Review: Okay "filler" reading while I wait for the next full-scale story in this series
Rating: 3 out of 5
Date: 12 19, 2013
I was delighted to discover the Algonquin Round Table Mysteries, a while back, a cozy mystery series in which the protagonist is Dorothy Parker. J.J. Murphy has done a good-to-excellent job of creating a character who is "like" Dorothy Parker without ever using the author's own words. So I was pretty happy to find a short story set in the same "universe," and I had no qualms in plunking down a dollar to read it in an e-book.However, the story is... okay. It's meant to be a short tale, of course, which means there isn't a lot of time or space for characterization or setting a context. Still, the plot is rather thin, and the snazzy repartee that made Murder Your Darlings such a hoot is missing here. If you liked the novels, you'll enjoy this short story in a nice in-passing sort of way, but I won't twist your arm and insist you must read it.You don't HAVE to have read the rest of the books -- if you know who Dorothy Parker is, this would stand alone -- but I think it would lose a star if you hadn't read the full novels.