When Dorinda Dances by Brett Halliday
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

I’m a huge fan of Michael Shayne and the Dave Dresser or Brett Halliday or whoever wrote the bulk of the stories prior to 1960. This is one of those. It’s a non-stop, roller coaster ride of clues, confusion and discoveries. All set in Dade County, Florida, with very accurate descriptions of the area.

This story is very intriguing in it’s initial setup. A number of mysteries that has the detective heading off in more than one direction. As the story gets complex, the story does take on one aspect i don’t care for – Pages and page of questions gone over and over and over. It still makes the story fun. Though, in this case, it all shrouds a rather simple mystery.

The characters are all top notch. It’s hard not to visualize any of them. Dialogue is excellent.

About Florida: The locations mentioned are right on as is the narrative of the weather and other atmospheric mentions. There’s a trip to Palm Beach that lurches to the location in a sentence. Woulda been fun to get a John D. MacDonald description of Shayne and Hamilton rattle down the right of ways of 1950s Florida. Setting the young lady of a wealthy New York/Palm Beach family at Rollins College was by an author who knew that was THEE college for those of certain stature were to attend at that time.

Bottom line: i recommend the book. 7 out of ten points.

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