Framed

Framed by David Archer

My rating: 3 of 5 stars

I'm giving this pretzel plotted gumshoe musical 3.1415926535 stars and recommending it as if it is a 5 star blockbuster to lovers of mysteries or people who know what an Edgar award is.

It is a very fast paced private eye detective novel that feels a bit like Father Knows Best, Mayberry R.F.D, or The Brady Bunch. I don't know how to explain that comparison. Hanging out with Sam Prichard, Indie and Kenzie while investigating mysteries rife with danger and intrigue is like playing Monopoly with a few of your good friends. It's entertainment. It's fun. You may or may not lose sleep with it but only because you won't mind returning to be with your friends again tomorrow. Ok then…

*Warning* contains spoilers related to Sam Prichard novels 1-3. How can you not write a spoiler about book 4 in a series? I'll try not to ruin your enjoyment of the earlier books.


In our last Sam Prichard novelette Sam and Indie's honeymoon goes sideways, ultimately leaving one of our beloved regular characters dead and Sam in the hospital in a coma. We start this novella with life getting back to normal at the Prichard estate.

The book is called "Framed".

Right now, March 2019, there are very persistent tax preparation software advertisements showing on TV every 7½ minutes. It is even more simplistic than Choice Hotel's "Badda Book. Badda Boom. It is "Free Fr Free Free". Then repeat, vary with three Free's, then back to the partial free again. There's a variety of these commercials with the exact same dialog.

Why the commercial talk in discussing the name of the book? Well it is Framed, Fra, Framed, Framed. More might be a spoiler. Make note, "Framed" is a good title for this one.

After preliminaries suitable for the fourth book in a series, Sam turns his attention to all the calls on his answering machine that he missed while in a coma, while recovering, and while enjoying his second attempt at a honeymoon.

Listening to the requests for assistance, Sam discards several "spouse cheating" calls but does take interest in a number of cases, all seemingly unrelated.

One woman wants Sam to find out where her soon-to-be Ex-husband is hiding his millions. If she's right and if Sam and Indie can dig up the hidden assets, they may have a seven digit payday with less than an afternoon's work.

A missing wife also sparks Sam's interest. The husband is desperate to find his wife. He tells Sam that he thought they were happy. There was a sudden change in his wife's behavior, then weeks later she vanished. He is additionally concerned because the police are now asking hostile questions about his missing wife. The potential client needs Sam to find his wife or find out what happened to her.

Another is a call from jail. It's from a guy who has slaughtered his family with a hatchet.

The fellow in jail is an unusual case because he doesn't want Sam to prove him innocent. He loved his family dearly. He never drinks or uses drugs yet police found sedatives and alcohol in his blood. The steroids they might have suspected due to his physical stature could not be found in his blood.

The client can not recall the slaughter despite being covered in their blood and the hatchet covered with his bloody fingerprints. He wants Sam to discover how and why he killed his beloved family. Having seen the overwhelming evidence, he has no doubt he killed them.

Let's go sideways for a bit on this review…

This book may be classified as a "Gumshoe Musical". Movie "musicals" have never been terribly appealing to me. I've watched my share and won't berate them, but if I had a choice between some classic musical movie and cartoons, I'd probably go with cartoons despite my lack of interest in cartoons. They're both low on my "interesting things" list. So when I previously discovered that David Archer is writing "Gumshoe Musicals" in novel and audiobook format I didn't know what to think.

I did investigate this "Gumshoe Musical" phenomena. While listening to the audiobook, at the appropriate place, the songs start up as if you were listening to an Orson Wells radio drama and the station took a break to play one of the top ten list songs. I hadn't been reading along, but found my ebook and checked: there it was…

"...and then Sam said, “You got it, now let's do it!” (Click to listen) "

Followed by lyrics in the ebook. They actually have the song in the audiobook, lyrics included.

If you happen to be reading the ebook on your computer, tablet, or smart phone, the link goes to the song that is otherwise playing on the audiobook.

I've listened to "dramatized audiobooks" where a troupe of readers make the book sound like a "play", but I think David Archer is a pioneer in the "ebook musical". Or on audiobook, I christened it "Gumshoe Musical".

To clear up any confusion, Sam is a part-time singer in a local band and the music is a natural part of the book... the band is practicing before a weekend engagement. So the musical thing isn't entirely "out of the blue".

Onward. Oh... the music is pretty good too.

Framed. Fra… Framed. Framed is what all Sam's cases have in common. The woman wanting her share of money from the soon to be ex-husband is involved in "framing" if only to fairly collect her half in the divorce settlement. The missing woman turns out to possibly be connected to the soon to be ex-husband. Mr. "the nicest guy in the world" bodybuilder in jail for slaughtering his family is so likable that only he is convinced he killed his family.

To keep the framed theme intact, and plug Same Prichard novels, the Private Investigator, Sam Prichard himself lands in jail. What's that most popular term these last few years, "It's complicated".

Luckily he gets the same jail cell as his bodybuilder client who murdered his wife. Sam's an ex-cop who was forced to retire due to a crippling, job related gun shot wound, and he's really not in shape to be an ex-cop in jail. Perhaps that's the one good thing happening to Sam. The big man doesn't want Sam killed in jail before he learns why he slaughtered his family.

If I have sparked your interest in Sam Prichard's world I suggest you start with The Grave Man. There is a prequel to the series "Fallback" but it is basically the first chapter of "The Grave Man".

I noticed that if I liked Sam Prichard that Goodreads recommends Doc Savage... The Man of Bronze AND Hard Luck Hank Screw The Galaxy, which I also really enjoyed, so maybe Goodreads can nail down good recommendations once you've written a few reviews.

I read Framed in two sessions. Starting on March 27, 2019 08:29 AM, I finished on March 29, 2019, at 1:29 AM. The audiobook runs just over 5 hours, so that's probably how many pages it is as well.

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