REVIEWED BY BARRY GARDNER:


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.

— Reprinted from Fireman, Fireman, Save My Books #5, January 1993.


Bibliographic Note:   There followed two additional entries in the series: Shot on Location (Dutton, 1993) and Rough Cut (Dutton, 1994).