Reviews for Sky Pilot for Powderhorn

The average rating for Sky Pilot for Powderhorn based on 2 reviews is 3 stars.

Review # 1 was written on 2015-05-19 00:00:00 Ivan Swanson Another blast from the past unearthed by Lume press. This time mild mannered mystery featuring a layperson who becomes an investigator through a chain of circumstances. This book had all the makings of a cozy, with the main mystery initially revolving around stolen toys. Not just any toys, the tinplate kind, vintage, collectible and quite valuable. The book’s protagonist is an expert in those, owns a dedicated shop that he lives above, collects some, knows all there’s to know about it…and one day he gets hired to purchase a large lot abroad. The lot disappears somewhere on the way back and Marklin (main guy, also toy brand of yesteryear) decides to find it himself, since the local cops are all but useless and he doesn’t have the 22K to pay out of pocket. There’s a surprising number of tinplate toys collectors in the vicinity, but the chief suspicions land on the despicable, despicably wealthy local land baron, who, as it turns out, has other, darker secrets to hide outside of his toy obsession. Throw in an entertaining sidekick and a budding love interest and you have a well rounded if fairly bland mystery. Despite some dark themes, the overall tone here is pretty light and jocular, Marklin fancies himself quite a clever and funny guy, meaning he gets very excited about coming up with referring to a bisexual person as ambidextrous. Things like that. What do you expect. The book is old enough, it’s impressive it isn’t straight out offensive with dated mores, lingo, etc. as some of those books tend to be…and Lume still publishes them too. Apparently the rampant sexism and casual racism can be written off as quaint for the sake of vintage. Sorry to digress… Back to it, so this book is basically a perfectly decent, mildly entertaining diversion. It is quaint in its own way, very British, very mild…no, already said mild, whatever’s like mild, milquetoast? plain? forgettable? One of those. In a word, it’s fine. If fine’s enough for you, that’s your book. If you like Lume books, this is very much on par with their usual output. Perfectly acceptable for a freebie. First in a series, though not exactly the sort of attention grabbing thing you can’t wait to read more of. The toys were intriguing, though. Vintage mysteries might not hold up or excite modern interest all that much, but the toys always do.

Review # 2 was written on 2019-04-11 00:00:00 Kurt Freund Template of James Bond like narrative with a self-effacing bumbling main character so as, I can only imagine, to elicit a measure of rapport with a wider audience. The love interest is a bit too unlikely perfect to make of that aspect particularly absorbing and the constant allusions to James Bond could and probably should have been dispensed with, otherwise pretty good. Certainly much better than some of the fare I've had to deal with lately, particularly in SF. The one main character is dealt with in a focused and linear fashion - refreshing. There is a recognizable plot, albeit skewing off track toward the end - refreshing. Aside from the 'lovable' sidekick and Bing, the supporting cast is almost translucent - nice, at least from my point of view in wanting to focus on the storyline. Pretty good for a first effort.