Saturday, August 4, 2012

The Barbary Dogs-Cynthia Robinson

The Barbary Dogs


Cynthia Robinson

Minotaur, Aug 21 2012, $14.99

ISBN: 9781250007278



Wannabe poet Frank Kelly jumps off the Golden Gate Bridge. The suicide victim left behind a note asking his longtime friend opera star Max Bravo to handle his estate. Max quickly goes through the phases of grief as he concludes a dead friend in need is a pest.



The bisexual baritone becomes interested in Frank’s swan dive when he finds a journal written in two distinctly different handwritings. Speculating that maybe Frank’s final act was not a simple curtain call, Max learns the other scribe besides Frank appears to be thug Duffield Waverly Fallon, who died in the 1906 earthquake. With Dixie the Pug, the ghost of his Roma grandma and the streets of San Francisco, Max sings to Duffield’s tune.



The latest Max Bravo caper (see The Dog Park Club) is an amusing wry paranormal frolic. Fast-paced, fans will want to accompany Max as he struggles with Fallon pulling his strings until he finally concludes the show will go on until he completes the demands by the ghost who acts as much like a prima donna diva as a Barbary Coast hooligan.



Harriet Klausner

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