McNally's Trial

Teaming up with a new sidekick, Binky, for an investigation into the affluent Palm Beach circuit, playboy-turned-sleuth Archy McNally checks out a suspicious rise in business at the posh Whitcomb funeral homes. Reprint.From Publishers WeeklySuggesting a morally bankrupt, sun-tanned Bertie Wooster, Archy McNally sleuths among Florida's well-heeled Palm Beach set in this lightweight crime series from the author of the Deadly Sins and Commandments thrillers. Archy, an occasional investigator for his stuffy lawyer father, here agrees to look into the sudden "uptick" in business that is worrying a pretty exec at the exclusive Whitcomb Funeral Homes. Too many people are dying, observes the woman, and being shipped up north in coffins. In between boozing, lying to his girlfriend and delivering sub-Wodehouse patter that lacks both wit and an anchoring value system, Archy and his gormless pal Binky Watrous investigate the likable old couple who own the funeral homes and their son and his wife, whose swinging lifestyle makes Archy's look tame. The trick of insinuating character eludes Sanders, who, if a woman dissembles or a doctor is stoned to the gills, hits us over the head with the facts. While an occasional few of Archy's quips are funny, Sanders's dialogue is mostly as stiff as the story's corpses. Literary Guild selection. Copyright 1995 Reed Business Information, Inc. From Library JournalAffluent private investigator Archie McNally cracks yet another case in this newest addition to the author's best-selling series.Copyright 1994 Reed Business Information, Inc.