Now He Thinks He's Dead cover art

Now He Thinks He's Dead

A Ben Spanner & H. J. Mavity Mystery, Book 2

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Now He Thinks He's Dead

By: Ron Goulart
Narrated by: Clifton Satterfield
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About this listen

With a deft blending of wit and suspense, Ron Goulart weaves another criminous tapestry filled with action and entertainment in this sequel to his popular Even the Butler Was Poor. H. J. Mavity still wants to get rich quick; her ex-husband, Ben Spanner, still wants to keep her out of trouble; and her chief client, Lloyd Dobkin, thinks someone is trying to kill him. He's right - H.J.'s in trouble, and Ben has his hands full as Dobkin's murderer decides that the lovely artist knows the secret of the girl with the butterfly on her, ahem....

From the time Dobkin dies in H.J.'s arm until the secrets of several families are revealed, Goulart keeps the pace unflagging and the entertainment high. Indeed, the only thing missing might be a dog named Asta.

Ron Goulart lives in Ridgfield, Connecticut. This is the second mystery in the series featuring H. J. Mavity and Ben Spanner.

©1992 Ronald Goulart (P)2013 David Wilson Literature & Fiction Mystery Fiction Suspense Comedy

Critic reviews

"Mr. Goulart's writing style is snappy, with great characters and lots of action. Great!" ( Rendezvous)
"Cute and good natured." ( Kirkus Reviews)
All stars
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Listener received this title free

This is book two in the Ben Spanner series and as delightfully amusing as Book one. Spanner is a successful voice actor with the annoying habit of frequent!y using alternate voices in his everyday conversation. Once married, then divorced, he and his ex-wife H.J. (Helen Joanne) are back together again, expecting soon to remarry, as she moves her possessions from her cottage to his house. She is an artist, painting covers for paperback books, with an unfortunate habit of discovering dead bodies - this time, that of her friend and editor - and the even more unfortunate habit of stubbornly investigating the causes for herself, with the reluctant help of Ben, of course. The pleasure of the book lies not so much in the story itself, a!though that is fine, but in the muddle headed confusion and dialogue between these two protagonists.

There is an old fashioned, mix twentieth century feel to the book and this, together with the myriad voices of Ben, the voice over star, is nicely captured by narrator Clifton Satterfield. His assorted voices of Ben himself are a cha!leave well accomplished and his ability to realistically provide a female rendering for H.J. is excellently performed. His timing, too, brings out the humour. A good performance all round which definitely enhances the story.

I am really enjoying this series, both books of which I downloaded, without any commitment, for free from FABC. My thanks to the rights holder for making this possible. Sadly, there seem to be no more Ben Spanner mysteries available: I would definitely purchase any others should they appear and am going to investigate other works by the author, Ron Goulart. I heartily recommend Now He Thinks He's Dead - who could resist this title, anyway? - it's short, colourful and fun.

You can't run through molasses.

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