Ten Dead Comedians: A Murder Mystery by Fred Van Lente
My rating: 4 of 5 stars
I love mystery, I love comedy and I love And Then There Were None… so I couldn’t wait to read this new take.
Although it took me a while to get into the story at the very start (while you jump about getting to know the characters) it is well worth reading. The mystery was sound, the jokes were good and the characters were great (‘not based on real people’ – yeah right!) It’s tense in places, funny in others and quite often both.
There are lots of twists and turns and some pretty gruesome deaths. Although I worked out a small part of the mystery, the full resolution was a surprise. The structure was interesting – different views from different characters, interspersed with transcripts of their comedy routines – and helped you get to know the characters.
A few of the passages need a re-write as it seemed that they were still in first/second draft ‘get the ideas down’ form but I know this was an advanced review copy so that may well be resolved. I am very grateful to NetGalley and Quirk Books for the ARC of Ten Dead Comedians.
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