Die Laughing

Rating:
Summary: Steve Allen Delights Again As A Real Sleuth
Review: I thoroughly enjoyed the mystery. I had no idea that Steve Allen wrote this type of book. It was a page turner and I stayed up until it was done. There were many chuckles and it was great that Jayne gets involved in the story. Highly recommend it as a light mystery.

Rating:
Summary: My first Steve Allen book and I'm looking forward to more!
Review: I thoroughly enjoyed the mystery. I had no idea that Steve Allen wrote this type of book. It was a page turner and I stayed up until it was done. There were many chuckles and it was great that Jayne gets involved in the story. Highly recommend it as a light mystery.

Rating:
Summary: Steve Allen Delights Again As A Real Sleuth
Review: Steve Allen is an extraordinary man. His achievements in television comedy, educational tv, and songwriting have made him a hou sehold name and presence to millions. His mystery series, the latest being "Die Laughing", revolve around himself,or at least the conceit that the real Steverino, his wife Jayne Meadows and other real people are involved in solving murders which just happen to take place when he's around. In "Die Laughing", Steve is called to the bedside of a dying comic great who makes Steve promise to emcee a one-time awards ceremony with the "funniest Person Alive" to receive $1 million to be paid from the dying comedian's estate. The elderly comic dies and before a few pages have passed several famous comedians are found stabbed to death . All the knives used turn out to have come from an expensive set of cutlery given to the now dead comic great by,surprise, Mr. and Mrs. Steve Allen many years earlier. The denouement, as in all Allen's novels turns out to be both complicated and fascinating. The charm of this and the other books is not really the mystery. It's Steve's comments on society and culture,fame,politics,food and just about anything else that gets into the story.

Having been a Steve Allen fan for many years, I find these mysteries a charming way to meet Mr. and Mrs. Allen and share some time with them and their friends, if only on the printed page. "Die Laughing" and all the other mysteries are fun to read and well above the ordinary.

Rating:
Summary: Fun Mystery
Review: Steve Allen is asked by legendary dying comedian Benny Hartman to organize and be host of the Benny Hartman Memorial Comedy Awards. During the preparation of the show, three people are literally stabbed in the back, another is shot, and another is kidnapped. Despite this, the story moves slowly but the dramatic and clever ending makes it all worthwhile. The characters, while distinctive, don't have distinctive voices, that is, they all sound alike. But sometimes they're recognizable. For instance, one character is clearly modelled after Woody Allen and in one funny scene, Jayne catches "Woody" and a married woman in a motel room and "Woody" proceeds to whine and complain while the married woman wonders what she ever saw in him. But the biggest mystery to me is, when does Steve Allen, one of the busiest people in show business, ever have time to solve murder mysteries?

Rating:
Summary: A highly entertaining book
Review: The story of a joke that backfired. I appreciated this book which contains elements of a murder mystery interspersed with humour that brought a smile to my face, literally right up to the last page.

Rating:
Summary: funny people make for light murder mysteries
Review: This is another excellent entry in Mr Allen's light murder mystery series, where Steve and real life wife Jayne Meadows get entangled in another murder among their show biz friends. Steve is asked by dieing friend Benny Hartmann to host an awards show in his honor, giving out a collection of comedy awards including a million dollar prize for "funniest person alive". Meanwhile, some old time comedians are lining up to win the money, and some end up with knives in their backs. Complicating matters, the knives originated from a purchase by Mr Allen himself! And is Benny really dead or not? Why are people seeing glimpses of him around Beverly Hills?

As with most of Mr Allen's mysteries, he explains the whole thing in the end in a dramatic stage presentation.