The Love Potion Murders in the Museum of Man: A Norman de Ratour Mystery [Paperback]

As Alcorn's unlikely hero muses toward the end of this wonderful mystery, "We often end up speaking about the nature of evil and the nature of comedy. What intrigues us, I think, is the way comedy relies in large part on pain, mishap, even cruelty." Alcorn's genius (and he IS a comic genius) is to exploit the enormous gap that opens up between extreme pain, mishap, cruelty and the pitiful, ineffectual, but strangely admirable attempts of ordinary venal humans to make sense of such things. Another reviewer here asks why anyone would want to write (or read) about such "tasteless trash" as cannibalism, incest, and the like; well, the answer is because the most delicious humor can emerge from the banality (even absurdity) of the way Alcorn's quite ordinary academic characters respond.

Anyone who has spent any time in academia (as I have for nigh upon these past 30 years) will recognize the petty turf squabbles, the outsize egos, the preening and political correctness that he exposes in many hilarious accounts of meetings, lectures, and various research agendas. These are oh-so-even-more delicious because they are embedded in a plot of really horrifying implications.

The plot is intricate but not hard to follow. It is comprehensive. As the narrator explains, "The plot is thickening like one of those soups you throw things into without being quite sure how it's going to turn out." But Alcorn is always in control, and by the end every loose end (and some ends are very loose here) is neatly tied up by the redoubtable Norman de Ratour.

Here you will meet such tantalizing characters as the Rapper Sixy Shakur (whose lyric on pp. 103-04 is a true classic but would probably get this review banned by amazon if I quoted from it), the luscious escort Celeste Tangent, the resourceful lawyer Ariel Dearth, the divine Diantha, members of the Amazonian tribe the Yomamas and many others including our indefatigable protagonist de Ratour, who manages to remain courtly, ethical, even heroic where lesser souls would quail and falter. There are also memorable return appearances of beloved characters from the first mystery in this series (also highly recommended), Murder in the Museum of Man: the indomitable Cornelius ("Corny") Chard, cool-as-ice Lieutenant Tracy, dry-as-ice Izzy Landes, dear Elsbeth and others.

If Mr. Alcorn ever reads his amazon reviews, I wonder if he might let us know whether a third mystery is in the works. There is no tempting first chapter at the end of this volume to lure one into a buying mood. But I'm hoping very much that we will have more of Norman de Ratour and the MOM.

Sensitive readers should be warned that this contains graphic and realistic descriptions of what happens in university committees. Professor Ratour has a university appointment and is also director of a museum that the university thinks it should control. The museum is in some way part of the university but has a separate board of trustees and its own endowment. It also derives income from renting space to a research institute that is staffed by university faculty and generates substantial money from patents. The university has established an "Oversight Committee" for the museum. The Russian Mob and fundraisers and lawyers are involved. There's poisoning, cannibalism, dismemberment and mutual rape.

I loved "Murder in the Museum of Man" so so so much! It's sweet, funny, quirky, intelligent - and just totally, weirdly unexpected! I love the crusty perfectionist Norman de Ratour, and had such high hopes for his sequel! Well, I think author Alfred Alcorn must be having some kind of late life/mid life/existential crisis... he seems to be shamelessly imposing his own fantasies on the innocent Mr. de Ratour, and consequently on his readers. Please, do read "Murder in the Museum of Man" - but if you love it as I do, skip "The Love Potion Murders", or you'll never think of Norman the same way again.

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