Review: Great Mystery: Ordinary Guy Gets In Over His Head
Rating: 4 out of 5
Date: 06 16, 2014
"Baby Blue Rip Off" is the first in Collins' Mallory series.  Rather than writing about a reformed hitman (Quarry) or a ex-mob guy (Nolan), the Mallory series focuses on someone who is more of an everyman rather than being a professional tough guy.  Mallory is a Vietnam Vet, who tried some odd jobs in California and other places, and returned to Port City, Iowa, after his parents died.  There, he takes the occasional college course on the GI Bill and publishes the occasional mystery novel.  He is not a tough guy and gets the crap beat out of him while getting caught up in mysteries.  It is a great series and told in a humorous vein.In this volume (a quick-reading 160 pages to be precise), Mallory has been shacked up young, slender blond named Sally and "there wasn't a thing wrong with Sally that a new personality couldn't have cured."  Indeed, "She was the sort of woman who uses her good looks as a form of blackmail when she's in a good mood, and for revenge when she's in a bad one."  At Sally's urging, Mallory gets involved in being a "Meals on Wheels" volunteer, delivering to the elderly once a week.  Mallory, being a young, longish-haired, guy was not totally sold in doing public service for the elderly, thinks:  "God forbid I'd be asked in to chat with one of the tottering old relics.  Who in hell wanted to watch the decaying creatures gumming their food, saliva and masticated glop dribbling all over their hairy-warted chins?  Yuck."  That is, until he meets them.The plot centers around one fateful night when Mallory was making deliveries and sees a crew of people and two vehicles in front of an old woman's house and they just didn't seem right.  Poking his nose into trouble is what makes a good story, but for Mallory it only gets him beat up and left unconscious along with the old woman's body and what was left of her worldly possessions.  The Sheriff, who has a personal dislike for Mallory on account of his anti-war activities some years back, tells Mallory to stay out of it and let the professionals resolve the matter, but Mallory can't stay out of it and persons involved won't let him stay out of it.What follows is a good mystery story with Mallory, being an ordinary guy, not Mike Hammer or the like, getting bounced around by tough guys and femme fatales on his way to solving a murder that the officials just can't get.  The story is an easy, quick read- Shouldn't take more than a few hours- and is filled with humor.Mallory seems like a decent guy.  He even when he takes a trip down memory lane and gets re-involved with his high school sweetheart, the one who dumped him for the guy she is now married to.  For Mallory, his return to Port City is a return to his roots.  Many of the people he meets or interacts with were people he grew up with or were the parents of people he knew when he was a teenager.It is highly recommended reading and should have appeal to quite a wide audience.