McNally's Secret (Archy McNally Novels)

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Linda Shelnutt, June 9, 2006 (view all comments by Linda Shelnutt)
Cure Cultural Volcanics with Bubbling Champagne. Design Life To Suit Taste & Times.

The opening of this novel was classic, and felt to be the initiation of what Sanders was born and itching to write, beyond the sagas of his other fine works.

Of course the first lines in SECRET, the sipping of champagne from a belly button would snag the attention of even the most sexually skittish reader of the nose-raised, neck-cricked, personality persuasion. But, truly and honestly, what sunk me with every hook were the few lines exposing why Archy could never be serious. I believe that passage, beginning on page 1 chapter 1, is one of the main selling points of the series:

?I had lived through dire warnings of nuclear catastrophe, global warming, ozone depletion, universal extinction via cholesterol, and the invasion of killer bees. After a while my juices stopped their panicky surge and I realized I was bored with all these screeched predictions of Armageddon due next Tuesday. It hadn?t happened yet, had it? The old world tottered along, and I was content to totter along with it.?

I?d bet my fortune (which is based on a skill of ?make do?; there are no bananas in it) that the above passage is what captured a collection of readers so absolutely in a ?right on? agreement that this series spanned the grave of the author and is still spewing pages and stretching shelves.


As I relished the final chapters and pages of SECRET, I had a thought about the beauty, warmth, lovely literary melancholy, and subtly complex richness radiating from those concluding textual treasures:

In retrospect, this novel didn?t feel like a planned pilot to a mystery series. It felt to be a singular novel, like but not like, the ones Sanders had written prior to it. What it felt like to me is that Lawrence hit upon a ?soul speak? story which couldn?t halt the cultural conversation it had initiated, however serendipitous that initiation may have been.

Based on Agatha Christie?s official web site, Miss Marple was not originally intended to be another Poirot, and look what happened there.

To me, Archy appears to be a gatekeeper for pure and primal, hidden wishes and dreams. Living home comfortably, guiltlessly at 37, on the top floor of his parent?s mansion in Palm Beach; eating drool-food from a house chef; having established a club like The Pelican as a side atmosphere to partake in daily; working at a cushy, just challenging enough, engaging career for discreet inquiries ... If an author?s (or reader?s) going to retire that would be da place (or at least an entertaining option).

Get the SECRET of the McNally collection.

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Product Details

ISBN:

9780425135723

Author:

Sanders, Lawrence

Publisher:

Berkley

Location:

New York :

Subject:

Fiction

Subject:

Florida

Subject:

Mystery & Detective - General

Subject:

Detective and mystery stories

Subject:

Mystery & detective

Subject:

Mystery fiction

Subject:

Private investigators

Subject:

Mystery & Detective - Hard-Boiled

Subject:

Hard-boiled

Subject:

Palm Beach (Fla.) Fiction.

Subject:

Palm Beach

Subject:

McNally, Archy

Subject:

Suspense

Subject:

Palm beach (fla.)

Subject:

Mystery-A to Z

Copyright:

c199

Edition Description:

B-Mass Market

Series:

Archy McNally Novels

Series Volume:

2

Publication Date:

19930101

Binding:

Paperback

Grade Level:

from 12

Language:

English

Illustrations:

Yes

Pages:

352

Dimensions:

6.75x4.20x1.00 in. .37 lbs.

Age Level:

from 18