A NIGHT AT THE OPERATION: A Double Feature Mystery - Jeffrey Cohen

From the back of the book: Murder is No Joke

Most men wouldn't be terribly upset if their ex-wives suddenly vanished. But then, most men aren't Elliot Freed. So when his ex----Dr. Sharon Simon-Freed----goes missing, Elliot finds it hard to focus on running Comedy Tonight, his all-comedy movie theatre. Especially when it's rumored that Sharon might be somehow connected to a patient's death----a death that looks like murder.

While his theatre starts to fall apart and his most trusted employee threatens to quit, Elliot embarks on a frantic search for his ex with help from her second (and thankfully soon-to-also-be-ex) husband, his passive-aggressive mother and desperate-to-please father, and his good friend Detective Vidal. Because murder is now laughing matter.....

*************************************

Elliot is such a sweetie. I enjoy watching his mind work out problems that occur, how he manages to get rides to places that are too far for him to ride his bike to get to, taking care of his people and his people taking care of him: at the theater, at the bike shop, at his ex-wife's medical practice. Even how he gets involved in the murder solving that keep happening around him.

He has extra reason this time since it's Sharon, Elliot's ex, who is accused of causing the death of one of her patients. Sharon disappears, not answering her phone, and it makes her look all the more guilty. Elliot to the rescue.

Would that I had a movie theatre around here in our neck of Colorado so I could see these classic comedies. Heck I'd want to work there. I hope he's working on another Double Feature Mystery, but at least I have the Haunted Guesthouse series to keep me happy, since he writes that one as E J Copperman...YAY!

Five let's go to the movies beans....

Books in the House Monday - 20 Sep 2010

From Seester:

THE PASSAGE - Justin Cronin, horror, BOCD, abridged but a really good abridgement



High Crimes Mystery Bookshop

THE HUNT FOR ATLANTIS - Andy McDermott, archeological thriller, MPB

A NIGHT AT THE OPERATION: Double Feature Mystery #3 - Jeffrey Cohen, cozy mystery, MPB

BUZZ OFF: A Queen Bee Mystery #1 - Hannah Reed, cozy mystery, MPB

MURDER PAST DUE: A Cat in the Stacks Mystery #1 - Miranda James, cozy mystery, MPB

A QUIET BELIEF IN ANGELS - R J Ellory, suspense, TPB



Barnes & Noble (using my e-giftcard from Cozy Chicks)

SKETCH ME IF YOU CAN: Portrait of Crime Mystery #1 - Sharon Pape, cozy mystery, MPB
A KILLER PLOT: Books in the Bay Mystery #1 - Ellery Adams, cozy mystery, MPB
DEATH MOST DEFINITE: Death Works - Trent Jamieson, UF, MPB

Ann, my cozy trading buddy at work:
THE COLD LIGHT OF MOURNING - Elizabeth J Duncan, cozy mystery, MPB

IT HAPPENED ONE KNIFE: A Double Feature Mystery #2 - Jeffrey Cohen

From the back of the book: Comedy can be dead funny....

Elliot Freed couldn't be happier. His all-comedy movie theater, Comedy Tonight, is newly refurbished; things with his ex-wife are looking up; he's even willing to screen his projectionist's film debut. But what really has Elliot walking on air is hosting the legendary duo, Lillis & Townes, at a special showing of their classic comedy 'Cracked Ice'

Nothing can bring Elliot down---not a missing film, a bomb scare, or even a surly teenage girl. But when insinuations arise that one of his boyhood heros may have been involved in a Hollywood murder decades earlier, Elliot crashes to earth. He sets out to discover the truth--but he finds that he may beon the killer's hit list.....

************************************************

I loved SOME LIKE IT HOT-BUTTERED (review in link) when I read it in April. It's a fab title (and it's how I like my popcorn), so it immediately drew my attention when I saw it somewhere. Now for the author to grab me to keep reading the series, there has to be more than a pretty title. Jeffrey Cohen did it in spades with IT HAPPENED ONE KNIFE.

Poor Elliot...he's doing his projectionist a favor and shows Anthony's debut film...then is accused of stealing the film project. Elliot then invites his two heroes of comedy filmdom, Lillis & Townes, to a special showing of one of their hit films at his theater...and finds out that one of them may have committed a murder in the past.

Elliot decides he has to investigate both crimes and gets in all kinds of trouble around town, someone sends him an unpleasant gift, demolishes his bike, he might be dating his ex-wife...poor poor Elliot. I just want to reach in and give him a hug.

But he carries on and forges ahead, no matter that everyone tells otherwise..some a little more strongly than others and more forcefully.

And now I cannot wait to read number 3 in the series, A NIGHT AT THE OPERATION. It's in the B&N shopping cart and my next order to Cynthia at High Crimes...whichever gets sent first...now what's this that only three have been written..

Five please say it's only three books in the series so far beans....

SOME LIKE IT HOT-BUTTERED: A Double Feature Mystery - Jeffrey Cohen

From the back of the book: All Elliott Freed wanted to do was to make people die laughing. But not literally.

The dead guy in row S, seat 18, is no joke. Elliot Freed, recovering writer, socked all his savings--and the alimony from his ex-wife--into the Comedy Tonight movie theater, never suspecting it would become a crime scene. And murder cant' be good for ticket sales.

Death by popcorn was the cause. Poisoned popcorn. To the chagrin of the local police, Elliot takes to his bike to start his own invesigation. A growing attraction to a beautiful detective, the discovery of a DVD pirating operation, and one missing employee later, Elliot's still waiting for the punch line. But this one might knock his theater--and Elliot--out for good....

*********************

Ahhhhhh....this was such a good book to read as a bedside book! I always went to sleep smiling. I have to find more of Jeffrey Cohen's books, really anything he writes.

Elliot is my kind of guy, the people I like to surround myself with. People who want to make others happy through laughter and what a way to do so with a movie theater that only plays comedies. One classic comedy and one newer (less funny comparatively) to bring in the crowds. But the crowds don't show up until the dead guy is found in Row S seat 18. So now the cops are thinking that Elliot makes a good suspect, especially once the boxes of pirated DVDs of movies being shown at Elliot's theater are found in the basement of said theater.

Elliot gets on his bike and rides to each investigative clue or hitches a ride with his dad (who gladly drives to escape the house for a bit). Or he gets a ride with his ex-wife who he's still friends with even after she left him for her anesthesiologist.....

See why I went to sleep smiling each night?

So do yourself a favor and get this book! It's a wonderfully funny amateur sleuth mystery, excellent characters and fab story.

Five die laughing beans....