The Black Star Murders / Murder Begins at Home [two Carter Winfield / Matt Doyle Mysteries]

Dale L. Gilbert

ISBN 10: 0312013914 / ISBN 13: 9780312013912

Published by St. Martin's Press 1988-1989, New York, New York, 1988

About this Item

2 individual vols. Octavo, 8 1/2" tall; 1: 265 pages. A fine, clean, neat unread hard cover first edition with little shelf wear; hinges and binding tight, paper white. In a near fine, lightly worn dust jacket. With publisher's review slip laid in. 2: 295 pages. A fine, clean, neat unread hard cover first edition with little shelf wear; hinges and binding tight, paper cream white. In a near fine dust jacket with light edge wear. Bookseller Inventory # 13056

Bibliographic Details

Title: The Black Star Murders / Murder Begins at ...

Publisher: St. Martin's Press 1988-1989, New York, New York

Publication Date: 1988

Binding: Hardcover

Book Condition:Fine/Near Fine

Dust Jacket Condition: Dust Jacket Included

Edition: First printings.

About this title

Synopsis:

Scholar and ex-Secretary of State Carter Winfield, along with his streetwise sidekick Matt Doyle, tackles the case of a cat burglar--operating in the San Diego area--whose modus operandi has begun to include murder

From Publishers Weekly:

Wisecracking private eye Matt Doyle does a favor for a friend and has a run-in with the mob. Forced to leave Chicago, he settles in San Diego, at the seaside home of ex-Secretary of State Carter Winfield. They set up a detective agency, obviously a combination of brains and brawn. Doyle investigates a series of cat-burglaries, all bearing a bravado signature: as a calling card, the thief has left a white carnation at the scene of each crime. Winfield is certain that this is a ruse to divert suspicion from a more serious crime still to come. During the next burglary he is proven correct; a pharmaceutical company CEO is killed. Her tomcat husband has a motive (she is throwing him out) and an alibi (staff meeting). The plot is largely predictable, the characters and dialogue hackneyed. Tough-guy patter"You guys lie like rugs"; "he was mad enough to chew nails"and tired similes"like a bull in a china shop"; "like a compass needle homing in on magnetic north"are more reminiscent of Encyclopedia Brown than Philip Marlowe in this disappointing debut.
Copyright 1988 Reed Business Information, Inc.