"Engrossing"
Elvis mystery
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Book
review: Blue Suede Clues (A Murder Mystery Featuring
Elvis Presley), Daniel Klein St. Martin's Minotaur, USA, 2002,
ISBN: 0-312-98195-3
Daniel
Klein's follow up to Kill Me Tender is an involving,
fast paced murder mystery full of intrique, laughs and suspects!
Did
Elvis Kill His Disgruntled French Ex-Mistress?
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Without
revealing too much of the storyline, Blue Suede Clues starts out
in 1963 after the filming of Kissin' Cousins. Elvis comes to the
aid of an old Army buddy wrongly jailed for the murder of a Hollywood
starlet. But the plot really thickens when Elvis himself is accused
of murder!
Filled
with familiar characters like Priscilla, Joe, Ann-Margret, and the
Colonel, the narrative builds suspense and is an interesting meshing
of fact and fiction as it weaves parts of the Elvis story into the
plot.
There
is also a nice plot device twisting part of the Elvis story into
the darker side of the narrative. Klein asks big questions throughout
his nicely blended text, raising our interest on questions like:
is there really any such thing as an accident or is there always
a human motive involved in all incidents?
Daniel
Klein has an easy-going writing style that allows the reader to
move through the story effortlessly. He punctuates his narrative
with colourful and engaging incidents:
"Elvis
craned his head down to try to see who it was, but suddenly he was
swinging so wildly and twirling so fast that his hands were no help
in preventing him from colliding with the wall. First his right
shoulder hit, then, careening back, his buttocks took a smack from
the opposite wall, and spinning back again, his left hand scraped
against a wood strut, grazing the skin on his knuckles. Along the
way, the blond wig tumbled off his head and fell to the ground.
In his gut Elvis's anger was fighting with his fear, and his anger
was winning hands down."
There
are nice doses of humour in the story as shown by the following
two excerpts:
"Elvis
smiled. He didn't know whether or not Regis had been tanked at the
trial, but right there he certainly sounded a whole lot more intelligent
than anybody else did.
"We'll
have to continue this seminar some other time, Elvis," he said.
"Unless you feel like having me for a bedmate."
"You're
not my type, Regis," Elvis said, grinning.
Klein
resolves his mystery tale with a clever denouement, once again intertwining
fiction with fact.
Verdict:
Blue Suede Clues is an engrossing, well-crafted mystery novel.
I for one can't wait for the third installment in this series.
Availability:
Now available in good book stores in the US and online from amazon.com,
bn.com and bamm.com.
Contacting
the Author: Daniel Klein is contactable online at www.elvisdetective.com.
On
his site there is also a competition where Daniel wants your help
in determining the title of the next instalment in the Elvis Presley
super sleuth series. Apart from his two Elvis mystery novelse has
also written Where's Elvis (with Hans Teesma), Beauty Sleep, Embryo,
Wavelengths and Magic Time.
Reviewed
by Nigel Patterson, President, Elvis Information Network, March
2002
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