The Sign of Four

Rating:
Summary: very descriptive and flowing narrative - a great read!
Review: Like A Confederacy of Dunces to which it alludes, this book contains much New Orleans local interest and detail. Mr. Herman is very talented in the use of dialogue, and commands the reader's attention with descriptive prose, a discussion of contemporary issues through his talk show host protagonist and a surprise ending. I enjoyed this book very much, and look forward to Steve Herman's next novel.

Rating:
Summary: very descriptive and flowing narrative - a great read!
Review: Like A Confederacy of Dunces to which it alludes, this book contains much New Orleans local interest and detail. Mr. Herman is very talented in the use of dialogue, and commands the reader's attention with descriptive prose, a discussion of contemporary issues through his talk show host protagonist and a surprise ending. I enjoyed this book very much, and look forward to Steve Herman's next novel.

Rating:
Summary: Sherlock H. meets Bourbon Str.: Murder, zest & romance
Review: This slender little roman a clef has everything you want in a mystery: a lost treasure; a murder; a dead man with the answers; a mysterious beauty with a secret; and of course, the reluctant and often naive narrator who finds himself in too deep with this unsavory lot.

Fans of Sherlock Holmes will recognize this late 20th-century version of the all-but-forgotten Sign of Four. This time the setting is the heat and sweat of New Orleans circa 1995, and faithful Dr. Watson has become a lonely, over-articulate innocent who hosts a local talk show.

The novel, with its wisps of old-world romanticism, revolves around the beautiful and mysterious woman trying to reclaim bits of her past as well as her father's lost riches. There's a pegleg, an eccentric stone-cold dead behind his desk, a Howard Stern sympathy homily and even an angry dwarf (yes, Stern and an angry dwarf!).

The storyline is puncuated at odd times by the narrator's on-air rants about society, economic issues and other injustices. Sometimes they work, sometimes they don't. In contrast are the delightful forays into New Orleans everyday life. At one point, the narrator talks about a restaurant or cafe and remembers what it USED to be called. Forget Fodder's: You can use Sign of Four as your map through the city.