Wednesday, April 25, 2018

The Monkey's Raincoat



The Monkey’s Raincoat is the first novel in the Elvis Cole series by Robert Crais. Elvis Cole is a private detective in Los Angeles who, along with his part-time partner, Joe Pike, takes on cases at a lower rate than most of the private detectives in the area. In this book, Elvis is contacted by Ellen Lang whose husband, Mort, and nine year old son, Perry, are missing. Mort owns a talent agency and has dealings with some shady characters. Elvis finds out about some of these characters while investigating the case and finds several obstacles along the way he has to overcome. Will he be able to find Mort and Perry?

This story was originally published back in 1987 and there are references to music, movies, television shows and other trends that were popular back then. There is humor mixed in with plenty of action and keeps readers’ attention.

If interested in reading this book, you can purchase it in various formats from the following sites:



World of Sleuths Rating: ➷➷➹➹➹
(Five out of six arrows)


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Tuesday, April 17, 2018

Project PD Mysteries & Thirllers: The Circular Staircase


The Circular Staircase is a mystery novel written by Mary Roberts Rinehart and was originally published in 1908. In this book, Rinehart’s first bestseller, Rachel Innes, a well-to-do spinstress rents a home in the country for the summer. Her orphaned niece and nephew, Gertrude and Halsey, who are in their early twenties and are in her custody arrive to the rented house the day after Rachel. On the her first night at the house, Rachel starts hearing noises in the stairway at around 3:00 AM. When she opens her bedroom door to investigate, the noises had stopped and nobody is there. When Gertrude and Halsey arrive the next day, Halsey has a friend along who plans on staying the night. That night there are gun shots in the house, again at 3:00 AM. When they get downstairs, there is a dead body on the floor and Halsey, along with his friend have disappeared. Rachel decides to try solving this crime since it appears the Halsey and Gertrude might be implicated with the murder. Along the way, many more mysterious things happen.

The way this book is written, the author draws the readers in and keeps their attention by everything that goes on without there being too much that would cause readers to get confused. There is plenty action and mysteries in this book and is a very good read.

If interested in reading this book, you can download it in various formats from the following sites:





World of Sleuths Rating:  ➷➷➹➹➹ 
(Five out of six arrows)


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Wednesday, April 11, 2018

Manhattan is My Beat


Manhattan is My Beat is the first novel in the Rune Trilogy by Jeffery Deaver. Rune is a twenty year old woman, recently moved to New York City from Ohio, that works in a video store. One day she is sent to pick up a movie rented by and elderly gentleman that had befriended her. When she arrives at the gentleman’s apartment, he has been murdered and she is almost hit by the murderers’ car while they are trying to flee the scene. Not impressed with the speed at which the police are investigating the murder, she decides to try to find who killed him. Just that a lot of bad stuff is happening wherever she goes.

There is a lot of action in this book along with humor. The book was originally published in 1988 and there are a lot of references to eighties clothing movies, along with other things that were trending at the time. This book is a very enjoyable read.

If interested in reading this book, you can purchase it in various formats from the following sites:



World of Sleuths Rating:  ➷➷➹➹➹
(Five out of six arrows)


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Thursday, April 5, 2018

Project PD Mysteries & Thrillers: Seven Keys to Baldpate



Seven Keys to Baldpate was the debut novel written by Earl Derr Biggers, first published in 1913. It was later adapted a play and has been adapted to movies several times, as well as radio and television. It takes place the week before Christmas at Baldpate Inn, a summer resort on Baldpate Mountain in upstate New York. Billy Magee, author of several light romance novel goes up to Baldpate Inn during the night, which is closed for the winter, planning to live there in seclusion in order to write the ultimate novel. He has a key to the inn and figures he will be the only one there. Shortly after his arrival and for the next twenty four hours, a cast of characters arrive with their own stories for wanting seclusion, most of them tall tales to cover what they are really after. Their true purposes come to light throughout the story as well as a mystery unfolds.

Biggers went on to write several other novels and screenplays, including six Charlie Chan novels. Many of his works are mystery and detective based, but there is usually a romantic thread included in them. This book was a bestseller for him.

There is plenty of action in this book with humor and a romantic thread tied in to keep most readers interested. It’s hard to figure out the outcome of the mystery in it until the final few chapters of the book. It is an enjoyable read.

If interested in reading this book, you can down load it in various ebook formats from the following sites:





World of Sleuths Rating:  ➷➷➹➹➹
(Five out of six arrows)

If you want to find out more about the rating system this blog uses, please see http://world-of-sleuths.blogspot.com/2018/04/new-rating-system.html.



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The Deep Blue Good-By


The Deep Blue Good-By is the first novel in the Travis McGee series by John D. MacDonald. Travis McGee solves certain types of problems without getting the police involved for a fee. In this debut novel for the series, he is after an ex-con released from Leavenworth military prison who takes advantage of women, sexually, emotionally and physically while living extravagantly on a boat in Florida. The way he got the money was from his first victim, who was poor, until he found something that her father, a convict who died while at Leavenworth, had hid on the property. Will Travis be able to stop him before he takes advantage of very many women?

This story was originally published in 1964 and some of the material is dated to that time period, but it still is a pretty good story overall. There is plenty of action and the reader gets a good introduction to Travis McGee.

If interested in reading this book, you can purchase at the following sites in various formats:



World of Sleuths Rating:  ➷➷➹➹
(Four out of six arrows)

If you want to know more about the rating system for this blog, please see http://world-of-sleuths.blogspot.com/2018/04/new-rating-system.html.



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New Rating System

Beginning with the reviews that I write today, I will be implementing a new rating system that I've developed for this blog site. I'm changing from the five star rating system used by Amazon and GoodReads to my new six arrow rating system.

The reason for this change is that I do not give fractions of points in my ratings. Many people will rate books with half stars, such as three and a half stars, because they don't know whether to give it the higher or lower number. The only area I had I had problems with that was between three and four stars. That's why I decided to add an extra number to remedy that.

I had also thought of six such as six bullets in a revolver. The more bullets, means that it was harder to put the book down. But The possible symbols that Blogger has do not include bullets that look like ones for a gun. They do have arrows that look similar to those used in archery, so I decided to replace them for bullets.

The ratings are as follows:

     1 Arrow  -- ➷                     -- DNF (did not finish) or finished, but shouldn't have.  
     2 Arrows -- ➷➷                 -- Wasn't that good.
     3 Arrows -- ➷➷➹             -- Good, but not that memorable
     4 Arrows -- ➷➷➹➹         -- Good, Memorable with some flaws
     5 Arrows -- ➷➷➹➹➹     -- Very good
     6 Arrows -- ➷➷➹➹➹➹ -- Awesome!

I also mad a video explaining my new rating system. It can be viewed here: My New Rating System

Please post your thoughts of this new rating system in the comment box below.


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