McNally lives at home, in a separate garage apartment, shares cocktail hour with mater and pater, tries to be faithful but falls for buxom beauties, enjoys the specialties at his local yacht club/ bar. His fashion sense would match a striped lime green beret to cherry red polkadot tie over lilac checkered golf knickers. He savors the finest cognac, aromatic cheroot, and onion bedecked burger. I read the series more for his eccentricities and hot Florida sun than adulterous greedy socialite soap opera leading to murders. Read many McNallys, but forgotten which. This cover I do remember. The emphasis on sex seems outdated now, 1960s - 1970s feel. Character portrayal suffered when Lawrence Sanders series taken over by Vincent Lardo. Hope these notes give enough of flavor, better than empty rating.
The McNally books written by Vincent Lardo are lighter in tone than the ones written by Lawrence Sanders, who created the character - and the McNally series in general was lighter than Sander's other books - which includes the "Deadly Sins" series. At any rate, I can't remember anything about this book except that it was enjoyable - this is kind of like a mashup between a murder mystery and P.G. Wodehouse or a modern day Dorothy Sayers, although I would have a hard time saying that the characterization and writing style is of the same calibre as Sayers or Wodehouse. Nonetheless, fun for those who want a breezy read that doesn't stick to the ribs.
Do You like book McNally's Folly (2001)?
Desdemona Darling has arrived!! She is to be the star of the Palm Beach Community Theater's production of Arsenic and Old Lace. Archy has been coerced into directing. The cast and the crew are among Palm Beach's rich and famous.At a cast party Desmonda's husband, Richard Holmes, sips some elderberry wine and drops dead. Now real life is imitating the play. Furthermore Richard had just asked Archy to find out who was blackmailing his wife. Now Archy must find out the real murderer among a cast of murderers.I did not enjoy this one as much as the others but I will continue the series.
—Dana
