The Tenth Commandment

The Tenth Commandment

Lawrence Sanders

Dtb, 385 Pages
My rating: 3 of 5 stars

The over-arching whine here seems to be that the main character is short; almost 5’4″, or 162cm. So yes, he is short, but the way he describes it, he uses words like midget, etc and is always bemoaning his lack of stature or his small overall mass.

If you don’t know me well, let me tell you why this really bothered me. I am 5’3″. I’ve been the short guy since 7th grade. But did I whine about it? No. I DID something. Starting in highschool I worked out and by the time I ended college, I was benchpressing 175lbs, which when considering I weighed 125lbs, is something I am still pleased about. I ran and trained until I could jump high enough to touch the rim of a basketball net [dunks were out of the question], I could spike a volleyball [not well, but I was ABLE] and if anyone tried to physically intimidate me, I did what I needed to to even the odds and got right back in their face. [now, don’t get me wrong, I wasn’t going around picking fights, or looking for trouble, nor did I have the proverbial “something to prove”, I just wasn’t going to accept crap from anyone].

So when I read about someone who is smarter than me, taller than me, complaining about height and physical ability, it just doesn’t ring true.

Now on to everything else.

I have not read much in the ‘mystery’ genre. It is too much like real life and I read to escape for the main part. But I was with my wife in the library and had forgotten my ereader at home, so I just grabbed a random book off the shelf and began to read. I’d read close to 50 pages by the time it was time to go, so I just checked it out.

Interesting, but not interesting enough that I’ll go seek out more by the author. The main character seemed to do nothing but work, or go out and eat and drink with one girl or another. And in the end ends up with some tall girl, which he makes a big deal about. Geez, if you love someone, do you really notice that kind of thing? Other people might, but do you?

I found the ‘mystery’ to almost be the smallest part of everything. It was tangential to everything, so it had an excuse to hang around. But the double murder/scam/etc,etc, etc, wasn’t brilliant or thought provoking or even really ‘mysterious’. Maybe I don’t know enough about mysteries? Wouldn’t surprise me, to be honest.

So I don’t feel like I wasted my time, not at all, but next you see me, I won’t be talking your ear off about this great mystery book I just read 🙂