Columbo

Columbo (Original Series) #1

by Alfred Lawrence

An original novel (titled "A Christmas Killing" when published by Star books in great Britain), this case finds Lieutenant Columbo trying to solve the murder of department store executive Shirley Bell.

Genres: Mystery, Thriller, Novels, Fiction

176 pages, paperback

First published January 1, 1972

Reviews

[Amanda · Rating 4 out of 5]

Besides the murder, I found this to be a very cute story. It was neat to read how, Columbo processes his cases. We don't see it in the tv show, we mostly just follow him along. But here, he talks to himself, and we get to see, what depts he goes to, to solve one of his cases. I'm going to try and find more of the other books, in this series.

[Sara Hughes · Rating 3 out of 5]

i have a lot to say about this as a huge columbo fan. this book is essentially fan fiction as it was not based on any episode or made into an episode after. i will say that it was enjoyable even though it had a lot of problems. the main problem was how the author was obsessed with how women in the book did not look as young and pretty as they used to look in high school when they reach their 40s. he had several descriptions that exhibited hateful disgust toward women getting older and how time was never good to them. and because of this personal vendetta the author even made columbo say some things he would never say, because it is canon that columbo is a gentleman. the second out of pocket thing was how the author had columbo fly to two different cities to question ppl. columbo hates flying, which he didn’t mention once in the book. he also rarely if ever travels to do his questioning. he simply is too good at solving mysteries to need to fly to chicago and atlanta to talk to an ex boyfriend or whoever. and i guess the third issue was that i thought the two main male characters were gay until the very end so i think this author maybe needed to do a bit more character development. all that being said, i could totally picture this as an episode, and it would have had great locations since it takes place in a closed department store in the 70s. but it would need a bunch of edits based on the above review.

[Andrew · Rating 4 out of 5]

Honestly despite some MAJOR padding to the page count (Parts on a blank page for EVERY chapter) this was a great little Christmas Columbo tale.

I forgot the central premise of Columbo before picking this up. Which is that you KNOW who the killer is right away and it's about how they're caught vs. solving a mystery. The format worked extremely well here with a bevy of fun characters and some classic Columbo charm.

[Deke · Rating 2 out of 5]

difficult to render Colombo in print - Peter Falk's charms don't translate easily to text

[Rachael · Rating 4 out of 5]

My first entry into the literary world of Columbo and I think they did our boy good - classic Columbo moments. Only oddity was seeing him leave the state for his investigation, but clearly he got some good info when he did.

[Alex Wiseman · Rating 5 out of 5]

It's everything you'd expect it to be. If anything it should be longer to build the characters more, but it's fine as is.

[Cindy · Rating 3 out of 5]

I loved the TV series so any change to read a new adventure is good...regardless how old it is.

[Keith · Rating 3 out of 5]

This was a fun little mystery and it captured the feel of the Columbo series. However, what made Columbo who he was was Falk's portrayal. Since this isn't visual, you don't get the many nuances Falk brought to the part, like the way his voice and speech pattern changed when he was stringing along a suspect and when he was being serious and down to business. I loved the TV shows, though, and I wouldn't mind picking up the other books in this series.

[Janné McKamey · Rating 5 out of 5]

I could see the TV show in my mind

[Randy · Rating 3 out of 5]

Disappointing. They never seem to nail the character in a book. Maybe
I'm just projecting my own ideas in from watching one of the great characters on television.