The PINK PANTHER
Max Allan Collins' novelization of the screenplay by Len Blum and Steve Martin
Review by Roy Murry
You most likely saw the movie but reading the print version is a hoot and a half. The screen characters come alive in your mind again reading Mr. Collins' novel.
ENTER INSPECTOR CLOUSEAU is a chapter that I read twice because it was so funny. The humor continued to the end even though two people are murdered in the mystery plot.
Clouseau, played by Steve Martin in the movie, comes alive in print to another level. I love words, and the way they were used in Panther made for an enjoyable afternoon.
The plot is simple - murder is committed; the Chief Inspector picks an idiot (Clouseau) to solve a crime he intends to clear up himself; and each proceeds - the Chief with many detectives and Clouseau with a hand-picked informer by his boss.
There is no clarity in the way Clouseau unravels the crimes, and the Chief thinks he has the murders solved. To see how newly made Inspector Clouseau detects is mind-boggling and un-Sherlockian, but he has the answers in the end.
I can't say this enough, a book you must read for the humor. Oh yes, there is a mystery, but it is fun reading the events that lead to the conclusion.
Purchase: https://amzn.to/2LwRcPG
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