• McNally's Secret

  • Archy McNally, Book 1
  • By: Lawrence Sanders
  • Narrated by: Victor Bevine
  • Length: 7 hrs and 30 mins
  • 4.1 out of 5 stars (397 ratings)

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McNally's Secret  By  cover art

McNally's Secret

By: Lawrence Sanders
Narrated by: Victor Bevine
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Publisher's summary

Playful, seductive, irresistible - this best-selling masterwork of fatal passion and greed introduces Lawrence Sanders's most wickedly charming sleuth. Meet Archy McNally, a freewheeling playboy who specializes is "discreet inquires" for the rich and not-so-discreet. Beneath the glaring sun of Palm Beach - and behind the lowest crimes of high society - McNally is paid to keep family skeletons in the closet. But when it comes to sex and scandal, McNally has a few secrets of his own....

©1992 The Lawrence A. Sanders Foundation, Inc. (P)2013 Audible, Inc.

What listeners say about McNally's Secret

Average customer ratings
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  • 4 out of 5 stars
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Story
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  • Overall
    4 out of 5 stars
  • Performance
    4 out of 5 stars
  • Story
    4 out of 5 stars

Forgettable? Yeah, Like A Savory Rich Desert!

Probably next week Archy McNally's "Adventure of the Inverted Jennies" will flow completely out of my memory. So what? There are deserts that were so delightful I'll recommend them to everyone who asks. Deserts don't change lives. Don't direct or even inform them. But they can be delightful, huh?

That's what this craftily prepared story is… Archy lives in a note-perfect, imaginary culture that evokes Fred and Ginger twirling through platinum and crystal settings. Victor Bevine ices Sanders' cake thick with stylish characters who you'll see and hear and enjoy.

I'm off to download another order of Archy from the Lawrence Sanders' section of the Audio bookshelf. Dunno about you, but I may not remember the details of a perfect desert, yet when I see it on the menu, I'll order it quicker than the summer heat rises in posh Boca Raton.

One word for this book…. "Yummy!"

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10 people found this helpful

  • Overall
    4 out of 5 stars
  • Performance
    2 out of 5 stars
  • Story
    4 out of 5 stars

Great McNally book; uninspiring performance

Any additional comments?

The McNally series is always good for a nice entertaining adventure and this book offers a good story with the usual dose of McNally humor.
Unfortunately, the performance is really not good. To be fair to the narrator, there is nothing particularly wrong about his performance, but if you have listened to any of the McNally book narrated by Adam Henderson, you would this performance pales in comparison. While Adam Henderson brilliantly portrays the edgy character and witty humor, the performance in this book simply falls flat. I was very happy that Audible decided to produce the McNally series, since I have been unable to find many of the books in unabridged format, but I am very disappointed by the choice of narrator.

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5 people found this helpful

  • Overall
    3 out of 5 stars
  • Performance
    4 out of 5 stars
  • Story
    2 out of 5 stars

Glad it was on sale...

The one liners are creative, but I found I didn't care about any of the characters and ultimately the story line didn't engage me much either.

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2 people found this helpful

  • Overall
    3 out of 5 stars
  • Performance
    3 out of 5 stars
  • Story
    4 out of 5 stars

Good story but narration is lacking

While the narrator tells the story there is not real feeling to the character. Nathan Lane portrayed an excellent McNally. Giving life and style to the character. Boyd Gaines continued the light hearted character. This narrator has treated this as a real mystery rather than a light hearted romp through the Gold Coast. This is supposed to be a spoof on the wealthy of PalmBeach Florida.

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1 person found this helpful

  • Overall
    3 out of 5 stars
  • Performance
    4 out of 5 stars
  • Story
    3 out of 5 stars

Gatsby-era dialogue

At first, I thought the dialogue of this book was a joke, a farce--in no way serious. Then the references to everything from the 40s to the 90s gave me chronological vertigo. Put all together, it was just vertigo.

It says the book was published in 1992. Maybe republished, but the stilted Gatsby-era dialogue and numerous references were waaay before the 90s--maybe the 40s? This author was born in 1920, and the book bears all the hallmarks of someone writing of the 1930s or 40s, with some updated "things" randomly thrown in.

