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ROBBIN$ FAMILY VALUE$
America's obsession with wealth is undeniable. Money means power. Power means control. Control means anything you like. We celebrate those who possess it with a religious fervor, though wealth disparity hurts us all. In America, if a man's rich enough, he can even win the highest office of the land, while bragging about sexual assault. Perhaps this fascination with wealth is in our DNA. Maybe the ages old divide between the Haves and Have-nots is imprinted on us. Rich or poor, it's everybody's story after all. Mine, yours, the butler's; all of ours. Whatever the reason, humankind's need to greed fascinates.
The Raiders
by Harold Robbins
Simon & Schuster, 1995
ISBN: 0-671-87293-1
$6.99, 472 pp
With a string of bestsellers under his belt, Harold Robbins has earned the unique distinction as the world's bestselling storyteller. It's no wonder. His stories are well suited for the bestseller list, filled with morally bankrupt characters in lustful pursuit of wealth, fame and power. The Raiders, his sequel to The Carpetbaggers (Tor Publishing Group, $11.99), nary wavers for a moment from the author's time-tested formula.
Great Expectations
Raiders centers on Jonas Cord, the family patriarch and majority shareholder in a business empire that includes explosives, airplane manufacturing, and airlines. Painted with deep shades of Howard Hughes' own life, the story follows Jonas' attempts to expand the Cord empire into entertainment, casinos and television specifically. There are lots of bumps along the way, including crooked unions, Marxist revolutionaries, and the discovery of a son, heir apparent to his vast fortune, which is problematic in itself:
Jonas never told anyone else, but he pledged himself that if ever he had a son, the boy would know he loved him, would know it all his life, would know it before it was too late.
Having no tolerance for failure in others, Jonas now faces a son - a grown son with a Harvard education - whom he views as a possible rival. The opportunity to live up to his pledge was past. Jonas has failed himself, a thing even worse than failure in others.
Third Eye Blind
From here, the storyline swings wildly, bouncing between Hollywood, Vegas, New York, Mexico City and Havana. Historical figures share supporting roles with brief appearances by Che Guevara, Danny Kaye, Jimmy Hoffa and crime boss Meyer Lansky, among others. While these characters make for attractive window dressing, the crux of the saga is the treacherous relationship between Bat (the newfound son) and his father. Jonas is too ruthless a businessman in Bat's eyes; Bat too weak to be called a Cord, in Jonas'. Gradually, Bat gains approval, all the while telling himself he's not like his father, until the novel takes a turn that leaves no doubt that he and Jonas are cut from the same cloth.
While Robbins' stories aren't for everybody, if a splashy plot interspersed with twentieth century events is your thing, Raiders might be for you. On the other hand, if moral bankruptcy and gratuitous sex don't float your boat, steer clear.
Who Killed the Robins Family?
by Bill Adler and Thomas Chastain
Willam Morrow & Co., 1983
ISBN: 0-688-02171-9
$9.95, 152 pp
Once upon a time, in a city far, far away, two men got together and devised a scheme to sell books. One, a book packager, the other a writer of mysteries, their scheme involved creating a puzzle within the story which they challenged their readers to solve. The person with the correct solution - or closest to it - would receive a $10,000 reward. The scheme worked, and Who Killed the Robins Family? became a bestseller overnight.
American Bluebloods
At the time Robins Family? hit the bookstores, I was in school. $10,000 would go far toward tuition and books, and I aimed to solve the puzzle and win it. I buried my head in the book every chance I got, examining and re-examining the circumstances around each murder, attempting to sort its red herrings from the brass tack facts of the crimes.
"Jonas never told anyone else, but he pledged himself that if ever he had a son, the boy would know he loved him . . ."
The Robins family are scions of east coast wealth. Heirs and heiresses to an international cosmetic firm, theirs are lifestyles an average person can barely begin to imagine. They circulate in a world of luxury yachts, private jets, exclusive hotels and exotic destinations. They want for nothing, each leading a seemingly charmed existence. Then, quite unexpectedly and following no norms for these bluebloods of American industry, Tyler Robins - patriarch and head of Robins cosmetics - meets his end at the hands of "a person or persons unknown" while vacationing at sea with almost the enitirety of the Robins clan.
Continental Rift
An investigation ensues, and the survivors of Tyler Robins meet at Greenlawn, the family estate in Maryland. Accusations fly, and if not for B. J. Grieg, a family friend and private investigator, the family would no doubt have come to blows. He mulls over the facts, and concludes (as the Coast Guard did too) there just isn't enough evidence for a solution to the crime. And so it goes with the next murder, and the next, a succession of eight murders in all, occurring in locations ranging from Oceania to Europe. It would seem no place is safe for a Robins.
I did my best to solve the murders of the Robins family. After careful consideration, I determined the butler did it (doesn't the butler always do it?), and mailed in my solution. The $10,000 prize, I thought, was good as mine.
While the solution to Who Killed the Robins Family? is long one for the history books, it continues to be a fun and challenging read. As its characters trot across the globe, they're placed in settings and circumstances seasoned mystery readers will find familiar, as way of paying homage to some of the great mystery writers of the past. While Bill Adler and Thomas Chastain may never find themselves listed among these greats, they can live happily ever after with the satisfaction of having pioneered a wholly fresh style of mystery; that of the unsolved (one might say, unsolvable) crime.
The Revenge of the Robins Family
by Bill Adler and Thomas Chastain
Willam Morrow & Co., 1984
ISBN: 0-688-03793-3
$9.95, 160 pp
Riding on the success of Who Killed the Robins Family? (Willam Morrow & Co., $9.95), its creators came out with a sequel the following year. Revenge of the Robins Family provides all the twists and turns of its predecessor, with one big difference: this time out the Robins family isn't being stalked and killed; the suspects from the first novel are.
Like the original, Revenge contains eight murders. Unlike the oriuginal, one of the slayings is solved for the reader. Also unlike the original, the prize money has increased a dollar, bringing the reward for its solution to $10,001.
Largely formulaic, Revenge lacks the freshness of its predecessor. On the upside, it features characters you've come to know from Who Killed the Robins Family. In the end, you're going to read it for the challenge of figuring out who the killer (or killers) are anyway, not for its literary value, which is limited, at best.
posted 08/01/24
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