31. So Long as You Both Shall Live (1976)
32. Long Time No See (1977)
33. Calypso (1979)
34. Ghosts (1980)
35. Heat (1981)
As usual, this batch of five 87th Precinct mysteries was a mixed bag. Long Time No See and Heat were my favorites of the group, with Calypso not only my least favorite of these five, but possibly my least favorite of the series so far.
Bert Kling finally gets married in So Long as You Both Shall Live, but his wife disappears from their honeymoon suite. In this one, the mystery felt like a bit of a stretch, but it wasn’t too bad.
In Long Time No See, someone keeps murdering blind people. Is there a connection? The pacing in this one was pretty snappy and kept me engaged in the story.
Calypso was just way over-the-top. I’m going to give away the entire shebang here – basically, this crazy woman has kidnapped this guy and kept him as a sex slave on private island for seven years…..?????!!!!!! I’m sorry, that’s just not an actual solution to a mystery to me, and all the coincidences were just way too much. Plus, in the end there is a pretty horrific torture scene that was completely unnecessary. Ugh.
Ghosts was a pretty decent mystery, but there are actual ghosts in it, which felt like a departure from the norm for this series. However, since the ghosts weren’t the solution to the mystery, I was willing to go with it.
Finally, Heat had a good main mystery, but there was a side quest with Kling’s wife having an affair that really just felt like (a) filler and (b) a way to emphasize the fact that Kling has terrible luck with women. (Pro tip: Don’t date Kling.)
Overall, I’m still enjoying my trek through the 87th Precinct mysteries, but I still have 20 to go and am not as excited about them as I once was. However – the Deaf Man is back as the villain for one of the stories in the next batch, and those have been my favorites by far, so at least I have that to look forward to!!
The Aroma of Books 