Northern Book Review

Modern Irish Mystery, Stay Tuned!

In The Woods
by Tana French
2007

I'm only on page 155, and already feel I must share. This is some book. It's a mystery, it's a character study, it's a thriller and best of all, it reaches far above the genre of mystery with its prose. Set in modern Ireland, the author fulfills the heavy shoes of the Irish authors before her with writing that is beautiful, precise, humorous and surprising. Her website states that Tana French grew up in Ireland, Italy, the US and Malawi, and has lived in Dublin since 1990. It doesn't say that she was born in Ireland. Whether she was or was not, it doesn't matter. The moods of Ireland, its words and authors can be felt like ghosts standing behind the pages, in the trees of In The Woods.

The protagonist is a man who may be the sole survivor of a mystery. His two childhood friends vanished in the woods near his home, and he was found covered in blood and clinging to a tree. Small surprise that twenty years later he's a Murder Squad detective. When another murder occurs in his old home town, he catches the case.

I want very much to find out how all the pieces fit together, but more than anything, I look forward to roughly another 300 pages of wonderful writing. Stay tuned.

Groucho Marx, Secret Agent

Ron Goulart
2002

Here we go for another round of perilous puns and raucous racketeers. You have Hollywood, Nazis (again), to say nothing of Dorgan, the bloodhound. A famous English director is found dead, and Groucho and Frank go to work, while Jane holds the fort.

Groucho Marx and the Broadway Murders
2001

I like this one the best because we get to take a vintage train or two and get a change of scenery: New York City and the World's Fair. This is also the best mystery of the bunch.

My only criticism is that Groucho is a cartoon of himself. He never shuts up, he never has a serious moment. (However he is extremely funny.) I recently bought Arthur Marx's (Groucho's son) book of photographs of his father, and it shows a thoughtful, fun-loving, silly, but also very serious and sensitive man. Celebrate the silly side with these mysteries, but remember that he was so much more.

Elementary, My Dear Groucho

Ron Goulart
1999

Following quickly on the gumshoes of Groucho Marx, Private Eye, this third installment in the mystery series starring Groucho Marx and scriptwriter Frank Denby ups the ante by killing off a German director on the set of a Sherlock Holmes movie. The star of the film, one Miles Ravenshaw, calls a press conference and challenges Groucho to a duel of wits and discovery, saying “I fully suspect, old man, that once that baggy pants mountebank learns that Miles Ravenshaw is on the case, he won’t even dare to compete.” After that, not investigating the case is out of the question, not to mention checking with his tailor.

We visit a Mexican café owned by a Swede, (and the food is just the way it you would predict), hob nob with studio heads, PR flacks, starlets and Nazis. To say nothing of the dog. Groucho is peddling a script for a movie called “Cinderella on Wheels,” Frank’s wife Jane plays an important part, there are more interesting characters than ever, and the complex plot is the most satisfying yet.

Groucho Marx, Private Eye

Ron Goulart
1999

Things are beginning to gel quite nicely in this second Groucho mystery set in 1930s Hollywood. The writing is snappy, Groucho is in fine form and as for the plot, there’s no hitch in its gitalong.

In the first book, Groucho Marx, Master Detective, Frank Denby meets the love of his life, Jane. It happens so quickly that one wonders if Jane isn’t one of the bad guys, in true film noir tradition. Luckily, she’s not and she and Frank pursue their relationship throughout this second adventure.

We get a nice look at some movie sets, hear Groucho sing Gilbert and Sullivan, and watch him deal with a persnickety child actress named Polly, who he describes as possessing “all the best qualities of Typhoid Mary, Ma Barker, and Louis B. Mayer.” The new sponsor of Groucho’s radio show is Mullens Pudding, which comes in “five flavorful flavors,” chocolate, vanilla, butterscotch, strawberry and, according to Groucho, herring.

Between tracking down the killer of the “poor man’s Ronald Coleman,” Brian Montaine, and finding out who is framing Polly’s mother, Groucho deals with tourists and autograph seekers, obliging them with a signature, sometimes even his own.

All my reservations regarding the literary resurrection of Groucho have vanished like a puff of Groucho’s cigar smoke. Carry on, Ron, the world needs Groucho now just as much as it did then.

Grouch Marx, Master Detective

author: Ron Goulart
1998

I’m a bit of a Marxophile. So when I found a mystery novel series that starred Groucho as the “Master Dective” I knew I’d have to take a look.

It’s one thing to write a book starring Sherlock Holmes, who, even as a fictional character, died decades ago. You can resurrect Holmes, but you can’t bring him into modern times. Besides, much of the allure of a Holmes mystery is that it takes place in the Victorian era. People behaved differently then, which becomes interesting.

It’s another thing to write a book with a protagonist who is not fictional. In fact, one can see hours and hours of his movies and television shows if one wishes. There are people alive who knew Groucho. Apparently the author got permission from something called Groucho Marx Productions in order to write this series of books. It’s strange to see someone fictionalize a real person. Distortion of a movie star happens in biographies, in newspapers and magazines all the time. But to take an entirely real character and try to move him through a plot in a book is a dangerous undertaking, to say the least.

The setting is 1937 Hollywood, and while that might seem like the distant past to some of you, the fact is that cars, telephones and other modern devices make it far less foreign that Victorian England.

Goulart writes with a light hand and a good sense of humor. His Groucho is entertaining most of the time and there are some truly hilarious conversations and wisecracks. Groucho’s Watson is a script writer named Frank Denby, who meets Groucho when he’s hired to write a radio script for him. Denby has just met and fallen in love with a woman and Groucho responds with “Ah splendid. I’ll do my best to screw that up for you.”

Remembering that Goulart has written many books about comic strips helps put this book into perspective. It’s just a little bit deeper than a comic strip. It’s amusing, moves quickly, and entertains. I found myself having to translate what was written into a black and white movie in my head, and that helped. I have no doubt that Goulart had a similar movie in his head when he wrote the book.

The plot is adequate, but nearly gets lost in all the patter. A good book for an afternoon or two of escape. I haven’t read the next book in the series, but I probably will.