Mystery (The Blue Rose Trilogy #2) (1990)

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HALLOWEEN REVIEWS 2021

by Peter Straub



Tom Pasmore, an unusually introspective and intelligent teenager, teams up with the aged, eccentric private detective Lamont von Heilitz to investigate a pair of murders in the mid-60s.



 Peter Straub develops a compelling mystery with interesting characters and then fails to make it pay off in the end.

 

Peter Straub


Tom's near-death experience turns out to have no bearing on later events and the resolution of the mystery is pretty much what you would expect; any time you have arrogant, powerful rich characters who treat the protagonist badly, you know that they must be up to their necks in some kind of dirty business.

 


I've read "Koko," the first (and much superior) novel in the so-called Blue Rose trilogy and I fail to see any connection between them, other than the fact that Tom reads a novel that was written by one of the characters from "Koko."

 


This is not one of Straub's best.



"Mystery" (Greek)

"Mystery" (Polish)

"Mystery: The Blue Rose Crimes" (Portuguese)

"Secret" (Russian)

"Mystery" (Spanish)

"Mystery" (Turkish)


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