Blood Will Have Blood

Rating:
Summary: Not bad for first novel from now famous author
Review: Linda Barnes is no doubt better known for her tall, redheaded private eye, Carlotta Carlyle (8 books in all, with a ninth due out soon) than her earlier Boston-based "playboy" Michael Spraggue. His set of four stories often revolves around the theater since Spraggue is a part-time actor, a part-time former sleuth, and a full-time, wealthy, man about town.

In this first book of the set, and presumably Barnes' first full-length novel, Michael is hired to sub for an actor who quit an upcoming version of the stage play "Dracula" due to a number of serious pranks being pulled on cast members. Director Arthur Darien wanted Michael not only to fill the missing role, but of course to track down the prankster before there was more trouble. The plot winds along through nearly a dozen more episodes, some in the nuisance category, some quite dangerous, until one of the stars is murdered right on stage. At that point, the police get involved, but Spraggue is close enough to a solution to stage a trap. Throughout we get close looks at theater relationships and politics.

For a first novel, now 21 years old, we were reasonably well entertained throughout, especially by the surprises at the end and the eventual unraveling of the culprits. Some of the malarkey in the middle of the book got a little tiring, but we suspect editors were pushing plot complexity harder than characterizations in Barnes' earlier work. Interesting that as soon as she dropped Spraggue for Carlyle, he was a goner -- and in general we suspect that is just as well.

The Barnes' fan club won't want to skip these Spraggue stories, but more casual readers will probably enjoy the zany Carlotta escapades a good deal more.