PLEASE DO NOT DISTURB comes with a wonderfully evocative sense of place and people, delivered with an affectionate comic touch. There's something reminiscient in here of lots of these styles of novels set in developing nations, where the people in positions of power and leadership are over the top, the worker's invariably put upon, hard working and blessed with bucket loads of patience and understanding, and everything seems to sort of muddle along in a way that would drive incomers mildly mad if you didn't see the funny side of it.

Glancy does a terrific job here at pointing out the absurbities in elegant prose. It is, however, populated by a huge cast of characters, contributing a lot of similar narrative voices to a plot which is frequently overcrowded with points to be made, and lacking forward drive as a result. Great sense of place and character though - possibly just needs a bit more focus, drive and maybe a more judicious spread of the personalities over more than one outing.

https://www.austcrimefiction.org/review/review-please-do-not-disturb-robert-glan... ( )