This guy wrote 59 episodes of The Simpsons. It says so right on the cover. The book definitely has the joke quality and density of those early seasons. This is a fun twist on the hardboiled genre and a concise read to boot. I'm a little surprised nobody has tried to adapt this series yet in the age of limitless funds for that sort of thing. I'll probably check out the rest of the series.

Having written more Simpsons episodes than anyone else, and there’s not a bad one in all of his 59 absurd masterpieces, John Swartzwelder knows funny, and it is clear in this chaotic, wild and quick mix of Sci-Fi & noir.

‘The Time Machine Did It’ probably contains at least ten jokes a paragraph, rounding of to 100 a chapter, and Frank Burly is one of my favourite characters in any piece of fiction I have read. It never holds back on utilizing its weird concept; a wannabe detective who gets hold of a time machine.

Well worth the read for fans of comedy or Sci-Fi, my one real qualm is that I would have liked for it to have gone on longer. I look forward to reading the rest of the series.

Funny concept, but awkward writing

THE TIME MACHINE DID IT is not a serious book and knows it. This short detective farce about Frank Burly, a woefully inobservant private eye leans into its silliness hard, and I enjoyed that.

The biggest thing that kept me from fully getting into the book was its lack of transitions between paragraph. Sometimes, the confusing narration was purely the set up to a joke, but other times I felt like I was reading someone trying to describe a TV show, which makes sense because the author, John Swartzwelder is a celebrated writer for THE SIMPSONS.

All that said, the book was short enough and Frank Burly was interesting enough, that I'll definitely be continuing this series.

"Turds for sale!" he shouted. "I've got turds!"

This is a deeply dumb book but I mean that in the best possible sense. Written by the most prolific writer of the Golden Era of The Simpsons, Swartzwelder is something of a conundrum; a loner, possibly very right wing but undoubtedly one of most influential comedy writers to have ever existed.

There some Mark Twain level wit in this book but also, turds for sale.

Can't recommend it highly enough.

A rock-solid 4 stars, probably 4 point something. Both the comedy and the hard-boiled dick stuff were very well done. It occasionally feels tossed off, but I have very rarely laughed out loud so many times while reading a novel. Swartzwelder is legit funny, as we knew from his many classic Simpsons credits. If there's one thing to gripe (softly) about, it's that some of the gags did feel a little derivative of some Simpsons jokes. But for the most part it's excellent and, like I say, Laugh Out Loud Funny (LOLF)

This seems to me to be a rough draft by a very clever person, tossed off quickly and published without revision to make a fast buck.

1 star out of 5. It pokes fun at some common harboiled detective tropes, but overall it's nothing more than a light diversion -- and an eye-rollingly juvenile one, to boot. Fans of Dirk Gently might enjoy it more than most.

(Read in 2017, the twentieth book in my Alphabetical Reading Challenge)

Like the cover says, The Time Machine Did It was written by John Swartzwelder. He was responsible for fifty-nine episodes of the long-running animated series, The Simpsons. As you can imagine, the zaniness in that show has spilled onto the pages of a sort-of detective novel featuring the “slow-witted” Frank Burly.

Slow witted is a vast understatement. Burly makes Springfield’s Chief Wiggum look like Lennie Briscoe. The point is, this detective is a dufus. Time traveling doesn’t help. He’s just as stupid in the past. What’s worse—he doesn’t care. I will say one thing for him, though. He can take a beating. And he does. Often.

If you’re looking for the kinds of twists and turns you’d find in a Raymond Chandler novel, this book isn’t for you. But if you want some laugh-out-loud humor to brighten your day, I’d advise you to check out The Time Machine Did It. And if you need some convincing, I’m happy to give you the old Burly Shove.

I really wanted to like this book - I love John's writing on the Simpsons and his unique way of looking at the world. I really enjoyed the first few chapters and the unusual sense of humour/view of the world but then the book rapidly decline. This could really do with a decent editor and I think it has the substance of something really great.

John Schwartzwelder is a long time writer for The Simpsons. Even though you may not recognize the name, he is likely responsible for some of your favorite episodes from the golden era of the show.

I have been meaening to read some of his books for ages. They aren't available at my libraries and only seem to be found on Amazon. They were self published and not widely promoted. Seems he just wrote them for fun and fun alone.

The Time Machine Did It is a comedy mystery novel featuring a self aware incompetent detective. Frank Burley (not his real name) knows he's not the best and is honestly not sure why anyone hires him. He takes this case because every other private eye in town turned it down.

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A humorous short book, especially for fans of the Simpsons. The author wrote dozens of episodes, and the preposterous humor that pervades through the series is here. The plot is ludicrous, it’s about a small-time detective, Frank Burly, that gets caught up in a case brought to him by a former, now penniless, millionaire by the name of Thomas Mandible. As the plot unfolds, turns out a time machine was built that was being used by the criminals of the town to change history. Part of that history was to turn in a corrupt DA from 1941 that brought criminals to Justice, so instead of doing so, the Pellagra crime family was able to thrive and take everything from the mandibles. Much like the a Simpsons, this is a cartoon reality and it helps to see it as such to find the humor amusing. I did find myself chuckling to myself often. As I said, worth reading if an old Simpsons fan, as it takes no time to read.

John Swartzwelder, reclusive comedy writer and legendary architect behind the golden age of The Simpsons, apparently wrote a bunch of books. I couldn’t help myself. He’s influenced my sense of humor more than anybody else in my life. This book was about what I’d expect. Similar to the writing of Jack Handey. Plot is silly and stupid, mainly just exists to help string together gags.

A couple humorous scenes!

Frank Burly, PI, realizes he’s been burglarized-

“I probably should’ve noticed the muddy footprints on my floor before. They were all over the house. You practically couldn’t see anything else. They led through the broken window, up to where I had stashed the briefcase, then into the kitchen. Following the muddy tracks, I saw that the intruder had made some lunch for himself, then doubled back to the living room where he apparently watched some of my videotapes, then into my bedroom for some jumping on the bed, then back to the living room where he left by a different broken window.”

After a chase in a time machine dumps him in 1865-

“The cops caught up to me at Ford’s theater. When they drew their guns and started to shoot, I ducked behind Abe Lincoln. Now I know what you’re going to say: faux pas. I won’t deny it. But I mean, what the heck, he was going to die anyway right? As it turned out, he wasn’t much of a shield. The automatic weapons fire practically tore both him and John Wilkes Booth in half.”

In this genre-blending sci-fi noir parody from a former writer of “The Simpsons,” Frank Burly is a bumbling and moronic private detective who becomes caught up in a strange case when a homeless old man, claiming to be the wealthiest man in town, hires him to locate a missing statue. Burly takes the case and then happens into all kinds of misadventures, usually through his own fault, that lead him traveling through time. Burly has got to find a way back to his own time while solving the case. Along the way, his incompetence messes with the space-time continuum and wreaks havoc on his own present. Funny with some clever spin on classic noir tropes, Swartzwelder’s novella and its lead character are charming.