Book Review: All That Glitters by Michael Murphy

To say that I am a fan of Michael Murphy's Jake and Laura Mysteries is an understatement.  I read the first book in this series last summer, and I've been watching for the second one ever since.  All That Glitters did not disappoint!  After saving the President's life and exposing a group of communists, Jake and Laura left New York City to travel to Hollywood.  Jake is looking forward to spending time with Laura, and working on his next Blackie Doyle novel.  Laura is headed out to film her first movie.  Things take a bad turn from the beginning when Jake gets into a fight with Eric Carville, an executive from Laura's film studio.  Things only get worse when Eric is found murdered, and Jake is the prime suspect.  Jake and Laura have a very small window of time in which to solve the mystery before Jake is arrested, and his writing career is destroyed forever.  This book, like the first is sprinkled with appearances by famous people of the time period, including Louella Parsons, William Powell and Jack Benny.  When you add in a few mobsters, this book really gets good!  I loved Mr. Murphy's nod to the popular fictional detectives of the thirties with his very theatrical revelation of the murderer at the end.

This series is like my favorite old-time radio detectives rolled up into one great story.  I think the author stays very true to the time period in his plots, characters and themes.  While I do wish he'd left out some of the more "colorful" language, it wasn't too bad.  At first I was a little annoyed with Laura because she seemed  determined to disagree with Jake at every turn, but she got better.  I also realized that part of their chemistry is the way that they disagree, but really come together in the end.  Jake couldn't have solved this mystery without Laura's help.  With his Pinkerton skills, and her acting talents, they can fish information from anyone.

Michael Murphy has fast become a favorite author of mine.  (And I truly appreciated his kind comment on my review of The Yankee Club.)  Dare I hope from reading the last chapter of All That Glitters that the next book will involve Amelia Earhart and perhaps a trip for Jake and Laura to Hawaii?  And could there be wedding bells in the third Jake and Laura Mystery?  We shall see!

Happy Reading!

Lyndsie

I was given an advance copy of this book by the publisher in exchange for my review.  All opinions are my own.  Look for All That Glitters by Michael Murphy  from your favorite bookseller on or around January 6, 2015.