Top critical review
2.0 out of 5 starsTOO MANY BREAKS IN THESE BOUGHS
Reviewed in the United States 🇺🇸 on February 19, 2016
This novel begins with a statement. "It was shaping up to be a beautiful day". The last thing I (Dr. Alex Delaware wanted to hear about was murder.
Unfortunately, for the next 5+ pages, things devolve into long instances of extended descriptions of mundane activities and events that require skimming to find content.
Then, the doorbell rings, but before Alex can answer it Milo (Sturgis) lets himself in and tosses a newspaper ( The Los Angeles Times) on the sofa.
Unfortunately again, the next 4+ pages again require skimming to find content.
Milo then advises Alex that a man by the name of (Psychiatrist) Dr. Morton Handler is in the morgue with his throat slashed, along with a lady friend, also with her throat slashed, but also with sexual mutilation, and her nose sliced off. Milo tells Alex that the murders had taken place at Handler's place.
Milo then advises Alex that there is a possible witness, a kid who lives in the same building, who is pretty confused, and not sure what she saw, and tells Alex that he then thought of him; that he could talk to her, maybe try a little hypnosis to enhance her memory.
Again, the next 5+ pages require skimming to find content.
Then, Alex agrees to see the girl (whose name is Melody Quinn) and asks Milo what she actually saw. Milo replies that she saw shadows, and heard the voices of two or three guys, but who really knows, because she's totally traumatized, and her mother is just as scared as she is.
Then, 5 more pages require skimming.
Then, Asks Milo whether Melody's mom would allow Alex to visit with melody for two hours, and Milo replies "at the most", and then asks if noon would be a good time for the visit to start. Alex agrees.
Then, 25+pages, through the beginning of Chapter 2, require very much skimming before content is achieved.
Then, Alex receives a call from a reporter, named Bill Roberts, who wants to interview him for an article that would alert practicing pediatricians to the issue of child molestation. Alex agrees to be interviewed.
The interview was to take place in Alex's office on the 6th floor, at 8 P M, and he arrives at 8, takes the elevator to the 6th floor, walks toward his office and then stops. There is no one waiting for him, which was unusual, because he'd always found reporters to be punctual. He approached his office door, and saw that the door was slightly ajar, and he wondered if the night crew had let Roberts in.
When he reached the office door, he knew something was wrong. When he went into his consultation office, the man on the sofa wasn't Bill Roberts, it was a man that Alex hadn't but knew very well. The man was Stuart Hinckle, and he was dead. One arm and hand lay across his chest, and held a piston an inch from his open mouth. There were bits of brain, blood and bone on the wall behind his head. Alex picked up the phone and dialed.
The coroner's preliminary verdict was death by suicide. The final version was that Hinckle had been depressed since his arrest and, unable to bear the public humiliation of a trial, he'd taken the Samurai was out.
It was he, Hinckle, posing as Bill Roberts, who had picked the lock and blown his brains out.
The rest of the novel could, and in parts is, very exciting to read. There are murders, briberies, child molestations, Melody's rescue, and a "Gentlemen's Brigade" that is anything but.
Unfortunately, the rest of the novel contains many more, very extensively extended descriptions of mundane activities and events. With all of these detrimental factors, this novel is barely readable.
