Tue 25 Oct 2016
Reviewed by Barry Gardner: STAN CUTLER – The Face on the Cutting Room Floor.
Posted by Steve under Reviews[4] Comments
STAN CUTLER – The Face on the Cutting Room Floor. Goodman & Bradley #2. E. P. Dutton, hardcover, 1992. Signet, paperback, 1993.
The unlikely detecting pair of middle-aged Hollywood PI Rayford Goodman and gay ghostwriter Mark Bradley made their debut in Best Performance by a Patsy to considerable good press.
In the second outing, Goodman is “requested” by the local Mafia boss to guard a good friend who is recovering from plastic surgery at an exclusive hotel, while Bradley is ghosting an autobiography of an Oscar-wining director. They turn out to be the same person, and our lovable pair are reunited amid murder and gangland mayhem.
To be honest, I didn’t see what all the fuss was about. The characters are amiable enough, and Cutler is a decent writer, but I remained relatively unimpressed with it all. I found the overall plot not very engrossing (though there was a realistic subplot with Goodman and his lady), and I didn’t like the alternating first-person narratives, which were distracting to me. I’m glad I read this from the library rather than buying it.
Bibliographic Note: There followed two additional entries in the series: Shot on Location (Dutton, 1993) and Rough Cut (Dutton, 1994).
October 26th, 2016 at 12:13 am
The lack of comments so far — and I know it’s early — suggests the same lack of familiarity with this series as I have. It barely rings a bell with me, if that.
October 26th, 2016 at 9:24 am
These are dated but remain a guilty pleasure of mine. Rayford Goodman is a character that reminds me a bit of “Buddy Faro”. The portrayal of L.A. is on the money for me.
October 26th, 2016 at 2:50 pm
Thanks, Rick. Yours is a better recommendation than Barry’s, and enough for me to go searching for these. Hollywood and PI’s simply go together, like Love and Marriage, or probably even better, Larceny and Mayhem.
October 26th, 2016 at 8:47 pm
Might be worth a look.