"The Counterfeit Murder in the Museum of Man"
Dentuck
Posts: 3,824 ✭✭✭
I was napping lightly in my oak-paneled office the other day, after a heavy three-hour lunch in the eighteenth-floor executive lounge, when I was awakened by my assistant secretary dropping the latest issue of Publishers Weekly on my hand-burled mahogany desk.
In case your issue hasn't arrived yet, this is a book review on page 41 (March 15, 2010 issue):
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The Counterfeit Murder in the Museum of Man: A Norman de Ratour Mystery
Alfred Alcorn, Zoland, $14.99 paper (336p), ISBN 978-1-58195-234-6
At the start of Alcorn's uneven third Norman de Ratour mystery (after 2009's The Love Potion Murders in the Museum of Man), Norman, the Museum of Man's director and the book's bloviating narrator, discovers a murdered man in a parked car near the museum, located in the New England town of Seaboard. Unfortunately, the victim is “honorary” numismatics curator Heinrich “Heinie” von Grümh, a wealthy MOM contributor. Worse, Heinie turns out to have been shot with Norman's revolver, making him a prime suspect. Meanwhile, Norman must find a new home for a highly articulate chimp, fend off neighboring Wainscott University's efforts to take over the MOM, and look into whether the antique coins Heinie gave the museum are fakes. Alcorn's barbed darts at academia and the rarified world of top-notch museums amuse, but humor alone isn't enough to redeem a rambling tale of wavering morals populated by mostly unattractive characters. (May)
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I'm curious to read the book, despite the less-than-stellar review, just for the numismatic connection.
In case your issue hasn't arrived yet, this is a book review on page 41 (March 15, 2010 issue):
= = =
The Counterfeit Murder in the Museum of Man: A Norman de Ratour Mystery
Alfred Alcorn, Zoland, $14.99 paper (336p), ISBN 978-1-58195-234-6
At the start of Alcorn's uneven third Norman de Ratour mystery (after 2009's The Love Potion Murders in the Museum of Man), Norman, the Museum of Man's director and the book's bloviating narrator, discovers a murdered man in a parked car near the museum, located in the New England town of Seaboard. Unfortunately, the victim is “honorary” numismatics curator Heinrich “Heinie” von Grümh, a wealthy MOM contributor. Worse, Heinie turns out to have been shot with Norman's revolver, making him a prime suspect. Meanwhile, Norman must find a new home for a highly articulate chimp, fend off neighboring Wainscott University's efforts to take over the MOM, and look into whether the antique coins Heinie gave the museum are fakes. Alcorn's barbed darts at academia and the rarified world of top-notch museums amuse, but humor alone isn't enough to redeem a rambling tale of wavering morals populated by mostly unattractive characters. (May)
= = =
I'm curious to read the book, despite the less-than-stellar review, just for the numismatic connection.
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Comments
www.brunkauctions.com
<< <i>do oak and mahogany go together, please advise..... >>
I never said I had any taste in lumber! If it's hand-burled I don't ask questions.
<< <i>At the Stack's lunchroom in New York they make change in groats and pistareens. Have you ever tried to break a louis d'or and get back a pocket full of halfpence and early coppers?! What a pain. Try spending that at your local corner store. >>
I have never read that book, but I am currently reading "Benjamin Franklin" by Walter Issacson, and in it he refers several times to pocket change that Franklin was carrying. He does not go into detail, but refers to coppers and gold coins and some silver. It is pretty interesting.
The Man just informed me seconds ago that he wants me to get back to the mystical Orient during the week of May 10th. If you want me to stop by the Whitman Asian HQ branch in Beijing, or the Whitman publishing subsidiary in Dalian, please let me know.
Didn't wanna get me no trade
Never want to be like papa
Working for the boss every night and day
--"Happy", by the Rolling Stones (1972)
<< <i>
<< <i>do oak and mahogany go together, please advise..... >>
I never said I had any taste in lumber! If it's hand-burled I don't ask questions. >>
Burled Ives?
<< <i>
Burled Ives?
>>
Not to be confused with his brother, Mald Ives.
that sounds like AB to me (((Artificial Burling)))
another counterfeit,,,,, Oh when will it all end.
not something that is done to it.
<< <i>
<< <i>
<< <i>do oak and mahogany go together, please advise..... >>
I never said I had any taste in lumber! If it's hand-burled I don't ask questions. >>
Burled Ives?
If it's wood, it's Burled Eaves...
Somebody post a woodgrain Lincoln!
= = =
The Counterfeit Murder in the Museum of Man: A Norman de Ratour Mystery
Alfred Alcorn, Zoland, $14.99 paper (336p), ISBN 978-1-58195-234-6
At the start of Alcorn's uneven third Norman de Ratour mystery (after 2009's The Love Potion Murders in the Museum of Man), Norman, the Museum of Man's director and the book's bloviating narrator, discovers a murdered man in a parked car near the museum, located in the New England town of Seaboard. Unfortunately, the victim is “honorary” numismatics curator Heinrich “Heinie” von Grümh, a wealthy MOM contributor. Worse, Heinie turns out to have been shot with Norman's revolver, making him a prime suspect. Meanwhile, Norman must find a new home for a highly articulate chimp, fend off neighboring Wainscott University's efforts to take over the MOM, and look into whether the antique coins Heinie gave the museum are fakes. Alcorn's barbed darts at academia and the rarified world of top-notch museums amuse, but humor alone isn't enough to redeem a rambling tale of wavering morals populated by mostly unattractive characters. (May)
= = =
I'm curious to read the book, despite the less-than-stellar review, just for the numismatic connection. >>
The next line: "Norman follows the chimp into a secret room in Dr. Heinie's apartment, where he finds the chimp activating a highly suspicious electro-plating machine. 'Perhaps Dr. Heinie is innocent!' he says. The chimp scoffs."
Everything will be hand-burnished.
Anyone caught hand-burling will be fired on the spot.
<< <i>I've brought in an architectural team with rare-hardwood expertise. They've already begun the process of dismantling my current office's woodworks (the oak and mahogany will be shipped as a charitable donation to Offices for Humanity).
Everything will be hand-burnished.
Anyone caught hand-burling will be fired on the spot. >>
Your staff arborist should be able to train the tree being grown from a sapling for use in furniture for your future sanctum sanctorum to have specific burls in it as one would train a bonsai to grow in a pleasing manner. It may take a couple generations to get exactly what you want, but it will be worth the wait.
Keeper of the VAM Catalog • Professional Coin Imaging • Prime Number Set • World Coins in Early America • British Trade Dollars • Variety Attribution
<< <i>
<< <i>I've brought in an architectural team with rare-hardwood expertise. They've already begun the process of dismantling my current office's woodworks (the oak and mahogany will be shipped as a charitable donation to Offices for Humanity).
Everything will be hand-burnished.
Anyone caught hand-burling will be fired on the spot. >>
Your staff arborist should be able to train the tree being grown from a sapling for use in furniture for your future sanctum sanctorum to have specific burls in it as one would train a bonsai to grow in a pleasing manner. It may take a couple generations to get exactly what you want, but it will be worth the wait. >>
Staff arborist?? Not even Longacre has a staff arborist.
Didn't wanna get me no trade
Never want to be like papa
Working for the boss every night and day
--"Happy", by the Rolling Stones (1972)