Book Readers Heaven

The Case of the Great Granny:

Bradley Daggers Investigates


Thomas Emmon Pisano



I had started to read this book quite some time ago, but had put it aside until time permitted my full attention to reading and reviewing The Case of the Great Granny by Thomas Emmon Pisano. Unfortunately, starting again, I still couldn’t get past the writing and the lack of editing and proofreading. In my opinion, even if an individual decides to self-publish, that individual has full responsibility for producing a book that is basically comparable to all the millions that are sold--to be as error free as possible.

The basic storyline had potential—a grandmother is killed and she has a slew of potential killers that Bradley Daggers must investigate and narrow down. The intriguing part was that two different poisons had been used although not fatal and the actual killer was the third who successfully strangled her. For a whodunit, this was bound to be interesting...

Or not...

It wasn’t that there were too many villains to choose from—more, it was that Bradley would jump from individual to individual, with little background and for this reader it was too much and too little—I couldn’t get sufficient information to actually work along with the investigator, rather what we had to do was work hard to keep those who were under investigation straight.

Greed, revenge and theft were all tied together, overlapping, while at the same time, when the granddaughter who was to inherit and the police tried to find the supposed inheritance, it was all gone. This idea was also intriguing, but failed to follow through in an interesting, exciting fashion.

Then there was the fact that the granddaughter was obviously anxious to get her hands on the money, was giving everybody, including city officials a hard time, and then without any lead-in, Bradley and she meet and have sex and are in love...???

While the book appears to be a police procedural, there is insufficient depth to the novel. Think of yourself as a fan of television programs and gaining just enough knowledge to know the process, but little else. On television, we see that actual investigative acts. In books, it needs to be written for readers.

Now, supposedly, Bradley hates his job, but his boss keeps calling him back and he is constantly promoted—I liked that point of view also and could have really been explored in some interesting ways, other than just throwing it in once in awhile

Perhaps for those who enjoy being entertained by books, they will find this book to their taste. For me, and many others, we expect so much more from the written version—we want content, background research and actually seeing the case coming together based upon the investigation.

Unfortunately, the writing style reflects the lack of experience of the author. His conceptual thinking and ideas do have potential but help to bring those ideas into focus with a solid story that pulls the reader into the story rather than trying to follow what’s happening, is needed in my opinion

Sorry, folks, it just didn’t work for me...

G. A. Bixler