Hearse of a Different Color: Summary and book reviews of Hearse of a Different Color by Tim Cockey, plus links to an excerpt from Hearse of a Different Color and a biography of Tim Cockey.
Hearse of a Different Color A Novel
by Tim Cockey
Hardcover: Feb 2001,
320 pages.
Paperback: Feb 2002,
416 pages.
It's a dark and stormy night in Baltimore, and snow isn't the only thing piling up on the front steps of Sewell & Sons Family Funeral Home. There's also trouble. Specifically, a murdered waitress is unceremoniously dropped off at the door while a wake is under way inside. Bad form, no two ways about it. In this witty, page-turning follow-up to Tim Cockey's highly praised first novel, The Hearse You Came In On, charming mortician-about-town Hitchcock Sewell has just one question: Why my place? His meteorologist girlfriend, Bonnie, has bigger fish to fry. The murder is her chance to make the leap from the weather game -- which she stinks at anyway -- to hard news. A few well-timed bats of Bonnie's big blues, and Hitch is ready to roll.
Starting at the seedy airport lounge restaurant where Helen, the murdered woman, worked, and with the reluctant assistance of her estranged sister, Hitch and Bonnie begin to learn more about the woman's past than they really care to know. Daughter of a stripper, nude model, small-time porn actress, single mother of a three-year-old son. Apparently Helen was determined to shake her tawdry past, but did her past catch up with her anyway? Could her son's father -- identity unknown -- have been the killer? Or maybe her "business manager" in the sex trade? How about one of those lonely business travelers who trawl the airport lounge? Maybe the big guy on the keyboards in the lousy lounge band? Or, for that matter, his jealous wanna-be partner?
Hitch's investigation takes him down an increasingly twisted and wicked trail -- from Baltimore's low-life strip joints to its high-tone mansions -- where he discovers the full scope of the nasty impulses that led to Helen's death. Having planned only to dabble, he's getting in over his head. Luckily, Hitch is a fast learner. At least, he'd better be.
Book Page
[E]asily the equal of its clever predecessor . . . where Cockey shines . . . is with his insights about the human condition.
Library Journal
Delightful prose, provocative humor, and engaging characters move this right to the top. Most appealing.
Publisher's Weekly
[Cockey's] breezy, casual tone, hilarious situations, very quirky, sharply drawn characters and neighborhoods will appeal to fans of Janet Evanovich. Cockey has a more serious side too, offering insightful commentary on family relationships and sibling rivalry.
Lots of action, quirky characters, an engaging new sleuth who designs greeting cards, and a ferret named Margaret -- what more could any reader want? Dating Dead Men is a superb debut.
'A smashingly good, action-packed first novel....Benoit is a rare discovery, and one hopes that he plans to produce more adventure-oriented mysteries with the same skill and energy that propel this excellent debut' - Publishers Weekly
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