Archy McNally Series – Lawrence Sanders

For those of you who are not familiar with the Archy McNally series by Lawrence Sanders – Archy is the son of a prominent Palm Beach, FL attorney and is the sole member of the Department of Discreet Inquiries. These “discreet inquiries” allow you to lose track of time and imagine the life of dashing about in his red Miata, hanging out at the Pelican Club and in his spare time solving sensitive cases for his father’s richer-than-God clients down in Palm Beach, Florida. Archy loves wine, women, and song–not necessarily in that order. In fact, he eats too much, drinks to much, and always seems to get in trouble with the wrong sort of gal, much to the dismay of his unofficial girlfriend Connie Garcia.

Lawrence Sanders, is extremely well acclaimed within the mystery genre having other award winning series – Commandment and Timothy Cone books – to his resume. Sanders’ ability to use foreign language words now and then is a treat, as they usually add some humor as well his ability to spend time describing Archy’s attire and menu. Never before have I enjoyed reading such descriptive narratives that really do paint a full picture in my head of the life Im absorbing through words. I would also like to add that it was a major personal win when I realized after reading my first book (Archy’s Puzzle) that I realized there were almost a dozen more books waiting for me. I came across the first book during a pretty dark period in my life, perhaps the sarcastic and extroverted Archy was partly helpful in keeping my chin up. This series is definitely a fun easy read to pass the time away, not by any means a ‘book club’ novel, but good for easy reading/ mystery lovers.

RIP Lawrence Sanders!