McNally's Dare - Vincent Lardo

   2003; 308 pages.  New Author? : No, and no.  Book 12 (out of 13) in the Archy McNally series.  Genres : Private Investigator Mysteries; Florida Noir.   Overall Rating: 6*/10.

 

    Talk about a party pooper!  Jeff Rodgers sure is one.

 

    He was working as a waiter at Malcolm MacNiff’s la-di-dah party held at the close of his fundraising “Tennis Everyone” tournament, and somehow managed to drown himself in the swimming pool while on break.   Hmmph.  He was probably high on booze or drugs or something.

 

    Archy McNally, our protagonist Private Investigator (he prefers the phrase “Discreet Inquirer”), was at the party too, having participated in the tennis tournament.  The pool that Jeff drowned in was somewhat out of the way, which is most likely why no one saw him when he fell in.  It’s very sad, but accidents like that happen occasionally.

 

    Except the Palm Beach Police have just announced Jeff Rodgers was murdered.  Archy has some sleuthing to do.

 

What’s To Like...

    McNally’s Dare is the twelfth, and penultimate book in this series.  The series' original author was Lawrence Sanders, who passed away after the seventh book.  Vincent Lardo accepted the opportunity to continue the series, and contributed another six stories, putting them out at more-or-less one each year.

 

    The story is told in the first-person POV, Archy’s, and the setting is the greater Palm Beach, Florida area.  Both of these are norms for the series.  Archy is the self-confident, somewhat spoiled junior partner of the law firm McNally & Son, Attorney-at-Law.  Father generally takes care of the legal aspects of the business; Archy takes care of the legwork.

 

    The death of Jeff Rodgers at the posh MacNiff estate is a social embarrassment to the Palm Beach upper crust, and no less than three different clients engage Archy’s services, all emphasizing him to be discreet.  The case quickly becomes more complex: there are rumors of blackmail, illegitimate heirs, and impostors putting on airs.  There are clues to decipher as we tag along with Archy, but also some red herrings to keep us on our toes.

 

    I liked the brief literary nod to Willy Loman, as well as a couple basic phrases I learned in French 101: “Touché” and “N’est ce pas?”.  The title reference comes on page 293, but it doesn’t really impact the storyline.

 

    Everything builds to decent, slightly twisty, but not very exciting ending.  Archy solves the Who, How, and Why of the crime and the baddies are proven guilty, which turned out to be the most challenging aspect of the investigation.  McNally’s Dare is both a standalone novel and part of a series.  I’m not reading the books in order, and I don’t think that matters.

 

Ratings…
    Amazon: 4.5*/5, based on 273 ratings and 84 reviews.

    Goodreads: 3.86*/5, based on 1,205 ratings and 53 reviews

 

Excerpts...

    “A lot of kings bit the dust in Aunt Margaret’s lifetime.  The medication had her indulging in a remembrance of things past, as some writers put it.”

    Proust, if my brief but memorable at old Eli served.  I recalled a classmate who had actually read Proust.  For penance he served four years, graduated summa cum laude, and made millions as a pioneer in waste disposal.  I read The Power of Positive Thinking and am now eking out a living counting toes.  Is there a lesson to be learned in this?  (pg. 235)

 

    I left Father tugging on his whiskers and retired to my penthouse digs where I undressed, washed, brushed and donned a silk kimono in white with a scarlet obi.  This was presented to me by a lady friend who was a Shintoist.  I was a convert for the duration of our relationship, which was conducted on a mat.  She left me for a karate instructor who came with his own mat, and I was left holding the kimono.  (pg. 244)

 

How I longed for a refreshing cup of hemlock.  (pg. 132)

    There’s very little cussing in McNally’s Dare.  I counted just five instances in the first third of the book, and they were all just variations of the mild expletives: “hell” and “damn”.  The book opens with Archy going undercover (literally) at a massage parlor, but there’s nothing lewd about the ensuing sting.  Joint-smoking and amphetamines get a brief mention later on, but drug usage never figures into the storyline.

 

    My big issue with McNally’s Dare is the crime investigation.  We eschew spoilers in these reviews, so let’s just say Archy, and others, including myself, all latched onto a prime suspect pretty quickly, and nothing much along the way dissuaded any of us from our hunch. I like my murder mysteries to throw surprises at me and this book didn’t do that.

 

    6 Stars.  This was my third Archy McNally book, the other two are reviewed here and here, and were penned, one each, by Lawrence Sanders and Vincent Lardo.  McNally’s Dare was definitely the least impressive of the three, but maybe by this book Lardo was running out of good and innovative ideas for a murder-mystery.  Or maybe I’ve just outgrown the series.