Director's Cut: A Moses Wine Novel

Moses Wine #9

by Roger L. Simon

Private detective Moses Wine heads for Prague to investigate sinister occurrences on a film set, but when the film's director winds up in the hospital and the campaign of sabotage escalates, Moses is forced to step in as director.

Genres: Mystery

256 pages, Hardcover

First published June 24, 2003

Reviews

[Paul Sand · Rating 3 out of 5]

[Imported automatically from my blog. Some formatting there may not have translated here.]

I've been reading Roger L. Simon's Moses Wine novels since The Big Fix back in the 1970s. I'm glad to (finally) read his latest.

You could make the case I've been procrastinating: Amazon helpfully reminds me: "You purchased this item on February 5, 2010.". Yes, about 6 years ago. And it was written back in 2003. This is how up-to-date I am with my reading. Fortunately, my to-be-read system never forgets, unless I want it to.

Moses has settled into domesticated Hollywood tranquility (and professional partnership) with his new wife Samantha. His connections with the film community land him a new gig: figuring out who is menacing the production of Prague Autumn, an "arty" film about the Holocaust and its echoes into the present day. And Moses jets off to—guess where—Prague, where the production is filming on location. Pretty soon, murder and kidnapping. Also some explosions. Unexpected events catapult Moses into an unexpected role.

We get a lot of information about the sausage-making involved in creating a movie and bringing it to the masses. Roger L. Simon is also involved in the film industry, so I assume he's leveraging some of his own experiences.

Moses has (sort of) followed Roger L. Simon's own political pilgrimage: from 70's radical to semi-moderate. (I don't think Moses has gone as far as Roger, who I think of as on "our side".)

Frankly, Moses seems outwitted and passive through most of the book; I usually prefer a different sort of private-eye protagonist. The book is also marred by sloppy proofreading. I noticed four mistakes, and I wasn't looking for them, so I assume there are more.

[Meg Morden · Rating 4 out of 5]

I picked this book up primarily because it was set in Prague, which I visited a year ago. I did enjoy the setting and since the action revolves around the making of a film "Prague Autumn", locations are key to the movement of the action. But I enjoyed the character of the main character Moses Wine and his first person voice narrating the events. It is more than a whodunnit and is actually a thriller involving terrorists, the CIA, and Moslem extremists. I have not read the other Moses Wine novels before but will certainly look for some more.

[Jack · Rating 2 out of 5]

an interesting tale that included a film making theme, which did appeal to me. It was good but not great. Also I was not as invested in the series as I might have been if I read earlier volumes.