Official Review: Jack Spade:Dream Detective by Carl A Chase

Lisalovecraft · Post by **Lisalovecraft** » 28 Feb 2015, 11:15

[Following is the official OnlineBookClub.org review of "Jack Spade:Dream Detective" by Carl A Chase.]

2 out of 4 stars

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Jack Spade: Dream Detective by Carl A. Chase is a fun romp in the hard-nosed detective genre. The book is action-packed and reads like a campy B movie; full of twists, but often short on a logical and plausible plot. James Harper, an unsuccessful investigator, falls asleep and dreams of Jack Spade, a successful private detective living in the 1940’s. Jack Spade is looking into a missing person case.

At first, I thought that James Harper must have narcolepsy. He fell asleep anywhere and everywhere. Once James fell asleep, the story would jump to Jack Spade. A few chapters in, the story stopped going back to James Harper. I wondered if the author forgot about him. While there is some closure at the end; I was disappointed by the wrap-up of this story element. The idea of the ‘dream detective” has so many options. I don’t think the idea is played up to its full potential.

There are many familiar detective genre elements here: a sexy nightclub singer/love interest, a missing person, a love/hate relationship with the police, double-crossing bad guys, and dive bars. Homosexuality and racism are touched on in the story. These aspects are brought up, but they are not explored as a theme. They do add interest to the story line.

James Harper is the most interesting and well-developed character in the story. He has a past, he has current troubles, and he has motivations. It’s a shame he isn’t featured more. Jack Spade is more of a cliché. The supporting characters are one-dimensional. The only thing that I know about Jack’s partner, Joe, is that he met Jack in the army, does whatever Jack says, and is a widower. Jack’s love interest, Jennifer, has few defining characteristics; she is beautiful and has a good voice. She is vapid and makes poor choices. This bugged me since I prefer strong female characters.

I had a difficult time believing some of the choices that the characters made. While their actions were usually explained at some point, they still didn’t make much sense. For instance, Jack sees someone that looks like the missing woman he is paid to find. Some thugs tell him to stay away from her, and he does. He just drops this lead and moves on. He forgets about it until much later in the story, seemingly for the convenience of the plot. Also, the bad guys give in to blackmail all of the time, for very little reason.

The plot winds all over the place, and I worried that it wasn’t going anywhere. At some point, I was just like, ‘come on now, let’s just finish this up.’ The mystery does get solved, although the explanation of events and motives is just as over-the-top as the characters’ actions.

The story is written in third person. Occasionally, there is a first person comment such as, “I guess you could say...” I am assuming that this is the author injecting his thoughts. I thought it was strange, and it "broke the fourth wall," bringing me out of the story. The descriptions in this book tend to do more telling than showing, which also hinders the story.

I had a problem with the formatting of my review copy. Almost once per page, there would be a line break in the middle of a sentence, and the sentence would continue on a new line and the first word would be capitalized. It was very distracting.

I rate this book 2 out of 4 stars. It was fast-paced and entertaining, in a campy way. While I had some idea of “whodunit,” I did not learn the complete story until the end, when motives were explained. The one-dimensional characters, lackluster descriptions, convoluted plot, and poor formatting prevent me from giving Jack Spade: Dream Detective a higher rating. I don't think that this book has a mass appeal, but it would be of interest to completists of the detective genre.

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Jack Spade:Dream Detective
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Post by **bookowlie** » 05 Mar 2015, 20:18

Nice, detailed review! I like mysteries and I could relate to your disappointment over the plot. It's frustrating when you are reading and feel like the plot is meandering and not really going forward. Mysteries tend to be plot driven, so we mystery lovers look for a strong plot.

carl andrew222 · Post by **carl andrew222** » 05 Mar 2015, 23:59

I strongly Disagree, the plot of the story was to find the missing Lauren Jefferson, And the Author stayed on that course, sure there were other things happening' but the story line never changed.....

Lisalovecraft · Post by **Lisalovecraft** » 06 Mar 2015, 22:46

Thanks so much, Bookowlie! I never really thought about it that way, but very true in regards to mysteries being plot-driven.

Carl Andrew222, thanks for your reply! I did think that the story succeeded in resolving the mystery of Lauren Jefferson's disappearance. To clarify, I just didn't feel much urgency in the search for Lauren. I felt that certain events, like the aftermath of Jack's car accident, just prolonged the story instead of adding to the mystery. That's just my opinion, and I am always interested in hearing other viewpoints.

debo9967 · Post by **debo9967** » 08 Mar 2015, 11:09

The story sounds long winded. Nice, detailed review, though.

ALynnPowers · Post by **ALynnPowers** » 09 Mar 2015, 04:49

Lisalovecraft wrote:At first, I thought that James Harper must have narcolepsy. He fell asleep anywhere and everywhere.

This made me laugh, so hard. Nice to see some entertainment brought into the reviews! Nicely done!

Lisalovecraft · Post by **Lisalovecraft** » 09 Mar 2015, 17:23

Thank you, AlynnPowers and debo9967! Yes, the story was a little long-winded. I enjoyed it, despite the flaws, silly parts and all (like Jame's Harpers's excessive sleeping!)

ALynnPowers · Post by **ALynnPowers** » 15 Mar 2015, 03:50

I do enjoy a silly story from time to time. I might have to keep this in mind.

TammyO · Post by **TammyO** » 15 Mar 2015, 11:55

Very nice, detailed review. It sounds like the author could revise it a little so that the plot is less confusing to the reader.

Kappy · Post by **Kappy** » 15 Mar 2015, 20:39

Excellent review. I also don't care much for mystery books with convoluted plots. Your review reminds me of how I felt after reading The Case of the Stuttering Bishop (a Perry Mason novel) by Erle Stanley Gardner: by the time I found out who the murderer was, I didn't care any more, because the plot had been so convoluted.

Lisalovecraft · Post by **Lisalovecraft** » 18 Mar 2015, 19:11

Thanks, Kappy and TammyO. I do think a little more editing and revising would improve this story. There were a few characters and subplots that would have benefitted from being fleshed out and some that could have been cut out completely. I never thought about what a balancing act writing a mystery must be; there are so many factors that must be considered!