(Reviewed by JD Jung)
“There was only one place to be if you were a vampire, the Marriott Marquis Times Square.
It was time to dispatch Dick Clark once and for all.”
Why would secret agent/ “super-spy” Nap Lapkin dub this American Bandstand icon as the evilest being on earth, even after his death? After all, what happened to all those ‘one-hit wonders? Then again, would we want to subject the world to decades of horrible music? And what does Ryan Seacrest have to do with all of this?
These are some questions to ponder in “Lap Napkin’s New Year’s Rockin’ Eve”, which is just one story of many in the hilarious Tales of Adventure with Nap Lapkin.
Lapkin’s adventures also navigate the supernatural, some time-travel and a few sexual encounters. One reoccurring character is an agent who he often works with, Madonna Axiom, who, by the way, wields a plasma-spewing vibrator.
That’s not to say that all the stories are winners. But what makes up for the one’s that I felt were lacking, were amusing situations that are interwoven in the story. One such example is when Lapkin speaks to a classroom about holiday school safety and insults the children’s parents right in front of them.
There is one story, “There’s Something Here From Somewhere Else”, which I wanted more of. A librarian finds a pair of glasses at a garage sale which enables her to understand what a writer meant as opposed to what he actually wrote. The United States government wants to confiscate these glasses as it doesn’t want citizens to know what’s really in a particular tax bill. Our librarian reads The U.S. constitution while wearing these glasses and is shocked to find out what our founding fathers were actually thinking. This story could have been expanded on and become a novella in itself.
Author Lance Manion goes off into diversions and asides about writing which is funny at times. I found myself skimming over some of it though, as it was becoming excessive.
Still, for those who need a quick laugh in these serious times, the short, irreverent Tales of Adventure with Nap Lapkin just may be the answer. It sure was for me.
