When an author has done nearly everything - the creation of more than 60 novels as well as screenplays, teleplays and children's books - he might be tempted to try something gimmicky. Alas, it might not work. There are no fans of mystery novels and police procedurals who do not know that Evan Hunter, the author of 'The Blackboard Jungle' and 'Strangers When We Meet' is the same person as Ed McBain, creator of the acclaimed '87th Precinct' and 'Matthew Thorpe' series.
So what if the one, writing as two, produced a novel together⢠It could be like the television's 'Law and Order.' Hunter sets up the crime; McBain solves it. Which brings us to 'Candyland.'
On paper, the notion sounds intriguing. In reality, a story still must be engaging, the characters interesting and sympathetic. 'Candyland' disappoints across the board.
It opens with architect Benjamin Thorpe in New York City on business while his wife stays behind in Los Angeles with her dying mother.
Thorpe is a guy who can't keep his pants zipped and who favors very young women. After failing to score with a pickup in his hotel bar and with several women he has bedded on previous trips to the Big Apple, Thorpe heads to a disastrous encounter at a massage parlor. He winds up being thrown out and down a flight of stairs by the night manager.
The next morning, one of the massage parlor girls with whom Thorpe had an altercation is found strangled and raped in an alley. End Hunter's section, open McBain's.
There is never any doubt that Thorpe is not guilty of the murder; the reader spent the entire evening of the crime watching him lick his wounds. The question is, who really did it⢠The police suspect Thorpe for a time, though not very passionately, and until very late, Thorpe himself doesn't know he's a suspect, so there is no sense of danger on his behalf. Lead Detective Emma Boyle wants desperately to solve the crime, which is good in a police character. But Boyle never rises much beyond two dimensions: a cop being divorced because she is too dedicated to her job and fighting to get her daughter back from a mother-in-law who has taken the little girl for the child's own good and won't even allow supervised visitation. Boyle finally gets her killer, and it is a very creepy scene when that happens. The book should have ended there. But Boyle takes it upon herself, for no good reason, to call Thorpe at home in Los Angeles to give him some unsolicited advice about his sex habits. 'Candyland' offers none of the well-rounded, quirky characters of McBain's '87th Precinct,' just cops and sleazoids who, ultimately, aren't very interesting. 'Candyland' isn't a bad book, but the work of the one doesn't equal the sum if its parts.
Jean Heller is a Clearwater, Fla.-based free-lance writer for the Tribune-Review and the author of the mystery-thrillers, 'Handyman' and 'Maximum Impact.'
