Rating: 
Summary: TOPNOTCH COMBINATION OF MIRTH AND MAYHEM
Review: How refreshing it is when an imaginative author mixes mirth with mayhem and also creates a protagonist who draws readers like a magnet. Such is the case with Tim Cockey in The Hearse You Came In On, Hearse Of A Different Color, The Hearse Case Scenario, and now Murder In The Hearse Degree. Fans will be heartened to find intrepid undertaker Hitchcock Sewell as charming and attractive as ever. He's still on the loose in Baltimore, and up to some new tricks. Sophie Potts, the young nanny employed by one of Hitch's former romantic interests, is found floating in a river. The police say suicide; Hitch says uh-uh. But our merry mortician runs into more than a few road blocks as he tries to get to the soggy bottom of this death. There's the on-the-take former Kentucky governor, a more than questionable right-wing group of religious zealots (ARK, the acronym for the Alliance for Reason and Kindness) headed by a probably on the take and on the make director, a ham-on-wry actor (heavy on the ham), and a probing reporter who's more in pursuit of Hitch's ex wife, Julia, than the story. It's a typical Hitch tale. In other words: terrific.
Rating:
Summary: TOPNOTCH COMBINATION OF MIRTH AND MAYHEM
Review: How refreshing it is when an imaginative author mixes mirth with mayhem and also creates a protagonist who draws readers like a magnet. Such is the case with Tim Cockey in The Hearse You Came In On, Hearse Of A Different Color, The Hearse Case Scenario, and now Murder In The Hearse Degree. Fans will be heartened to find intrepid undertaker Hitchcock Sewell as charming and attractive as ever. He's still on the loose in Baltimore, and up to some new tricks. Sophie Potts, the young nanny employed by one of Hitch's former romantic interests, is found floating in a river. The police say suicide; Hitch says uh-uh. But our merry mortician runs into more than a few road blocks as he tries to get to the soggy bottom of this death. There's the on-the-take former Kentucky governor, a more than questionable right-wing group of religious zealots (ARK, the acronym for the Alliance for Reason and Kindness) headed by a probably on the take and on the make director, a ham-on-wry actor (heavy on the ham), and a probing reporter who's more in pursuit of Hitch's ex wife, Julia, than the story. It's a typical Hitch tale. In other words: terrific. - Gail Cooke
Rating:
Summary: The Best!!
Review: I discovered Tim Cockey's Hitchcock Sewell series a few months ago and since then I've read 'em all. Like it's predecessors, MURDER IN THE HEARSE DEGREE is an ideal blend of action, character, humor and intrigue. A wonderful series that just keeps getting better!
Rating:
Summary: Hearses!
Review: I love this series! I took this one with me on a recent trip and enjoyed it so much that those sitting around me thought I was a loon because I was laughing so hard.
You have to love Hitchcock, his sense of humor keeps the plot moving right along and the reader almost winces at times waiting for him to get a smack on the head from his remarks.
Great fun and a highly recommended read!
Rating: 
Summary: Good but perhaps not his best...
Review: I'm now all caught up on the Tim Cockey series involving Hitchcock Sewell. I missed Murder In The Hearse Degree when it first came out, so now was the time to round out the reading. And as always, Cockey creates a fun read with great dialogue...
In this version, an old flame of Sewell's who is now married with children is fearful that her nanny has gone missing. The girl turns up dead at the base of a bridge. The police seem to want to quickly write it off as a suicide, but Sewell isn't so sure. After a little investigation, he finds out that the nanny was pregnant, and no one is quite sure who the father is. And if they figure that out, they may know who the killer is. There's a tie with a right-wing religious group that isn't all it's cracked up to be, and Sewell is getting on their nerves with the continued snooping. The goal is to find the killer without becoming a victim.
While I enjoyed the book, I wasn't as "in to" this one as others I've read. This should have been a two day read at most, but I ended up reading a number of other books interspersed with this one. So was the lack of focus just me, or was the story not quite as gripping as normal? I'm really not sure. If you're a fan of the Hitchcock Sewell series, you'll like this one. If you're new to the series, maybe you should save this one and read it in order.
Rating:
Summary: Hitch Puts Baltimore On The Map
Review: I've haven't ever been very interested in Baltimore, especially since the Colts left for Indianapolis, or in undertakers. Tim Cockey's Hitchcock Sewell has changed all that.
As a life-long mystery fan I associate certain fictional characters with their city. If you say San Francisco I think of Sam Spade. Boston brings up Parker, New York will always be Nero Wolfe and Mike Hammer, and Miami is Mike Shane. Until recently, if you said Baltimore I could only reply, "The Star Spangled Banner." But now I have met Hitchcock Sewell and he has put Baltimore on the Mystery genre map.
