Rating: 
Summary: YOU WILL LAUGH UNTIL IT HURTS!
Review: This is without a doubt the FUNNIEST mystery I have ever read! Sharyn McCrumb is a gifted author with a real flair for creating voice, character and setting. In this case, the setting is a science fiction convention and the characters range from the scholarly Dr. James Owen Mega (aka "Jay Omega") and Marion, a professor. These two literati encounter an ecelectic group of students, people dressed as sci-fi characters, authors and other interested parties. Appin Dungannon, a man small in stature and long in chutzpah and crudity dominates the convention. An angry little dynamo, he manages to deliberately rile everybody at that convention. He ends up dead and the REAL mystery is WHO DID IT? I have never read such a hilarious mystery as this. As good as its sequel, "Zombies of the Gene Pool" is, this book is still the better of the two. The characters who have actually crossed over and believe they ARE the sci-fi characters and good old Appin himself will leave you laughing. One singularly hilarious part in the book is when Appin refuses to autograph his books. When pressed by an autograph hound, Appin signs the name of another very well known author, thus enraging the autograph hounds. This book is a work of comic art. I loved it!
Rating:
Summary: You'll laugh because it hurts
Review: This isn't much of a mystery. (The reviewer who said he solved it by reading the back cover blurb was dead on.) The murder doesn't occur until halfway into the novel and then there really aren't any suspects to speak of. But... As a look at the cultish world of SF Cons and SF in general, it is flat out hilarious! Anyone who has set foot inside a Holiday Inn ballroom during a con will recognize the characters and probably see a little bit of themselves: All those annoying "filk" singers, overweight virgins in Spock ears, horrible fan fiction ("The D&D transcripts are in that pile, the Dune ripoffs are over there...") Some have said that the book is too mean towards the world of fandom, but I don't think so. This is a brilliant, comic roast, done by someone who has genuine affection for the characters she is skewering. You need to read this if you want a good laugh.
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