Topsy and Evil

Pharoah Love #3

by George Baxt

Orange boards. An Inner Sanctum Mystery. 224 pages.

Genres: Mystery

125 pages, Paperback

Published January 1, 1987

About the author

George Baxt, the US playwright, scriptwriter and novelist, in New York City, USA.

He began his career as a radio announcer, an actors' agent, and television scriptwriter. He claimed that as an actors' agent he threw James Dean out of his office because he needed a bath. George Baxt's career developed into scriptwriting cult horror films. He made a contribution to The Abominable Dr Phibes, although it was uncredited. His first novel A Queer Kind of Death, (1966), introduced the detective Pharoah Love who was the first in the genre to be both black and openly gay. The novel was very well received and marked the start of a new career in writing. Two further Pharoah Love novels soon appeared and were widely regarded as superior to the first. Nearly three decades passed before the final outings of Pharoah Love in two novels.

Meanwhile George Baxt introduced the detective duo Sylvia Plotkin and Max van Larsen, but these were soon abandoned and several non-series novels were produced. Starting with The Dorothy Parker Murder Case, George Baxt then began to use his knowledge of Hollywood life by using celebrities as characters in a series of detective novels.

He died following complications after heart surgery.

Interesting obituary here: http://www.independent.co.uk/news/obi...

Reviews

[Ana · Rating 5 out of 5]

I found this book while helping someone clean and it looked and sounded interesting enough to give a little time to. I have never regretted it. It is weird, funny and full of just outrageous characters in the best sense of the word. I love how almost ever sentence is styled in this over the top camped out way. A nice little mystery, a cool cat as the main character and so many snappy one liners, I doubt you'll be bored with this one. Gets better every read.

[Terry · Rating 1 out of 5]

This was a bit of a sad end to the first black gay detective, Pharoah Love. On one hand, I’m quite tempted to read the thing again as there’s a lot of great, snappy quotes, and parts are rather hilarious. On the other hand, it’s just bad. One of those it’s so bad it’s good? Nah.

[Ronald Wilcox · Rating 4 out of 5]

A light read. Funny satirical murder mystery featuring several unique characters with Satan Stagg, a trainee of Pharoah Love, doing the investigating this time. Believable? No way. Enjoyable? You bet.

[Kyle · Rating 3 out of 5]

1968. Extremely funny campy mystery. Third in the Pharoah Love detective series. References a ton of movies and musicals I didn't know. Everyone is double-crossing everyone else to try to get rich.