β Scribed by Alfred Alcorn
No coin nor oath required. For personal study only.
At the start of Alcorn's uneven third Norman de Ratour mystery (after 2009's The**Love Potion Murders in the Museum of Man), Norman, the Museum of Man's director and the book's bloviating narrator, discovers a murdered man in a parked car near the museum, located in the New England town of Seaboard. Unfortunately, the victim is honorary numismatics curator Heinrich Heinie von GrΓΌmh, a wealthy MOM contributor. Worse, Heinie turns out to have been shot with Norman's revolver, making him a prime suspect. Meanwhile, Norman must find a new home for a highly articulate chimp, fend off neighboring Wainscott University's efforts to take over the MOM, and look into whether the antique coins Heinie gave the museum are fakes. Alcorn's barbed darts at academia and the rarified world of top-notch museums amuse, but humor alone isn't enough to redeem a rambling tale of wavering morals populated by mostly unattractive characters. (May)
Copyright Β© Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.
"Before one can do justice to Alfred Alcorn's third Norman de Ratour mystery novel, it helps to haul out such adjectives as smart, sharp, fresh, sly, wise, original , and wildly funny. Alcorn can keep a story moving with the swiftness of a dirty look and the brilliance of a fine satire. Set in a mythical academic institution (read Harvard)Β lucky readers of this novel will meet and get to know characters they won't soon forget--especially Alphus , the most memorable of contemporary philosophers."
β Anne Bernays
Praise for Murder in the Museum of Man and The Love Potion Murders in the Museum of Man:
βThe Marx Brothers would be very welcome at this quirky institution. . . . A stylish, fiendish detective story.β β _The New York Times Book Review
_
βAn adroit, hilarious send-up.β βThe New Yorker
βReaders will be choked with laughter.β β The Boston Sunday Herald
βDelicious details on every page.β β_ The Chicago Tribune_
βSly and spicy from start to finish . . . a just-right balance of innocence, subtle malevolence and cheeky irony.β β Publishers Weekly
A Norman De Ratour Mystery
π SIMILAR VOLUMES
### Review "\_The Love Potion Murders in the Museum of Man\_ is no less giddy, but in a dry, snide style. Uppity Wainscott University is caught on Alfred Alcorn's blade when two antagonistic academics are found on the floor of the genetics lab, victims of an industrial-strength aphrodisiac and done
Dean Cranston Fessing, dispatched from Wainscott University to investigate the finances of the neighburing Museum of Man, has been murdered. Not only that, but his grisly remains bear the unmistakable mark of preparation as haute cusine. Norman de Ratour, museum recording secretary and unlikely sleu
Dean Cranston Fessing, dispatched from Wainscott University to investigate the finances of the neighburing Museum of Man, has been murdered. Not only that, but his grisly remains bear the unmistakable mark of preparation as haute cusine. Norman de Ratour, museum recording secretary and unlikely sleu
Bracketts, an Elizabethan house near the town of Fethering, is about to be turned into a museum. Once the home of celebrated poet Esmund Chadleigh, it has been decided that it should now become a shrine to his life and poetry. But the transition from house to museum is running far from smoothly, and
When Professor Julius Arnell breathes his last in the hushed atmosphere of the British Museum Reading Room, it looks like death from natural causes. Who, after all, would have cause to murder a retired academic whose life was devoted to Elizabethan literature? Inspector Shelley's suspicions are arou
When Professor Humberto Ossmann and Dr. Clematis Woodley, who heartily despised each other in life, are found together in a mortal embrace, Norman de Ratour knows that evil once again stalks the hallowed precincts of the Museum of Man. It has been several years since the museum was wracked by what b