In Death is a Lonely Business, Ray Bradbury makes a delightful foray into the realm of the mystery story.

It was a dark and stormy night -- MY words, not his, he's much more creative than that! But in that classic atmosphere of mystery, in a lonely streetcar screeching around a curve, whistle screaming, a sinister stranger whispers "Death . . . Death is a lonely business." When our protagonist stumbles upon a body -- in a most unusual resting place -- on his way home from the streetcar, we're off on the adventure.

This strange, gentle mystery (populated with the kind of oddball characters that only Bradbury could conjure) is set in the peculiar environs of 1949 Venice, California, amidst abandoned canals and circus wagons, the constant thrum of oil rigs, and the tearing down of the old amusement pier -- and with it, the death of a way of life. Death seems to be all around, and it is, indeed, a lonely business.

Throughout this marvelous little book, the reader can savor the luminous language, the amazing use of metaphor, which is Bradbury's hallmark.

Highly recommended. ( )

A random (ish) drugstore purchase and a very pleasant surprise. ( )

The first book of Bradbury's Venice Trilogy, is very enjoyable if your taste runs to light, strange, quirky, mysteries. It was followed over a period of several years by "A Graveyard For Lunatics" and "Let's All Kill Constance". These are contemporary oddball crime fiction, not Sci-Fi.. and as with all Bradbury's work very well done! ( )

More than just a mystery novel, this book is an exploration of melancholy, decay, and the hopeful stubborness of the creative spirit. I truly love the protagonist, the unnamed young writer who mourns old strangers when nobody does, who befriends a grumpy detective by giving him his novel's title.

Bradbury uses such evocative, dream-like language that one cannot help but feel drunk from reading it. He's a very accomplished story craftsman but deep inside, he's still a kid and a dorky one at that. This is the main reason why he is a master. ( )

A detective mystery by Ray Bradbury, patterned after the Raymond Chandler mysteries and thoroughly enjoyable in its own right. Set in 1949 Venice, California where the amusement pier is being torn down, the story features four deaths that may or may not be accidental, a cast of appealingly eccentric characters, and a storytelling style that is an amalgam of classic Bradbury and Dashiel Hammett. An unexpected pleasure from Bradbury. ( )