No Laughing Matter

The book arrived fast and it was extremely well-packed in a thin, single layer of strong corrugated cardboard. The only problem was a brown stain on the cover, about 1.5 centimeters in diameter. The book was meant as a gift, so it was rather a shame to have a stain on it. The story itself is excellent - an entertaining, laugh-out-loud mystery-comedy, told by very realistic and likeable characters.

Very entertaining book, gets you hooked on the author. I will be reading more. Protagonist extremely likeable and entertaining. Makes you laugh out loud.

This is my favorite humorous mystery series by one of my favorite British authors. Nick Madrid is a self-deprecating masterpiece of an unlikely investigative hero. Laugh out loud situations and rapid dialogue combine with a strong mystery to be solved. A great read.

Bridget, Frank and Nick fly from England to Montreal to cover the Just for Laughs Festival for different newspapers. While Nick is tied up in a yoga position, he sees a young woman flash past his hotel room window. He concludes she is a jumper who he later learns was Cissy Parker, a movie starlet. The police rule it an accidental death due to drugs, but Nick has doubts when Frank mentions he heard a man screaming at a woman on the eighteenth floor. A reporter Julie informs Nick that she took pictures at a celebrity bash that Cissy attended. The starlet offered her a lot of money to buy the negatives, but Julie refused. One of the photos shows Cissy with an unidentified man. When Nick learns the victim was pregnant he concludes she was pushed. Not realizing the danger he causes to himself, his friends and others associated with Cissy on both sides of the ocean, Nick keeps digging as more homicides occurs. In between murder, beatings, chases, air travel, NO LAUGHING MATTER contains amusing comical scenes, but the prime story line is the protagonist is drawn into a homicide investigation that he prefers to avoid. Once he begins making inquiries, he continues to the bitter end, which he realizes could be his death, in an effort too learn the identity of the mastermind behind the killings and the beatings he suffered. Talented Peter Guttridge provides a journalistic investigative mystery that stars a fine cast worthy of sequels. Harriet Klausner