Beatles - The Untold Story: the death and replacement of Paul McCartney Paperback – June 5, 2012

OK, this book is junk. But, to be fair, the premise of the book is interesting. I was a child back in the 60s, a pre-teen, and knew nothing about all this particular Beatles intrigue; I simply wasn't old enough. But I loved the Beatles and their music all the same, watching their cartoons on TV as if they made them just for me. They made my childhood much less tedious. They were like the promise of something better down the road. They bottled joy and excitement.So I was quite late to the "Paul is Dead" party! More than half a century late. I had only come across the "Paul is Dead" thing on the Internet a couple of years ago, it blew my mind (what will all the conspiracy nutwads come up with next?) and I was prepared for it to be ridiculous and unsupportable once I fully delved into it. But as I read more and more, the less skeptical I became! It actually started to seem plausible. This shocked me. This is possibly the only conspiracy, of the many that are presented all the time by those that love them (e.g., UFOs in flocks over the Hudson River Valley, alien autopsies, Hitler didn't die, Obama is a Muslim, Brian Jones was murdered), that I might possibly believe. (But I still think Lee Harvey Oswald acted alone.)Eventually I went to Amazon to see what might be available there. Lo and behold...several works on "Paul is Dead". This particular one looked pretty good...the customer reviews were mixed, but enough people thought this was good stuff, so I decided to order the Kindle sample. I then read the Kindle sample, and was quite intrigued. Not bad at all. Schultze laid out the case in a somewhat repetitive, yet still readable manner (he goes on and on about what constitutes a hoax, and what a hoax isn't, and seems to like that topic very much), and I wanted to get the rest of the book, and so I did buy it. I was actually looking forward to reading the rest of it!I just read about thirty pages of it...What a downer. Sorry...Terrible book. Please save your money. Fan fic written as if its supposed to be the true story of day-to-day life as lived by the Beatles. Schultze writes his own dialogue for the Beatles, to flesh out his "story". Sadly, he has no ear for dialogue or feel for exposition of plot, can't punctuate, can't spell, can't edit. A decent editor could have vastly improved this mess. (Please, erstwhile Kindle authors, listen to me! Get an editor!) Another reviewer on this site complained about the same thing---it's as if two different people wrote it---one writing the Prologue, and another the rest of the book. Yes, it's truly exactly like that...how did the Prologue manage to be so much better than the entire book? (In my opinion, someone actually kinda...well...edited it somehow.)So, if you read the Prologue, you truly don't need to read anything more. Just order the Sample, and be satisfied.This book is really a missed opportunity. And it's confusing, too, because in the Prologue, and in the sell copy, it seems to present itself as a research work, i.e., non-fiction, and not as a self-indulgent piece of fiction. But it is that, and only that. It's a bundle of decently imagined possibilities that are killed off by poor writing. I wish to hell this guy had been able to tell the story he set out to tell, without sounding like a high-school kid writing stories for his friends.I'm sorry, I don't want to hurt this guy's feelings. That is not my joy in life, bashing people. I feel badly for him, feel badly that he will read this and wince. But he's hanging it out there, and I made the mistake of reading what he hung out for the paying public to read. I can't unring THAT bell!.

I picked up the book hoping to find a history of the "Paul is Dead hoax," possibly some insight, theories, or anecdotal evidence as to what it was all about.After reading the preface, where the author manages to misspell the names "Richy Vallens," "Eddy Cochran," "Jimmy Hendrix", and credits "Brian Davis" as the late, original guitarist for the Rolling Stones, all in the same paragraph, I lost respect for the work. That the author spent the remainder of the preface arguing his theories must be true because nobody can prove they're false, just about made me put the thing down, give a one-star review, and move on accepting that my wallet was $3 lighter for no purpose.Instead, I kept reading what turned out to be nothing more than a pulpy fanfic novel. Characters are two-dimensional, unmotivated, and complete fail to impart the personalities and spirit of those they are meant to represent, nor is the magic of the Beatles in any way captured by the story. Dialog is stilted and awkward. Characters have seemingly endless conversations that are complete devoid of dramatic conflict, do nothing to advance the plot, and seem designed to give everyone a chance to spout a Beatle-lyric pun. This is punctuated by an omniscient, meandering narrator who then feels the need to recap each of these extraneous scenes in inner monologue a few pages later, presumably just to pump up the word count. Grammar and spelling are atrocious, there are plot holes you can drive a mystery tour bus through, and historical inaccuracies were so replete I found myself opening up other reference material just to see if it was the author or me who has some rather large misconceptions about Beatles lore and 60's music. (For example: Lennon and McCartney would not have been listening to "Street Fighting Man" and discussing "Voodoo Chile" in a pub prior to writing the lyrics for "Getting Better All the Time" ... at least not without some manner of time machine. This was arguably the least of the sins committed as far as rock history goes.)It was not until about halfway through the book, when I decided this was just going to be pure B-movie schlock (much in the spirit of a Beatle movie), that I was able to turn of my mind, relax and float downstream. That revelation, the fact that it is a quick read, and the $3 price point, earned it the second star. Basically, I still can't decide if I liked it though. I feel like this could have been a good story, but it reads like a very rough first draft that got about halfway done, then forgot where it was doing -- a three act play where the first act is 75% of it.Basically, if you're a serious Beatle completest who understands the value of camp fanfic, them by all means, give this book a cautious try. If you're looking for literary significance, crave serious insight into life as a Beatle, or are any kind of a grammar/spelling Nazi, just keep browsing.

