From AudioFile
Its quick pace and vocal clarity make this tale of murder and money easy and enjoyable to follow. In a light, jaunty baritone Boyd Gaines captures the light-hearted Archy McNally, who has been expelled from Yale Law for streaking and is acting for a third time as problem-solver for friend and foe. Gaines flattens his tone and broadens a Midwestern accent to create the local sheriff. For the villains he sharpens his voice. The women's voices are softer and breathy and, in one case, loaded with a Southern accent. The variety in Gaines's delivery enables the listener to identify the characters quickly and to delight in the details of Palm Beach society. M.G.S (c)AudioFile, Portland, Maine

ANNOTATION

P.I. Archy McNally mixes business with pleasure when he's hired by a well-heeled society matron to investigate the fiancee of her wealthy son. Archy suspects that he is flirting with danger when he finds the stunning bride-to-be involved in murder. A saga of scandal, seduction, and death from a bestselling author with more than 50 million books in print.

FROM THE PUBLISHER

The unbeatable master of suspense returns, in a wickedly wayward case of artists, models, and murder. If larceny is good for the soul, Palm Beach must be confidence heaven - so discovers Lawrence Sanders's sleuth-about-town Archy McNally in his third boffo baffler, McNally's Risk. Hired by a formidable matron to investigate the shadowy bona fides of her bubble-headed son's beloved, Archy is wowed by the enigmatic innamorata's purity and pulchritude. But when the artist for whom she posed is killed, McNally's job takes on a decidedly dangerous turn, and he begins to suspect the demure damsel might be both a poser and a poseur. Fighting his way through copious deaths and fiendish scams, Archy pieces together elements of a strange and grisly puzzle, including: a sealed letter containing a horrifying secret; a nude dancer who knows more than she reveals; a missing portrait someone would kill for; and a butterfly tattoo in a very private place, which could be the key to the murder spree. Lawrence Sanders's latest Palm Beach thriller fairly sizzles with greed, glitz, gals, and gore. And it proves, once again, that Archy McNally is, as Cosmopolitan described him, "as amusing and rich as Dorothy Sayers' great creation, Lord Peter Wimsey."

FROM THE CRITICS

Library Journal

Archy McNally is in fine form in these two entertaining tales read by Adam Henderson. Archy finds himself sleuthing for only the third time in McNally's Risk; he's back home in Palm Beach after being expelled from Yale Law School for streaking and working at investigating neosocialite Theodosia Johnson's background. Once the bodies start to appear, Archy begins to piece together both the various murders and Theodosia's disconnected past, in between romancing a mysterious lady. In McNally's Chance Archy is searching for the missing husband of author Sabrina Wright. When the truth about Sabrina's daughter Gillian becomes known, Gillian leaves and Sabrina is later found dead; then three men try to hire Archy to keep Sabrina's secret buried. Risk is an interesting whodunit with an intriguing ending; Chance is a strong tale with an exciting story line. Both are recommended.-Denise A. Garofalo, Astor Home for Children, Rhinebeck, NY Copyright 2004 Reed Business Information.

BookList - Ray Olson

The third Sanders mystery starring Archy McNally, head (and sole member) of the Department of Discrete Inquiries in his wealthy lawyer-father's firm, doubtless sports the same attractions as the others. Readers who don't know what those are ought to be told that Archy's a hybrid: his Christian name, of course, has been swiped from Nero Wolf's right hand man; his professional relationship with Papa recalls that of Joe Hansen's Dave Brandstetter; his spiel as narrator of his cases is a variation on Philip Marlowe's smart-mouthing; but--and it's a big "but"--his tone is pure Patrick ("Auntie Mame") Dennis. Like many a society dick before him, he runs into curvacious suspects (in this case, especially, a seeming golddigger who may have offed the artist who painted her au naturel), downs tuns of superior potables, and consumes fine comestibles so frequently that one fears for his cardiac health. What's the book about? Well, it's in the parenthesis above, and it's about as important to enjoying Sanders' ditzy sleuther as the parenthesis is to its clausal context. Literary Guild main selection.

AudioFile