Saturday 27 April 2013

JOHN D. MACDONALD - A PURPLE PLACE FOR DYING (1964)


Synopsis/blurb....

Mona is in love with a poor, young college professor and married to a wealthy man whom she is convinced is stealing from her trust fund. So she does what any self-respecting girl would do: She hires someone to steal her money back so she can run away with the love of her life.

Travis isn’t sure he wants to help out until he sees Mona getting shot and killed out on the cliffs near her cabin. Now he’s a lead suspect in a plot to help her escape, and to clear his name, he needs to get to the bottom of things. But the murders just keep mounting, and for Travis, even working with Mona’s husband doesn’t seem to help matters. Will he be able to uncover the complex plot in time to save his own skin?

A short review or summary for a short novel.......no a brief Q & A session with myself instead,

Did you enjoy it? Hmmm, yes, not over-whelmed, not under-whelmed either – it was ok in an averagely good sense.

What didn’t engage you? Well McGee seems to be the go-to-chap when the dame needs rescuing. He couldn’t save the first, but lo and behold there was a second one along a while later that he could save. Maybe there’s a bit of a formula developing with this series. If the next 18 or so are the same it might be a test of endurance rather than a reading pleasure.

That seems unnecessarily harsh...... Probably with a bit of hindsight, maybe I just woke up grumpy! I will persevere with the series and I expect to enjoy them as I go.

Marks from 5?  This would rate as a 3. Not as enjoyable as the first in the series – The Deep Blue Goodbye.

Where did you get your copy from? On-line at Amazon quite recently.

Thanks for your time..... You’re welcome.


4 comments:

  1. Col - Very clever way to share your assessment! I agree that The Deep Blue Goodbye is more absorbing (well, it was for me). But there some real treasures in this series in my opinion. I hope you'll enjoy others you read.

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    1. Thanks Margot, I'll hopefully find the treasure next month with the 4th instalment!

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  2. I am planning to re-read some of these ... sometime. I have a few copies of older paperback editions. I read a lot of them when I was younger and I liked them a lot. But I do remember some of them seeming to be the same thing over and over.

    I liked the format of your review.

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    1. Tracy, thanks. I'm hopeful book 4 is more enjoyable. I do like reading a fifty year old paperback. It has a bit more character about it than a lot of modern printings, plus they are usually a lot thinner! Great cover art also.

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