it was a good book. some things will stay in your mind. some of the owrds were a bit corny.. they would say things that were lines from their songs. I did want the book to be more real. but the story was good. and the paul death stuff was real good. a good read for any beatle fan

I bought this book since it looked like an interesting read and I am a big Beatles fan. When it arrived, I immediately snatched it up. The foreward/preface is written quite nicely but the rest of the book is almost unreadable. Misspellings abound; a name spelled correctly in one paragraph will be misspelled in the next. There are sentence fragments that just do not make any sense whatsoever. This had to be either written in another language and then translated by computer or written on one of those "Speak & Type" programs and I would go with the former since even a "Speak & Type" program would have trouble mangling the English language this badly. Obviously a real person wrote the foreword but no one could have possibly read the body of this book and then allowed it to be printed. The book itself is a fictionalized account of how the Beatles would have dealt with the death of Paul (if they were thinking in unintelligible sentence fragments). If Mr. Schultze actually wrote this in German or another language and had it translated by computer, then he should seriously think about contacting his publisher and reading them the riot act. It is hard to get the gist of what the writer is trying to say when the sentences do not make sense.

It could have been a great book the idea of it is fantastic the problem I think was the execution the words and attitude of the Beatles wasn't the correct it was rushed and all over the place is a shame could have been really good if it had been developed in a different way.

The 'Paul Is Dead' hoax really is a interesting and teasing story in modern pop culture and one that surfaces every decade or so with some more tit bits to add further mystery to the subject. As a huge Beatles fan and a bit of a conspiracy theorist it’s a fascinating subject, but personally I think it’s a great yarn and Macca is still well and truly with us!!!The first part of the book covers all the usual stuff you would expect on how the story started and developed, but nothing new and none of the current in-depth studies, (photo and voice analysis particularly), that have added some new impetus to the subject of late. On to the second part of the book and oh dear oh dear......the work is complete fantasy and 2 hours of my life I won't get back, (either Jojo or in the USSR!!!!). I'm not sure if Ernie has visited the UK, but with his writing style, I thought I was being projected back to Victorian England, Pea Soupers and Hansom Cabs and it was about as convincing as Dick Van Dyke's English accent in Mary Poppins.Sorry to be down on Ernie and his book, but it should be clear that Part 2 is a story and NOT based on real events; just what could have happened if the fake Paul picked up the Hofner Violin Bass (or was it the Rickenbacker by then?)......anyway, save your money and buy something more worthwhile and appreciate what The Beatles gave us and not what Mr Shultze may have imagined during those crazy psychedelic days!!!!

A really good book....many questions asked, a good read..

Mi sembra molto interessante. Vale la pena leggerlo. Potrebbe essere vero, ma restano sempre i dubbi. E',comunque, un ottimo esempio investigativo, ricco di dettagli su una persona e du un periodo tanto amati. E se gosse tutto vero? La verita' e' una conquista; spetta a noi decidere sul vero o falso.

Spannend sich in eine grossartige Zeit zurück zu versetzen und gleichzeitig mit zu fiebern,ob es sich um eine gelungen und unterhaltsame Fantasie oder - Wirklichkeit!- handelt.Paul is dead - es lebe Paul!