Well, that was not exactly what I was expecting. I like memoirs. I like mysteries. Why not a combination of the two? I am a fan of Star Trek TNG and I heard Spiner interviewed a couple of times when this book was released. His chats with interviewers made it sound intriguing. I bit and put a hold on the book at the library.
Now I have issues with written humour. Sometimes I get it. This time I struggled with it. Plus I found it impossible to parse which parts were fact and which were fiction. Did Brent Spiner really have a stalker? Maybe, but I'm not sure. Spiner said in his interviews that he didn't care for traditional memoirs, but I actually do enjoy them. I would have been far more interested in a factual account by a guy who obviously has a lively intellect.
I had no idea that Spiner was also a comedian and singer, as well as an actor. However, I would never have known that from the text of this book either. It was in the note about the author. My disappointment lies in the fact that I really didn't learn very much about the man. The grand total of my new knowledge? He's Jewish, he had an abusive stepfather, he spent a long time as a working actor before Star Trek came along, he had to be convinced to attend a StarTrek convention, and his makeup for that role was truly awful. That could have been a pamphlet, rather than 256 pages.
Still, the author had obviously enjoyed noir detective fiction, with its distraught dames, shady characters, violent threats, and murky motives. He had a good time playing with those tropes, but he's no Raymond Chandler or Dashiell Hammett.
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