Review: A special find indeed...
Rating: 5 out of 5
Date: 02 7, 2011
One of the other reviewers said this is the perfect intro to Doan and Carstairs and that is true. An absolutely wonderful, irreverent and mysterious journey with the private detective Doan, or Doanwashi as he is called throughout this hilarious tale, and his canine partner, Carstairs. However "canine" might not be correct. You will have to read Davis' own hilarious description of Carstairs to understand.Davis wrote this novel in the early 1940's so the plot centers on newsworthy places and events like the war, rationing, blackouts, etc. It is really fun to see Doan go into a butcher shop at one point and order three pounds of porterhouse steak (ground naturally) for the grand total of $2.00. With all the humorous elements that fill this book I almost forgot I was reading a mystery, but Davis kept me riveted for several hours on who-did-what. The linguistic fun that Davis has with these characters presages both Monty Python and Douglas Adams by about thirty years. Tremendous fun and highly recommended. Who is Norbert Davis and why did he only write four novels would be an interesting Jeopardy question.