. And on the surface, this latest installment has the same witty writing and word play. But something just seems to be missing. Archie and Connie are no longer together, and the relationship between him and Georgia doesn't seem to advance anywhere here. His normal frustration with Binky is not there, as Binky seems to have a mind and life of his own in this book. Even Archie's dad, the head of the law firm, plays an extremely minor role here. The spark that normally propels me along with these books just wasn't there.

Everyone's entitled to an off-day. I just hope this isn't a precursor to the end of an excellent series...

Rating:
Summary: Lardo needs a little more gin and less vermouth
Review: I have read all of the McNally Novels and believe that Lardo has done an admirable and almost seamless job taking over the series for the late Lawrence Sanders. These books have always been lightweight, but the series appears to be moving from the Sean Connery to Roger Moore phase and becoming entirely self-parody in style. The characters are all there but the dialogue and plot are slighter than ever. From the outset of the crime, the murderer might as well carry a sign saying I did it.

Rating:
Summary: Good But Read Better
Review: I really like that Vincent Lardo is getting handle on the McNally Character and Binky character is become more of a man than mouse. The ending of this novel was very good and with a clifhanger.But this constant sparing between Consuela and Archy it's becoming too much. Archy needs make up his mind about who he wants. I personally would like Archy and Consuela back together. While I like McNally Bluff this wasn't his personal best.

Rating:
Summary: Overall I liked it
Review: It's about time Binky stood up for himself; I got the impression that Archie (grudgingly) respects that.
As for romance, Archy and Connie are sooooooo not split up. Georgie is a rebound affair that's run its course; I hope she and Archy remain friends. For me, having him living with a squeeze is close enough to marrying him off; either go whole hog, hitch him and end the series - or move him back to his aerie.

Rating:
Summary: Very weak outing -- has Archy run his course ??
Review: We've enjoyed the entire Archy McNally series, including the seven by Sanders and the now six by Vincent Pardo writing for the estate. However, we have to agree with those feeling this is the lightest of the light. Most of these books have us hobnobbing with the rich (if not famous) in Palm Beach and the various happenings, sometimes including murder, that cause them to seek McNally's "discrete" private eye services. While solving a mystery that is usually not too violent and not too enigmatic, we get steady doses of Archy's love life, his lavish wardrobe, his gossip sessions at the family manse, his sparring with his father's secretary and the mailroom attendant (Binky) at work, and his sumptuous meals at the Pelican Club and other hangouts.

All of these elements resurface in "Bluff"; but the underlying mystery is so light, and its conclusion so direct, that the book seems little more than an assembly of past storylines and character interactions. While using now rich ex-carny entertainers as the principals wasn't a bad idea, the plot, centering on the murdered "Venus", Marlena Marvel, found in a literal maze of bushes, otherwise just generated little or no suspense to carry off the 300-page hunt for a close-at-hand killer.

Sometimes these continuing series novels run out of steam, especially after a dozen or so entries. We'd hope for a much better effort next outing, or else we'd recommend early retirement for our pal Archy.


Rating:
Summary: Missing something...
Review: Why don't they take Lawrence Sanders' name off the McNally books? Vincent Lardo obviously hasn't studied them in depth, since he makes mistakes with reference to Sanders' stories. Archy states he doesn't want to get married if he can't have a marriage as perfect as his parents. Lardo apparently is unaware that the "pater" had an affair in one of Sanders' installments! Archy isn't quite the same guy and is becoming quite the annoying snob. Al Rogoff was hardly in this one and I missed him. Archy's living with a girlfriend and there are few references to the McNally "manse", dinners with the folks, etc. And the climax was anything but; a true anticlimax that was over before I realized. Time to hang up the series? I do believe.