Reviews for The Chandler apartments

The average rating for The Chandler apartments based on 2 reviews is 3.5 stars.

Review # 1 was written on 2011-03-23 00:00:00 Cheryl Hartmann How can a poet and sometimes book scout, living in Berkeley, California, end up in so much trouble? Clay Blackburn is quite happy living his every-day life even though he is just getting by financially. Women? Yes, it must be his inability to resist women, especially, when they need help. That's how he got into this mess. Clay, a private detective - no way! But that is exactly what some of his friends were molding him into. Not a job he wanted, but who could turn down a friend? Besides all he did was just ask a few questions and nose around a little. Who knows, maybe he was actually good at this private detective stuff, in an amateur way. So far he had been successful. But he sure didn't plan to make a habit of it. It could get dangerous. Besides he had his poetry and book scouting. When a friend from the past, female of course, Peggy Denby called and asked him to meet her, he was curious. He thought Peggy had married, and it seemed he heard that her husband had died recently. Maybe Peggy wanted to pick up where they had left off years ago. He sure wanted that to be the reason for her call. Peggy had hopes that Clay would help her the way he had helped some of their other friends. She needed a friend right now and someone who could be discreet. Her rich, almost-husband, Thomas, had been ill and his death was predicted, but it wasn't supposed to happen so quickly. Something was wrong and Peggy feared it was murder. It seemed that Thomas had left Peggy over half a million dollars but now most of it was missing, as well as, several ancient artifacts. She promised to give Clay twenty grand if he could find the missing money and artifacts. It wasn't long after Clay promised to try to help that Peggy was found murdered in her apartment. Now Clay was sure she had been right. Thomas probably had been murdered too. Clay can't give up now! The search for the missing money leads him to delve into Thomas' past, his family, and his associates. He meets Thomas' beautiful daughter, Stephanie and his son, Hart. He becomes so involved with Stephanie that he almost forgets about everything else, until he learns he has been set up. This is where things really get interesting. This book is a murder mystery wrapped inside sex, drugs, and, no - not rock and roll, but poetry. Who would of thought? But then with the setting for the story in Berkley, maybe we should have known.

Review # 2 was written on 2011-07-17 00:00:00 Pamela Fludgate This book could be off-putting to a lot of people. Whether because of the well-saturated bisexuality, or because of the poetry-on-a-pedestal Berkeley-boho-hooey, that depends on the person. But, personally, if the concept of a bisexual anti-establishment book scout who moonlights as a private detective doesn't draw you in, I'm not sure what will. Jonathan Lethem described this mystery as insouciant fictional gossip. I'd say that's right on the money for a subculture uppercut of a book that sucked me in and left me wanting more. Read for a heady dose of main character Clay Blackburn's holy trinity: sex, poetry and travel.