Vic Boyo, Doofus Detective in: Double Murders Are Twice as Bad

By: Milo James Fowler

Narrated by: Douglas Reed

Length: 6 hrs and 19 mins

Publisher's summary

Two murders. One detective. Half a brain.

New York City, 1931: Detective Vic Boyo may not be the brightest bulb in the chandelier, but that doesn't stop him from solving cases as only he can. With a little luck and a whole lot of gumption, Boyo sets out to find the murderer of a local cop. Problem is, Boyo's more interested in a gorgeous femme fatale accused of killing her husband. She's destined for the electric chair, but Boyo's got a hunch she might be innocent. And nobody gets in the way of Boyo's hunches, not even Vic Boyo himself.

©2018 Milo James Fowler (P)2018 Milo James Fowler

silly story

a couple of times during listening to this book I almost stopped because parts were so silly, but I kept listening and finished the story. All and all I am glad I did it is a silly fun read. Kind of light hearted really.

Enjoyable in the end

Wasn’t what I expected, understood the style & took me a little while to get into book. It was enjoyable in the end & was glad to keep listening.

Epic storyline reminiscent of the thirties.

I found this book to be delightful, funny and intriguing. Vic Boyo what can I say he is an absolute buffoon but loveable just the same. Douglas Reed did an amazing job as the narrator the story fit him perfectly. I highly recommend this book if you love crime mysteries and laughing.

Good Listen

This was a story that I enjoyed from beginning to end, it had great characters and story line, The narration by Douglas Reed was good... I would recommend this to others. I received this audiobook from the author's promotion, and am voluntarily writing this.

Murder solved!

Boyo might be a little slow but he gets the job done! Solving 2 murders though it all he got the job done! Narrator was good!

No Elliott Ness

It is the 1930s and Prohibition is in full swing. Set not in Capone's Chicago but in New York City, our hard-boiled police dick--or, "detective," as he prefers to be known--is put on a murder case. Drugs and booze, gangsters and molls, neat (cool, classy, classic) cars, plenty of puns (good and bad), and Pythonesque humor abound. Douglas Reed was clearly having a fabulous time with voices and accents, narrating the tale with all its action and myriad plot twists.

A trope aware noire

With a name like Doofus Detective, I expected Vic Boyo to be a lot funnier. It was alright, bit more quirk of the lip than laugh out loud, but at least it didn't take itself too seriously as many noires do.

The story was really good, the clues made sense and the action was intense.

the main character Victor Boyo is a socially awkward police detective who operates almost like a PI. Being socially awkward myself, I can relate to Victor, being awkward does not make one a doofus. which is probably why I didn't find the humor very funny.

The novel plays into the genre tropes fro. the 1920s detective dime novels. I loved this aspect, and anyone who has ever enjoyed Sam Spade or Dick Tracy will find something to like about this quirky homage to the genre.

Douglas Reed is a great narrator with a good sense of timing. He also provides a variety of voices for the large cast of characters.

If you aren't familiar with the teams of the time period here are some words you should know:

blower = phone

heater, rod and piece all = gun

Vic's story

The dry humor and one liners are nonstop throughout the whole story. It's fast paced and highly entertaining. It's a miracle Vic stays alive to tell the tale with all his close calls!! I totally enjoyed Vic's story. I voluntarily listened to a free copy of this and am giving an honest review. The narrator did a great job.

Not a fan.

I ended up asking for two different audiobooks by the same author, not realizing this was the case until I went to listen to the first one and saw his name listed twice. The first one was “Into the Wastes” and I loved it! The ideas of the short stories were interesting, and I had wished they had been a little longer. So with high hopes, I moved on to this one book.

I wasn’t able to finish it. I think it was a combination of the story itself and the narrator, who added nothing to it. Let me start with the story. This was a genre that I don’t tend to listen to, no real reason why, but I had wanted to try something different. So, please keep that in mind when taking note of my less than stellar review. I was bored. The story just dragged on and on, in my opinion, and I was left waiting for something to happen.

When I come across “narrators” like the gentleman for this audiobook, and I use that term loosely, I always hope that this is their first audiobook. Unfortunately, that is often not the case. Needless to say, I never understand how someone decides to become a narrator when they have no skills. Have they never listened to an audiobook before? At least by someone who’s good at narrating? For example, the narrator changed his voice a single time with Joey, at least that I noticed, otherwise, his voice was the exact same for every other character as well as the narrative. There was no emotion in his voice at all besides boredom! When Vic got shot in the leg, the narrator continued to talk as though nothing had happened. He sounded bored while reading, and by reading, I mean he literally just rest the story, something I could have done myself with the bonus of imagining the characters with different voices. There were times when he’d randomly speed up his talking and not bother pausing between sentences.

Overall, I wouldn’t bother with this narrator again, but I would give the author another chance.

I received a free audiobook copy in exchange for an honest review.