Total disclosure: you must know three things before you read this review;
1: I first read this book series 20 years when I was about 18, and my worldview has changed a lot since then.
2: I’ve had a lovely cold the entire time I’ve been rereading them.
3: (gestures vaguely to the United States and politics)
When I first started to reread the Murder A-Go-Go series I would have told you I enjoyed them. True, they were pure unadulterated fluff, but they were harmless, even enjoyable. Something to while away the time on a beach, or waiting for a bus or a doctor’s appointment. Well now I’m finished, and I have come to realize how truly bad they actually are.
Set six months after Twist and Shout Murder, Bradley and Bebe have moved on to Uncle Herman’s newest acquisition, the Merryweather Toy Shoppe (must be expensive, its got “pe” on the end of the name) on Fifth Avenue, an obvious stand-in for FAO Schwarz. The store is staffed by a collection of kooky characters, the oddest of all being Mr. Skidoo, the clown children love and his coworkers loathe. When Mr. Skidoo is killed and Bebe is found over the body, can she make sure what is connected to her name is “Mrs. Williams” and not “convicted murderer”?
I loathed Bebe in this book. The entire reason she’s even a serious suspect is because 1; she does what any intelligent person would do when confronted by a corpse with a knife sticking out of its chest; pull it out because obviously it’s all some prank, and 2; does the other thing intelligent people do when they’re suspected of killing someone; lie to the cops about the secret the victim has on you being that you dated instead of the truth, which is that you have a crush on your boss, because your boss is “right there” and “Mama said boys should always think they’re the ones doing the pursuing.” But that’s okay, because surely you can just tell the cop that you’re friendly with later and he’ll straighten the entire thing out because that’s how things work, and this is the way you can “get Bradley to the altar”!
(Me, at Bebe)
Bebe, honey, everyone knows you have a thing for Bradley; I think the fact that you were sucking face with him on his couch in the last book means even he might realize it, so what are you doing? And I’m sure Mama would suffer through the embarrassment of it coming out that her daughter pursued a man over the embarrassment of her daughter getting the chair for murder.
Add in her having no problem playing some man off of Bradley, her continuing her “she knows best, if people just lived their lives the way she sees it they’d be much better off” mentality, which is seriously grating, never mind that her behavior through half the book screams textbook “get everyone convinced you’re either nuts, a moron, or a psycho killer”.
(don’t know if this fits, just like the song)
Bradley, debonair man about town, becomes a little boy because, gee, Bebe likes him too. Darlene becomes desperate for her man because talking, not a thing people really do anymore. And the new cop in town? Textbook corrupt New York cop, who you know has to be bad because he just doesn’t understand how in love Bebe and Bradley are (Cue me making gagging noises). And the rest of the cast of characters? Barely fleshed out, and no one I can actually care about. How can you care about them? They’re all just background dressing for the great “Bebe and Bradley Lovefest 1964”. Except for her father World War II Vet Earl Bennett, who once again is an overbearing blowhard. He, WWII vet, is once again trying to take Bebe out of the “heathen city” back to Richmond, Virginia, where they appreciate WWII vets (are you getting the sense that Bebe’s dad might be a vet, and might let people know?) At least this time we’re spared her mother’s hand wringing in person, though she is neatly counterbalanced by two of the greatest textbook examples of 1960’s streetwalkers that have ever been written, including clear plastic heel shoes. And the murder? Again, who cares; it’s just a roadblock to Bebe’s Happily Ever After.
Look, maybe part of the problem is just how docile and obedient Bebe is (until she discovers sex, and then she starts wearing the pants), and the feeling that the entire thrust of the book is “look back fondly on those days when women went from their parents (mostly their fathers) running their lives, to their husbands running their lives”, and I just can’t. What could have been a series about two professional women living in New York in the 1960’s, one of them from a sheltered background, and their embracing the Helen Gurley Brown side of life and everything that entails, turns instead to a cut song from Guys and Dolls (seriously, look up “Marry the Man Today”, you’ve read Bebe by the end of the book). And I look around, and I’m afraid we’re going back to those days of daddy to husband (for chrissakes, Her father tells her that if she won’t obey him, he’ll take his bail money back from the judge and she can squat in jail; CALL HIS BLUFF BEBE), and I just think this was the wrong time and I’m the wrong age and in the wrong mood to read this series and think it was all just a bit of fluffy enjoyable reading.
If you can look past all of that, be my guest; I want to go back to being 18, reading this book and thinking:
I got no deeds to do, no promises to keep
I’m dappled and drowsy and ready to sleep
Let the morningtime drop all its petals on me
Life, I love you, all is groovy