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Indlæser... Ten Dead Comedians: A Murder Mystery (udgave 2018)af Fred Van Lente (Forfatter)
Work InformationTen Dead Comedians: A Murder Mystery af Fred Van Lente
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Bliv medlem af LibraryThing for at finde ud af, om du vil kunne lide denne bog. Der er ingen diskussionstråde på Snak om denne bog. So this probably would have been a 3.5 bumped to a 4 if not for the fact I was rather let down that I recently re-skimmed this, to finish up my review, and guys...guys its possible I was being too nice earlier. My skin was crawling at points that I marked to revisit for my review. I will warn for grisly deaths, foul language and well the language in general - no punches are pulled here. But hey a good comedian kills the audience right? I have to say, the book jacket made me laugh and sucked me in. Familiar with Christie's Ten Little Indians, I was prepared for...well, let's say, I thought I was prepared, but still didn't nail it. A solid fresh take on the old classic. I'm not a super fast reader, but since this is dialogue-driven, it seemed to whoosh by. I almost read it in one sitting. The characters are well differentiated, it was a fun read. Wish they had plus ratings, I'd give it a 4 . Wish it was a little longer or more descriptive, it felt almost rushed, written to a deadline. Maps and interspersed comic monologue backstories a nice touch. ingen anmeldelser | tilføj en anmeldelse
Fred Van Lente's brilliant debut is both an homage to the Golden Age of Mystery and a thoroughly contemporary show-business satire. As the story opens, nine comedians of various acclaim are summoned to the island retreat of legendary Hollywood funnyman Dustin Walker. The group includes a former late-night TV host, a washed-up improv instructor, a ridiculously wealthy "blue collar" comic, and a past-her-prime Vegas icon. All nine arrive via boat to find that every building on the island is completely deserted. Marooned without cell phone service or wifi signals, they soon find themselves being murdered one by one. But who is doing the killing, and why?A darkly clever take on Agatha Christie's And Then There Were None and other classics of the genre, Ten Dead Comedians is a marvel of literary ventriloquism, with hilarious comic monologues in the voice of every suspect. It's also an ingeniously plotted puzzler with a twist you'll never see coming No library descriptions found. |
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Google Books — Indlæser... GenrerMelvil Decimal System (DDC)813.6Literature English (North America) American fiction 21st CenturyLC-klassificeringVurderingGennemsnit:
Er det dig?Bliv LibraryThing-forfatter. |
Van Lente appears to be satirizing modern comics through his characters. I don't know enough about the comedy world to confirm this myself, but I'm seeing a lot of other Goodreads reviews mentioning Larry the Cable Guy, Carrot Top, Gallagher, Pee Wee Herman, etc. Correct me if I'm wrong, but aren't all these references fairly niche or just outdated? How did this even get published? (I know how - Quirk Books, a company that prides itself in publishing the weird titles of this world, took on Ten Dead Comedians, even though its quirk doesn't save its story)
The one satire I did catch onto involved Ruby Ng, who in the book is an insufferable feminist with a totally exaggerated desire to destroy the patriarchy. Frankly, I found myself insulted by all the stereotypes packed into her character. She's a lesbian, a podcaster craving fame, a hypocrite who preaches love while tearing everyone down every time they make a mistake, and a feminist who notably does not shave her legs. Yes, all of those are real traits found in real people, but it is so unnecessary to put all that on one character. It's unsubtle, it's unfunny, and the bit about not shaving her legs was just too much.
The good news is that even those who have read the original Ten Little Indians won't be able to predict the ending, at least not all of it.
The bad news is the ending felt unearned. I remember the Christie version being particularly fascinating because the victims were all guilty and thus deserved their deaths to an extent. But Van Lente's one-dimensional comedians really did not. They are supposedly being punished for bad comedy and minor bullying, but neither of these are crimes worthy of such creative murders.
In short, it was dumb and not worth the time. ( )