The Last Manly Man: A Robin Hudson Mystery - Softcover

This is the first Robin Hudson novel not to feature "girl" in the title. Instead it has "man", and "Manly Man" at that. A radical new direction? As if. Sparkle Hayter knows her forte and sticks to it bullishly. The battle of the sexes is her thing, upon which she hoists cartoon escapades thinly disguised as plot. Vive la difference. Robin Hudson is a television news reporter (as Hayter was), who thinks like a stand-up comedian (which Hayter is). She has two handsome boyfriends (Hayter ...?), a programme to produce on the "Man of the Future", and suddenly, a hat, which may belong to a John Doe. Within pages she is ensconced in a world of missing monkeys, powerful businessmen, animal liberationists and feminists, all of whom appear connected to a mysterious chemical known only as "Adam 1", which could have the potential to bring the gender war to a swift halt. Who can resolve the conundrum? And who will film it? Hayter does not write badly. She just does not write very well. Her prose has the balls of a Rottweiler, but the subtlety of one too, being infested with one-liners, some of which are funny, some of which are repetitious or strained. Occasionally she hints at darker points, such as Robin's infertility, but they are usually sacrificed to the gag quota. As it is, Sparkle Hayter has written a sassy thriller that will probably be read and forgotten by millions. --David Vincent

A series of random encounters and one dead man lead sassy, successful reporter Robin Hudson onto the trail of a mysterious chemical called Adam One and into the macho world of hunting and fistfighting.