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Richard Diamond: Private Detective
Three tales combining the toxic mixture of blackmail and murder. Blackmail Is Ugly: Los Angeles 1948, Private Investigator Richard Diamond answers a plea from a damsel in distress who suspects that her handsome husband is the victim of a blackmailer. Dead Man's Shoes: Richard Diamond gets an unusual appeal from an old client asking him to impersonate an already dead man. Take Care Gorgeous: Inspector James Forsyth gets tangled in a web of blackmail and murder set against the tough backdrop of 1950's Belfast. He gets a call that soon leads him into a dangerous labyrinth of shifting identities and deadly extortion.
116 pages, Paperback
Published July 5, 2016
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Displaying 1 - 1 of 1 review
March 16, 2017
No respect for the original
I'm a huge fan of the original Richard Diamond radio show, and was very excited to see that someone had tried their hand at writing some fiction based on that series. If you feel the same way, do yourself a favor.
Skip this book.
In the ingerest of full disclosure, I didn't finish this book. The editing, or apparent lack thereof, was enough to cause me to delete the book out of frustration in and of itself; there appears to be no comma on the ajthor's keyboard. Compound that with turning one of the most interesting tough-guy detectives into a generic Philip Marlowe clone, and you have a recipe for frustration--at least as far as I'm concerned.
The most glaring oops was the fact that Richard Diamond bases his office out of Los Angeles in this book, not New York City, as is the case in the show. Outside of that, I could find nothing of the characters who made the series so special. Where were Lieutenant Levinson and Sergeant Otis? For crying out loud, where was Helen Asher? When it became clear this book didn't seem to be giving its titular character his due, I did a search to see if any of these ancillary characters made an appearance. No such luck. I'll even give the author a potential out: I did notice the first story takes place in 1948, while the show didn't premiere until 1949, so maybe this was supposed to be some kind of prequel... but even so, if you're going to play in the Richard Diamond sandbox, this was a lost opportunity, indeed.
I really wanted to be able to give this book a glowing recommendation. As it stands, however, I fear Blake Edwards would be rolling over in his grave. What a waste.
I'm a huge fan of the original Richard Diamond radio show, and was very excited to see that someone had tried their hand at writing some fiction based on that series. If you feel the same way, do yourself a favor.
Skip this book.
In the ingerest of full disclosure, I didn't finish this book. The editing, or apparent lack thereof, was enough to cause me to delete the book out of frustration in and of itself; there appears to be no comma on the ajthor's keyboard. Compound that with turning one of the most interesting tough-guy detectives into a generic Philip Marlowe clone, and you have a recipe for frustration--at least as far as I'm concerned.
The most glaring oops was the fact that Richard Diamond bases his office out of Los Angeles in this book, not New York City, as is the case in the show. Outside of that, I could find nothing of the characters who made the series so special. Where were Lieutenant Levinson and Sergeant Otis? For crying out loud, where was Helen Asher? When it became clear this book didn't seem to be giving its titular character his due, I did a search to see if any of these ancillary characters made an appearance. No such luck. I'll even give the author a potential out: I did notice the first story takes place in 1948, while the show didn't premiere until 1949, so maybe this was supposed to be some kind of prequel... but even so, if you're going to play in the Richard Diamond sandbox, this was a lost opportunity, indeed.
I really wanted to be able to give this book a glowing recommendation. As it stands, however, I fear Blake Edwards would be rolling over in his grave. What a waste.
Displaying 1 - 1 of 1 review