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The Stan Kraychik Series by Grant Michaels |
Love You to Death
Dead on Your Feet
Mask for a Diva
Time to Check Out
Dead as a Doornail
Rating: *****
Note: It is a good idea to read these in order of publication.
Reviewer: Meg
Stan Kraychik is a hairdresser who lives and works in Boston at Clips Salon, a pricey beauty parlor owned by his aristocratic friend, Nicole. He enters this career after finding that he is uncomfortable with his first choice, counseling psychology. As a hairdresser he has as much access to people and their problems and is, in his own witty, neurotic manner, there for them more than he would have been as a therapist. He decides, as he says, to "shrink 'em at the sink."
This series is true first person stuff. Michaels reveals to the reader only what Stan knows and thinks and Stan's views on nearly everything are delightfully crazy making. Because of the intensity of the first person, we in the audience see the world through the independent, self-doubting, stubborn, shifting and somewhat addled brain of a man who is always searching for answers, whether to the identity of a murderer or to his own desires for love and fullfillment. Stan is persistent, annoying, desireable, sensual, clever, sly, observant, empathetic, romantic, jealous and wholey loveable. Stan's friends adore him in spite of his foibles, which are many and they put up with his disregard for their advice and his myopic refusal to see life from any point of view but his own.
Of course, this myopia is most frustrating to the reader who quickly gets caught up in Stan's various romantic escapades including one fairly long term relationship and one series long tentative involvement. This last is the most exasperating because Stan can never quite figure out what is going on in spite of broad hints from friends. His native paranoia asserts itself and his neurotic insecurities prevent him from taking action to move this potentially torrid relationship off the dime.
Furthermore, the writer leaves us in the last book with a hairdresser's cliffhanger, a juicy bit of gossip about the object of Stan's desires. We yearn to see Stan and his potential flame work it out, but Michaels seems to have chosen to leave us guessing.
The mysteries are intriguing. complex and suspenseful. Stan gets himself into and out of dangerous situations usually with some bodily harm. His irritating, dogged, Columbo-like pursuit of the villain frequently places him in danger, and his refusal to follow established criminal hunting procedure and precautions makes him an anathema to the police department, pariticularly to one tall dark and handsome detective. But Stan is Stan and he tells his stories with wit and honesty as he knows them, never apologizing for his behavior, and tenacious in his determination to do things his way.
Last but not least, the sex is fun and tantalizing. Stan is a attractive to a variety of men and a creative lover who even goes to some extremes, especially when in a fit of jealous rage over a presumed dalliance the part of his companion, Rafik, a ballet dancer with numerous potential lovers of both sexes at his disposal.
Hopefully someday soon Stan will drive us all crazy again. There have been no new releases since Dead as A Doornail in 1998, darn it.
