Book Review: Such Vicious Minds

Reviewed By: Harriet Klausner

Such Vicious Minds     Amazon US HC Amazon Canada HC
Daniel Klein
Class/Genre:   Mystery   Amateur Sleuth
Series: Elvis Presley # 4
St. Martin’s, August 2004, $22.95, 240 pp.

In 1965 Memphis, Elvis Presley buys out the movie theatre so he can see “Dr. Strangelove” as many times as he wants without getting in the way of any other customers. When he is had enough and returns to Graceland, he finds Colonel Tom Parker paying $5000 to Mr. Crampton to keep quiet about Elvis having sex with his underage daughter. Elvis gets angry because he has never seen the teen in his life and does not want to give in to blackmail.

That is not the end of Elvis’s troubles because the Sheriff of Waynesboro asks him to see him as soon as he can. When he meets Sheriff Tip, he tells him that he will prevent Muffy Kent, another underage teen from saying she made love with Elvis in return for his giving the sheriff a music audition. Someone is taking pictures starring an Elvis imitator and using them as blackmail pictures but when the photographer is killed, Elvis realizes he has to get answers before his reputation is ruined and he ends up in jail.

This is a comic amateur sleuth mystery starring real people including Elvis, the Colonel and Priscilla. Daniel Klein is a pro at satirizing religion and morality in the deep south so that readers find enjoying the latest book in this series. At times inane, SUCH VICIOUS MINDS is the ideal book the reader when you are feeling blue and need something to snap you out of it.

Harriet Klausner

Reprinted with permission. Do Not repost without permission from the author, Harriet Klausner