Hitch is an undertaker. He carries on the family business with his Aunt Billie at the Sewell and Sons Family Funeral Home. He approaches life (including his own) and death (not including his own) with an insatiable curiosity, considerable wit and charm, and surprising insight.
In Murder In The Hearse Degree, the 4th Hearse mystery, Hitch is asked, by a former lover, to look into the recent disappearance of her family's nanny. The nanny's body soon turns up in the Severn River, an apparent suicide, and the autopsy reveals an unsuspected pregnancy. The police seem satisfied with suicide but Hitch smells something fishy (besides the nanny's body).
As the scene moves from Baltimore to Annapolis to Washington D.C. and back, Tim Cockey sprinkles the landscape with memorable and believable characters, many of whom are suspects in the increasingly suspicious death of the nanny.
The gripping conclusion brings Hitch close to being a customer of his own services and leaves the reader with a strong desire to read the next installment as soon as possible. If you don't give the Hearse series a try, then, as Hitch would say, "Its your funeral."
By Mystery.words.com
Rating:
Summary: Sewell Charms Again
Review: This is my very favorite of the Hitchcock Sewell series so far. Cockey kept me hanging, kept me interested in the characters, and kept me laughing. I'm not going to tell you the story, Cockey does a brilliant job of that. I can't wait for the next one!!
Rating:
Summary: Sewell Charms Again
Review: This is my very favorite of the Hitchcock Sewell series so far. Cockey kept me hanging, kept me interested in the characters, and kept me laughing. I'm not going to tell you the story, Cockey does a brilliant job of that. I can't wait for the next one!!
Rating:
Summary: A Lighter Shade of Noir
Review: This was a book I tried really hard not to like. Protagonist Hitchcock Sewell, part time detective and full time ladies??? man, also happens to be an undertaker. Preposterous! Bizarre! But, as it turns out, downright entertaining! Set in Baltimore and Annapolis, Maryland, our hero sets out to help a former flame (Hitchcock apparently has many) get to the bottom of the death of the family???s nanny. While written off by the local police as a classic suicide, the family suspects a much more sinister explanation, in which ???Hitch??? is happy to oblige. From there author Tim Cockey succeeds in spinning a good-old-fashioned mystery as undertaker-sleuth Sewell keeps turning up the leads while annoying the authorities and exerting his irrepressible charms on various lady folk. What makes it all work is the cast of zany and off-beat characters, cast with quick pace and a lively and witty, if incredulous, dialogue. The style is more Lawrence Sander???s Archie McNally-series than the darker, grittier works of Robert Crais or Dennis Lehane. But Cockey???s tongue-in-cheek approach, falling just short of parodying the well-traveled hardboiled PI genre, is refreshing and effective. In the final analysis, ???Murder in the Hearst Degree??? is engaging and engrossing ??? before I remembered how much I wasn???t going to like it I was sucked-in and addicted. With four Hitchcock Sewell stories in the series preceding this one, I expect there will be more of Tim Cockey I'll be trying not to like.
Rating:
Summary: A Lighter Shade of Noir
Review: This was a book I tried really hard not to like. Protagonist Hitchcock Sewell, part time detective and full time ladies' man, also happens to be an undertaker. Preposterous! Bizarre! But, as it turns out, downright entertaining! Set in Baltimore and Annapolis, Maryland, our hero sets out to help a former flame (Hitchcock apparently has many) get to the bottom of the death of the family's nanny. While written off by the local police as a classic suicide, the family suspects a much more sinister explanation, in which 'Hitch' is happy to oblige. From there author Tim Cockey succeeds in spinning a good-old-fashioned mystery as undertaker-sleuth Sewell keeps turning up the leads while annoying the authorities and exerting his irrepressible charms on various lady folk. What makes it all work is the cast of zany and off-beat characters, cast with quick pace and a lively and witty, if incredulous, dialogue. The style is more Lawrence Sander's Archie McNally-series than the darker, grittier works of Robert Crais or Dennis Lehane. But Cockey's tongue-in-cheek approach, falling just short of parodying the well-traveled hardboiled PI genre, is refreshing and effective. In the final analysis, 'Murder in the Hearst Degree' is engaging and engrossing ' before I remembered how much I wasn't going to like it I was sucked-in and addicted. With four Hitchcock Sewell stories in the series preceding this one, I expect there will be more of Tim Cockey I'll be trying not to like.
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