I knew he would attempt to trace Timmy’s movements after the boy left school, check hospitals, accident reports, and shelters for runaway children. Finally, I learned later, the FBI was informed about noon that a possible kidnapping might be in progress. I thought I better put in a personal appearance to show the McNally & Son flag, so to speak, and offer what help I could. I arrived at the Franklin home to find the Feds in command and I was allowed entry only after Sgt. Rogoff vouched for my bona fides.įBI techs were busily installing a variety of electronic devices. One would amplify all telephone conversations so everyone could hear clearly both sides of a phoned dialogue. A voice-activated deck would make a taped record of all calls. A third dingus was designed to trace the source of incoming calls within minutes, obviating the need of searching phone company logs. While this work was in progress I went over to a couch where our client, Maurice Franklin, was sitting upright, gripping his knees with white knuckles. I identified myself, expressed my sympathy and that of McNally & Son. I assured him we stood ready to offer whatever assistance we could.
He was a bulky man, massive through the neck and shoulders, with an indoor complexion made paler by stress. I don’t care what happens to me afterward.” “If Timmy’s been kidnapped,” he said, his voice thick, “and I get to them, I’ll kill them. “But we don’t yet know for certain he has been kidnapped.” Franklin,” I said as soothingly as I could. “If a ransom demand is made, believe me, sufficient funds will be available.” “They’ll probably want a lot of money,” he went on, not listening to me. I was still trying to comfort him and the technicians were still at work wiring their black boxes when the telephone rang. There must have been a dozen men in the room at that time and I think we all froze and stared at the shrilling phone.
The FBI special agent in charge beckoned to Maurice Franklin. “If it’s a ransom demand, keep them talking as long as possible. A workmanlike crime story, which is why two stars rather than one, but it's not my Archie.You want to see your kid alive again? Home and happy?” The amplifier had been connected and we all heard the ensuing conversation.īoston-accented masculine voice: “You Morry Franklin?” Our client nodded and staggered to his feet. The character started to change in the first Lardo book, but the change has gone further in this effort. He is much less interested in clothes and food that has been his wont, and seems to me much harder edged about people, life, and just about everything. That is, he does silly things, like getting involved in amateur theatricals, but he isn't eccentric, and he isn't daft.
ARCHY MCNALLY MOVIE SERIES
The core of the series is Archie's character, and in this book - while he is still superficially silly - he isn't ineffably silly.
I do not find the post-Sanders books at all an acceptable substitute, and this is the last of the series that I shall read. Sanders, of course, created the series but died the year after the publication of "McNally's Gamble", number seven. Many readers seem to find the Archie books written by Vincent Lardo just as good as the ones written by Lawrence Sanders. Tastes differ, even in matters as frivolous as an Archie McNally mystery, and the reviews of this book show that clearly. In a play filled with murders, only Archy can separate the actors from the genuine article, and bring down the curtain on the latest and most enjoyable of McNally's follies. When an actor takes a sip of prop wine and drops dead, the Palm Beach police suddenly take a special interest in the local theater scene.
While resident grande dame Lady Cynthia Horowitz wants a little of the spotlight to fall on her latest live-in hunk, Buzz Carr, she has no intention of letting Buzz rehearse all day with the actress, who, like Lady C, has made marriage a cottage industry.įor poor Archy, there's more drama backstage than onstage, and plenty of confusion everywhere, especially with the fuzzy-headed Binky Watrous serving as stage manager. After all, Hollywood legend Desdemona Darling will lend her considerable talents to the production. When the Palm Beach Community Theater needs a director for its Production of Arsenic and Old Lace, Archy tosses his megaphone into the ring. South Florida's premiere sleuth-about-town strikes again - in a deliciously daffy caper that takes a decidedly deadly turn.
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