Review: Throw-back to a Hardboiled Dectective Novel
Rating: 4 out of 5
Date: 05 24, 2012
Undressed To Kill: The Investigations of Ralphy, written by David Andrew McGlone, is a short collection of stories about the cases of an alcohol addicted and fairly useless private investigator. Ralphy is pretty much a low life who spends his days and nights looking for his next drink and his next woman. He has a two-track mind: getting drunk and getting laid. That's probably why the cases he does get aren't exactly cream of the crop but he does seem to always come out on top, albeit usually with a little help from friends.The book starts with a nice little introduction that gives a bit of a background about Ralphy and his personal life as well as his work. It also introduces Rachel, Ralphy's assistant, who alternates between sleeping with him and saving his behind when need be. Rachel is by far my favorite character in the collection. There was no way I could like Ralphy who is a complete waste of skin but that's the way he is written and meant to be. Think back to the hard-boiled detective novels from the sixties and seventies and that's what these case stories seem a lot like. There are six short stories in all and for the most part all are quite entertaining and somewhat funny. I could picture Ralphy starring in a half hour television show about his cases. Each story is written in a format perfect for just that set-up. The solution to the cases isn't always obvious and the author does a good job of providing enough suspense to keep things entertaining. My favorite case out of the six in the book was Ralph Gets Lucky. A fast little tale about blackmail and intimidation with an ending that proves maybe Ralphy isn't quite the idiot he consistently portrays himself to be. For those that miss the days of Hawaii Five O and Rockford Files, Undressed To Kill is a nice throwback to that era with maybe a bit more sex.