Jack Anderson (1) (1922–2005)

Where to start with this book?

First of all, it's billed inside the dustcover as being written by Jack Anderson, the famous Pulitzer Prize winning newspaper columnist, 'and' Robert Westbrook, 'the author of the Howard Moon Deer Mysteries… as well as many works of non-fiction…[who] lives in New York'. So, the first mystery is: who wrote this book? The dust cover also informs that Jack Anderson died in 2005, while the copyright notice is 2006. So, again, who wrote this book?

There are, of course, many mysteries which we would like to solve, and we all like to have a go at one now and then. But don't bother about this one. It's not worth it. This book is just a sorry collection of cardboard characters, wafer-thin plots and a mid-numbing selection of outrageously ridiculous coincidences that would make even a Victorian novelist wince.

So why did I bother persisting to the end? Discipline, I suppose. And the hope that some of Anderson's legendary magic might surface.

It didn't.… (more)