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Rating: 
Summary: Immature mystery story
Review: Calling "Reader's Guide to Murder" a classic mystery would be like calling an Edsel a classic car. Technically, you're correct, but classic can also imply that it's timeless and valuable, and that would not accurately this book. "Reader's" is a classic mystery in that it resembles the immature side of the genre, where the characters are cardboard cutouts mounted on sticks, moved hither and yon in order to solve a series of murders that are puzzling, but, in this case, are not very engaging. The murders are recreations of those found in classic mysteries, complete with taunting notes sent to the department's chief of detectives, Harvey Goldstein. Since Goldstein is accompanies by a visiting British police officer, and both are mystery fans, the murders become springboards for discussions of the genre with Goldstein's assistant (and mystery-free) Sgt. John Bogdanovich. It is possible to write a contemporary mystery with references to the genre; Peter Lovesey's fine "Bloodhounds" comes to mind. Considering the flood of books coming out every month -- 52 during February according to the Cluelass Internet site -- there seems little reason to pick this one out of the morass.
Rating:
Summary: Immature mystery story
Review: Calling "Reader's Guide to Murder" a classic mystery would be like calling an Edsel a classic car. Technically, you're correct, but classic can also imply that it's timeless and valuable, and that would not accurately this book. "Reader's" is a classic mystery in that it resembles the immature side of the genre, where the characters are cardboard cutouts mounted on sticks, moved hither and yon in order to solve a series of murders that are puzzling, but, in this case, are not very engaging. The murders are recreations of those found in classic mysteries, complete with taunting notes sent to the department's chief of detectives, Harvey Goldstein. Since Goldstein is accompanies by a visiting British police officer, and both are mystery fans, the murders become springboards for discussions of the genre with Goldstein's assistant (and mystery-free) Sgt. John Bogdanovich. It is possible to write a contemporary mystery with references to the genre; Peter Lovesey's fine "Bloodhounds" comes to mind. Considering the flood of books coming out every month -- 52 during February according to the Cluelass Internet site -- there seems little reason to pick this one out of the morass.
Rating: 
Summary: If you love classic who-done-it, you'll love this! Excelent!
Review: To me this was a well thought, well in-depth mystery based on the most clasical mysteries and their authors. Fictional characters like Holmes and mystery writers like agnatha christie. This novel is a real treat of fans of those novels and myster fans in general. H. Paul Jeffers outdid himself and did justice to the authors his book protrays and their creations. Murder never has been so much fun, and entertaining, with his charm and wit and the side of humour is mixed well with the story line and theme.
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