The cover is amazing. The comparison to Dashiell Hammet and The Thin Man protagonists Nick and Nora intriguing. It involved Amelia Earhart! I went out of my usual genres to request Michael Murphy's Wings in the Dark, the third of his Jake & Laura mysteries but the first one I had read.Jake & Laura are no Nick and Nora, and Murphy's writing can't compare to Hammett or the other great Noire writers of the last century. How I hate blurb writers who resort to easy comparisons to some iconic work.
To be fair, I will toss aside those comparisons and judge the book on its own merit.
Jake and Laura were childhood sweethearts in Queens, NYC. Jake was a detective, now he writes mysteries, and Laura is a famous movie star. Finally married they are honeymooning in Hawaii. It is 1935 and Amelia Earhart is in Hawaii preparing to fly across the Pacific Ocean. Laura happens to be an old friend so when Amelia finds herself a murder suspect she calls on Jake to help.
The honeymoon is over.
There are several red herrings along the way, each revealing a larger political plot. The murdered man's ex-mistress was at the scene of the crime. Secret societies of Royalists want to end American imperialism and reestablish the monarchy. The murdered man wanted Hawaiian statehood but his brother was a Royalist. Japan had motive to sabotage Amelia's flight as a way of preventing America from establishing air flight across the Pacific. This part of history is not well known and is quite interesting.
Typical of the genre, the plot is the thing. There are enough twists to satisfy. There are action scenes, too. We have a femme fatale, strong-arm goons, a bar in the wrong part of town--all the stock devices. Laura's beauty and fame bring her constant sexist attention, including from her hubby--Very 1930s.
I was irked by information dumps and name dropping without any real characterization. Amelia never seems real; she is a talking cartoon of that famous photo of her in a flight suit, hair tousled, a smile on her sun weathered face. J. Edgar Hoover and George Patton appear without any real reason for being in the book. The humor is so-so, with too many clichés and old chestnuts.
A look at reviews of the previous Jake & Laura books comes up mostly with 4 or 5 stars. So readers do like the series. For me, this is a two hour beach read for when you just want to veg out.
I received a free ebook for a fair and unbiased review.
Wings in the Dark
Michael Murphy
Penguin Random House
Publication Date July 14, 2015
214 page ebook $2.99
ISBN: 9780553393378
