J.J. Murphy’s second mystery, You Might As Well Die, starring Dorothy Parker, is a zany, screwball comedy delight set in New York in the 1920’s. People die (well, that’s debatable but I’ll say no more), but you will never feel sad. The witty jokes and cynical appraisals of life’s foibles fly as fast as you can read.
Along with the hilarious members of the Algonquin Round Table we met in Murphy’s first book, Murder Your Darlings, including Dorothy’s closest friend Robert Benchley, the characters in this book include (and “characters” is the right word) Harry Houdini the famous escape artist. We also meet a very bad artist named Ernie MacGuffin, whose dreadful art gets a sudden rise in value when he jumps off the Brooklyn Bridge, and another dubious “artiste,” strip tease dancer Viola Sweet, who claims to be channeling the dead Ernie as a clairvoyant. Harpo Marx and Alexander Woollcott croquet through it all—yes, their wild game of croquet uses all of greater New York as their playing field. Dorothy does solve a murder or two and manages to make enough money in the process to pay off her debt to Tony Soma and regain access to her favorite speakeasy. But I won’t tell you how she earns that money—that would give too much away and you’ll want to enjoy all the fun. If life has been getting too dreary lately, pick up You Might As Well Die because you might as well laugh.
I’ve heard of this series, but until this review, never really wanted to read them. Now I do…going on my “to read” list.
You’ll definitely have a good time! Pure escapism of the nicest sort accompanied by a fascinating group of real people from a great moment of history.
New York as a playing field for croquet?!
You have written a tantalizing review–again.
My reading list gets longer and longer, thanks to you.
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