Murder In Vegas

Steve Allen Mystery #5

by Steve Allen

When Steve rehearses for a performance in Vegas, he finds he's headed for a show stopper. What he does not expect is an engagement with death. 2 cassettes.

Genres: Mystery, Humor, Fiction

384 pages, Mass Market Paperback

First published July 1, 1991

About the author

Stephen Valentine Patrick William "Steve" Allen was an American television personality, musician, actor, comedian, and writer. Though he got his start in radio, Allen is best-known for his television career. He first gained national attention as a guest host on Arthur Godfrey's Talent Scouts. He graduated to become the first host of The Tonight Show, where he was instrumental in innovating the concept of the television talk show. Thereafter, he hosted numerous game and variety shows, including The Steve Allen Show, I've Got a Secret, The New Steve Allen Show, and was a regular panel member on CBS' What's My Line?

Allen was a "creditable" pianist, and a prolific composer, having penned over 14,000 songs, one of which was recorded by Perry Como and Margaret Whiting, others by Steve Lawrence and Eydie Gorme, Les Brown, and Gloria Lynne. Allen won a Grammy award in 1963 for best jazz composition, with his song The Gravy Waltz. Allen wrote more than 50 books and has two stars on the Hollywood Walk of Fame.

Reviews

[Henry · Rating 2 out of 5]

So I chose this entirely based on title and then I googled a bit and realize thei is THE Steve Allen. Famous Funny-man Steve Allen. so I thought this would be fun... No. A semi Serious but wholly pedestrian whodunnit. I could have forgiven that if it was jazzed up with more jokes, You'd think a murder mystery written by Steve Alan and starring Steve Allen could have a few yucks. Nope

[Stephanie Tanton · Rating 4 out of 5]

Such a talented man, Steve Allen is fascinating to hang out with in his mysteries. The settings and characters give you an insight into Steve and Jayne’s life. This mystery achieves the feel of Vegas and the characters you could meet there.

[John Grace · Rating 2 out of 5]

Allen probably contributed five paragraphs to this ghostwritten mystery. Way too long by 200 pages, it is said to be the weakest of this series, so I'll try others when I find them at library sales.

[Wanda S. Robinson · Rating 3 out of 5]

This book takes too long to get to the solution. Too many side stories and unnecessary details

[Janelle · Rating 4 out of 5]

fun, lightweight

[Jamie Barringer (Ravenmount) · Rating 4 out of 5]

This book is a bit of a Walter Mitty-esque adventure in which the author and his wife play leading roles. So, the author's fictional counterpart, also called Steve Allen, shares most of the same past and personality as the real person, but the fictional Steve just happens to come across murders and gets to play sleuth. No doubt the novels are inspired by events in Steve Allen's real life, but twisted and recombined to create a murder mystery series. I have only read this one book so far from the series, part of my project to read the local public library's fiction collection one shelf at a time, so I don't know how this one compares with the rest of the series, but this novel was pretty good.
In this novel Steve is called away from a cruise to perform a show at the last minute in Vegas with an old friend. The friend's family is a mess, and shortly after Steve arrives in Vegas, a double murder occurs that threatens to derail the show, a murder the friend is suspected of committing. The clues that Steve follows are not all that readily apparent to the reader, so the ending is a bit unsupported, but there was enough foreshadowing that it at least didn't come as a complete surprise. The police detective was a bit unrealistically dumb at first, and I didn't think he was very consistent as a character, especially since after acting so dense, resentful, and stubborn, early on in the book, he turns out to be an effective detective after all and does a lot of the work towards securing the evidence needed to support Steve's intuited solution. Overall, I'd give this book ~4.5 stars, not fantastic, but definitely worth reading more of the series.

[Gelynn · Rating 4 out of 5]

Pretty good mystery. First time to read this author and loved the details about the show business and Vegas.

[Pat · Rating 3 out of 5]

Cute story.
Lots of puns and humor.

[Alton Motobu · Rating 2 out of 5]

First half is slow and plodding - long musings about the entertainment industry, the Hollywood and Vegas scenes, the decline of music in the 90s - as Steve tries to solve the murders of his friend's wife and a hotel spa worker. Are they related? Is the Japanese mafia involved? Are the Vegas police capable of doing anything? Second half really picks up as Steve takes things into his own hands as he infiltrates the Japanese gang, burglarizes the room of a suspect, confronts another suspect only to have him commit suicide, and tries to meet with a key witness only to be knocked out and left in the middle of the desert to die. But he survives everything and has an Agatha-Christie-like meeting with all suspects and solves the crimes. Not one of Steve's best but interesting and entertaining.