So the title
seems explanatory enough: Who killed Randy Ratphink?
Randy has
just died and is now a ghost, and this was an interesting perspective as this
is all from the POV of Randy himself. Even though “being dead was boring,” he
takes his death in snarky, witty stride, handling it the way he’s always
handled it—by winging it. I liked him!
Filled with
funny commentary that is both light and thought-provoking, Randy sets off on a
quest to find his killer while recalling memories from his life. It would seem
the memories hold the key to the killer’s identity and what happened. Well, of
course!
And so the
reader takes the grand tour of the lazy, hippie, vagabond life—traveling all
over, living on what you can, and getting what you can by any means necessary. Certain
parts lagged, slowing down the flow. You almost feel like a peddling beach bum
yourself, trudging along vacant roads of excessive story line to no case in
point. Yeah, the bum’s life can get
pretty boring sometimes. The only thing that kept me going was figuring out who
the killer was. And judging from the vast array of strange, manipulative
characters he meets, the killer could be anyone.
Sometimes I
wished the story would hurry along, to bypass all the faceless weirdoes,
endless banter, and crude quips, and finally get down to the mystery of the
murder. The generous portions of humor and cultural references—added with a
touch of international flavor—were appreciated but not enough to sustain a lengthy
prologue. Truth be told, I enjoyed Randy
more when he was dead.
In
actuality, this strayed from a simple whodunit mystery to a lazy bum’s diary.
My rating: 2.5 stars
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