I can assure you that even an Ivy Leaguer would not speak with such a foppish vocabulary and expressions, even in the 90s. The 30s, 40s...maybe, while wearing a raccoon coat. This preposterous vocabulary had Archy referred to often as a "lad"or "buster", talk was "blather" or "drivel", he said something "diddled" him, bad guys were "villains", "nefarious types", "fiends" and "no-goodnicks", people "decried" things, women were "upholstered", men had a "Barrymore profile", and he wore a "boater" hat. There were no contractions in the diction; everything was "I am" or "you (or one) will", etc. All songs and television shows were of 50ish vintage. Frank Sinatra was king.

Thrown in to try to "update" the chronology were a Lexus (referred to once), a cell phone (referred to once or twice), a Miata, and not much else. The songs he liked and heard were 40s songs, the computer he referred to was a 70s computer, and everyone was greeted as "old man" or "old boy", with whom he would have a "spot of lunch". His favorite expression, annoyingly, was "one never knows, do one?". Furthermore, being an Irish dandy, he liberally used Yiddish words and expressions, adding confusion to confusion.

The sad thing was that if this were truthfully presented as a period piece, it could have been charming, if not mind-blowing. But the careless "updating", while maintaining the archaic dialogue and vocabulary made it a linguistic folly. It literally kept me reeling, not being able to place the action in time or space.

As to the plot, if you could possibly get over the ridiculous dialogue and lack of a place in chronology, it was weak and forgettable.

Thankfully, it didn't cost me a credit, and I won't be staggering through this author's time, space and vocabulary continuum again. This was so not written in the 90s (at least not by anyone who had been outside of his house in half a century), and I feel cheated that they would think anyone could believe it was!

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1 person found this helpful

  • Overall
    2 out of 5 stars
  • Performance
    5 out of 5 stars
  • Story
    1 out of 5 stars

Very underwhelming for Lawrence Sanders

I've read nearly all of his books, and this was my least favorite! I'm glad Audible has a return policy!

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1 person found this helpful

  • Overall
    4 out of 5 stars
  • Performance
    3 out of 5 stars
  • Story
    5 out of 5 stars

Where is the sass?

Any additional comments?

I loved reading the McNally books and was delighted to see them available on Audible. The story is still as good as ever, and Victor Bevine was great reader with one exception. That exception, alas, is Archie himself. He seems to deliver Archie's best lines as if he were reciting a mathematical formula. The sass, the flippancy is lacking. There were times I wanted to shout out, 'don't be so damn solemn'. I may try another to see if he changes his delivery any (and it may be the director's fault, not the reader) but I probably will not. Too bad. I enjoy the character very much, but not like this.

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1 person found this helpful

  • Overall
    5 out of 5 stars
  • Performance
    5 out of 5 stars
  • Story
    5 out of 5 stars

bring your dictionary

the perspicacity of the protagonist is great. the words Sanders sprinkles in are outstanding.
plot is a whodunit.

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  • Overall
    5 out of 5 stars
  • Performance
    5 out of 5 stars
  • Story
    5 out of 5 stars

THE FIRST OF ARCHIE MCNALLY'S CRAZY CASES!

MCNALLY'S SECRET BY LAWRENCE SANDERS is the first in the Archie McNally series and in this humble listener, the best! Archis is the "SON" in Mcnally and Son attorney at law in Palm Beach. Archie is NOT an attorney but head and only person who is in charge of "discrete inquiries" for the law Firms clients. When the wealthy want help but don't want the police or the press involved, they go to McNally and Son. In McNally's Secret, Archie is tasked to quietly find four inverted Jenny stamps stolen from Lady Cynthia Horowitz. What starts out as a quiet ho hum investigation leads to murder and Archie is right smack in the middle of it all. Archie is also, during the investigation wanting to know why Lady C is lying about her whereabouts and takes it upon himself to find that out as well.

I love Archie McNally's Secret. I have lost count of how many times I have listen to or read this book. Each time I laugh at Archie, and continue to love Archie and all of his discrete inquiries !

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  • Overall
    5 out of 5 stars
  • Performance
    5 out of 5 stars
  • Story
    5 out of 5 stars

enjoyed the story while I drove

A fun and entertaining book which I enjoyed while driving. The narration was great.

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