Review of "Murder On the Aisle," by Ed Gorman

 Review of

Murder On the Aisle, by Ed Gorman ISBN 0345349075

Four out of five stars

A good read despite being formulaic

 This murder mystery follows a very standard plot when someone is killed. There are several possible suspects that were present, none seems to have a real motive. The detective doing most of the investigating is relatively simple-minded, locking on to a suspect and holding the thought while that prime suspect works his way through to exposing the real killer.

 “Peeps” is a show that stars Dunphy and Tobin, where they review movies. One of the primary attractions is that they often disagree, recently they have come to blows, although not necessarily over their different opinions of movies. Shortly after a violent disagreement, Dunphy is found outside Tobin’s dressing room with a knife in his back. Given their history, Tobin is the primary suspect. Although much of this is due to the dull wits of the investigating detective.

 Knowing that he is the prime suspect, Tobin engages in his own investigation and uncovers adultery, extortion, fraud, theft, and a great deal of false front double-dealing. As the story proceeds, the number of people with a motive for killing Dunphy rises. At the end, Tobin confronts the killer, getting a confession with explanation. This part is very formulaic.

 The prose is at times very good, for example, on page 129, a party is described. “And there were women - bloody Christ. But there were women. Some with fetching faces. Some with beguiling breasts. Some with asses that winked and some with asses that frowned.” This conjures up mental imagery that will be unique to each reader. While not all of the prose is this good, there are enough examples to make it a good read.