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| Plot Summary of Drop Dead, My Lovely |
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"
NAL, March 2004, 23.95, 288 pp.
ISBN 0451211170
When he wakes up in the hospital, Pete Ingalls thinks he's a private investigator and talks like a gumshoe out of a forties film. He has no memory of being a mild mannered hermetic bookstore clerk who had an accident when a pile of books fell on his head. His friend thinks he is putting him on but when he leaves the hospital, he opens up a PI office, places an ad in the newspaper, prints some business cards, and hires a secretary who wanders if her boss is legitimate or crazy.
Actually Pete has two walk in cases that he eagerly grabs up. The first one involves Celeste Vroman who wants Pete to find her lover Jeff Litman who seems to have disappeared. He finds Jeff hiding at his office avoiding Celeste because he started an affair with Olivia Cartwright. His second case involves Catherine Flonger who thinks her TV reporter husband is cheating on her and wants proof. Neither case goes smoothly. Jeff disappears, Olivia is found murdered and Pete has a quickie with Catherine in a women's dressing room. It goes downhill from there.
What makes DROP DEAD, MY LOVELY an outstanding reading experience is the hero is suffering from amnesia yet effortlessly becomes a private investigator modeling himself on tough PI's like Same Spade and Spencer. There is plenty of action because Pete manages to get himself in a lot of trouble while working on cases yet the best part of Ellis Weiner's novel is the dialogue. Pete sounds like an anachronistic Phillip Marlow clone in a twenty-first century context and that makes for a hilarious novel.
Harriet Klausner
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Harriet Klausner, Resident Scholar
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| Review Analysis of Drop Dead, My Lovely |
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Our unique search engine provides a wealth of detail about books by breaking them down into many different literary elements, all of which are searchable (click here).
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Ratings are on a 1-10 scale (Low to High)
Plot
Composition of Book
descript. of violence and chases - 10%
Planning/preparing, gather info, debate puzzles/motives - 40%
Feelings, relationships, character bio/development - 30%
How society works & physical descript. (people, objects, places) - 20%
Tone of story
- suspenseful (sophisticated fear)
How difficult to spot villain?
- Very difficult--no foreshadowing/clues
Time/era of story:
- present (2000-2010)
What % of story relates directly
to the mystery, not the subplot?
- 60%
Kind of investigator
- hard boiled/private eye
Kid or adult book?
- Adult or Young Adult Book
Any non-mystery subplot?
- amnesia
Crime Thriller
Yes
Murder Mystery (killer unknown)
Yes
Main Character
Gender
- Male
Profession/status:
- private investigator
Age:
- 20's-30's
How much violence does he/she use?
- a little
Ethnicity/Race
- White/American
How sensitive is this character?
- middling sensitive to others' feelings
Sense of humor
- Mostly serious with occasional humor
Intelligence
- Very much smarter than other characters
Physique
- very athletic
Main Adversary
Identity:
- Female
Age:
- 40's-50's
Profession/status:
- homemaker
How much of work is main antagonist actually present in:
- a moderate amount
Motive of antagonist
- revenge
How sensitive is this character?
- hard edged
Sense of humor
- Mostly serious with occasional humor
Intelligence
- Smarter than most other characters
Physique
- very athletic
Setting
United States
Yes
The US:
- Northeast
Style
Person
- mostly 1st
Accounts of torture and death?
- generic/vague references to death/punishment
How many deaths?
- 2
Amount of dialog
- significantly more dialog than descript
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Note: the views expressed here are only those of the reviewer(s). | |
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