McNally's Luck by Lawrence Sanders
My rating: 3 of 5 stars

"Recently I had written to a custom hat maker [...] and had ordered three linen berets in white, puce, and emerald green. They arrived on Monday morning, and I was highly pleased. They were soft enough to roll up and tuck in a hip pocket, yet when they were donned and the fullness pulled rakishly over to one side, I felt they gave me a certain devil-may-care look."

Having just read a Supreme Court book followed by a Chandler's noir classic and then by a book about human cadavers, my brain told me to select something purely recreational, a totally thought-free read. So Lawrence Sanders comes to the rescue and the always reliable Archy McNally, the head of discreet enquiries department at McNally & Son, Palm Beach, Florida. And Mr. Sanders delivers! McNally's Luck (1992) has been precisely what I needed - a relaxing read before I tackle the 1939 Irish precursor of post-modern metafiction, At Swim-Two-Birds.

Peaches, the Willigans' feline has been catnapped and the note from the captors indicates that a ransom may be required. Since Mr. Willigan is an important client of McNally & Son, Archy is instructed to locate the missing cat. Soon after that another client wants to hire McNally's help: his wife has been receiving threatening, nasty anonymous messages. Archy quickly establishes that the messages have most likely been composed on the same word processor as the catnappers' note. As usual, the case grows rapidly and soon two murders occur. It is beneficial for the reader that Archy is a friend of Sergeant Rogoff of the Palm Beach Police Department: this way we can learn a lot of background of the two connected cases. It is Archy, also as usual, who finally untangles the entire mess.

Quite implausible, sure, but a wonderfully uncomplicated and fast read that does not engage the brain. And again (see my review of MacNally's Risk ) I must complement Mr. Sanders for the exquisitely florid and circuitous language that provides reading pleasure enhanced by clever puns and word plays. For instance, one of the main characters in a story is a medium, a psychic advisor, and the author calls her "a very rare medium," which made me giggle for quite some time. She is later called a "very physical spiritualist," which is a tastier while less obvious wordplay.

Archy gets infatuated with another character and the couple manages to consume their mutual passion in a really well-written scene that uses neat metaphors instead of awkward physicalities. Archy is a bit of a dandy which lets the author have fun with the puce beret motif. Cat vomit happens to be another motif. Speaking about motives spelled with a "v", the author manages to create a clever twist concerning the killer's motive, a twist that will ensure the triumph of justice.

I am unable to bring myself to rate a piece of pure entertainment fluff, a weightless literary trifle with four stars, but this installment of McNally series comes as close as it can. Big thumbs up and

Three and a half stars.

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