The Hearse You Came in On

Rating:
Summary: The Hearse you came in on
Review: I was wondering if you knew how I could order funeral hearse models. My husband is a funeral director and he would really like something like that.

Rating:
Summary: A terrific beginning to a new series
Review: It's always nice to discover a new mystery-writer, and Cockey's new series about Hitchcock Sewell, small-time blue-collar undertaker in Baltimore, shows great promise. Hitch, like many of us, is a mixture of idealism about people in general and cynicism about actual individuals. He's still friends (and occasional bed-partner) with his ex-wife, a very free artisitc spirit. He keeps getting caught up in slightly bizarre Little Theatre productions, much against his better judgment. He's a bemused regular at the Screaming Oyster Saloon, run by his ex-in-laws. And in this first installment, he loses his heart to a female police detective who's had a very poor life and now is in very big trouble and considerable danger. Most of Cockey's characters, especially Hitch and his closest friends and associates, as well as the assorted political miscreants, ring true. Kate the cop doesn't, however, not quite. (I have to wonder about the Baltimore PD's psychological screening program.) It takes a little while before the plot begins to assert itself -- fair enough, the author has to establish all those new characters first -- but when the murders and misdeeds begin to pile up, you'll find yourself thoroughly engrossed.

Rating:
Summary: Fun, fun, fun! Not as morbid as you might fear.
Review: It's easy to summarize this series as featuring an undertaker sleuth, but this is a surprisingly upbeat and laugh-out-loud debut mystery.

Hitchcock ("Hitch") Sewell is not merely an undertaker, he's a 34-year-old, attractive, eligible undertaker in the Fells Point neighborhood in Baltimore. Continuing the family funeral business with his aunt, Hitch has plenty of time to indulge in his hobbies: drinking at the local bar and acting in amateur theatre with his sexy ex-wife, Julia. But mortuary work does bring one into contact with the recently dead, and Hitch is just the sort of man to get involved when suspicious circumstances complicate one's exit from this earth.

What makes this book so fun and charming is Hitchcock himself. His wry observations will make you laugh out loud, and there are some lively characters populating his neighborhood to spice up the story. Hitch is an interesting man, refreshingly complex. He's interested in a beautiful woman without being sexist, and he doesn't shy away from a fight, although he's no swaggering bully. His on-going flirtation with his ex-wife is a bit of a cliché in this genre, but a forgivable one.

The only drawback is that Hitch is not a very active sleuth in this novel; he's more an observer of other people's sleuthing, managing to be in the right place at the right time fairly frequently. This doesn't diminish the fun in any way, but it does leave the avid mystery reader feeling a little empty. Like Janet Evanovich's Stephanie Plum series, the plot is tangential to the real stars, the characters.

The next in this series is "Hearse of a Different Color."

Rating:
Summary: Great Reading
Review: It's hard to believe that this is Tim's first novel. The characters are quirky and fun and the action is seamless. This is a very easy book to get along with. Hitchcock is kind of a smartass, but you'll like his style and the man does get results and the beautiful girl all without sacrificing his wit. Get this book. It's very good reading.

Rating:
Summary: Great Reading
Review: It's hard to believe that this is Tim's first novel. The characters are quirky and fun and the action is seamless. This is a very easy book to get along with. Hitchcock is kind of a smartass, but you'll like his style and the man does get results and the beautiful girl all without sacrificing his wit. Get this book. It's very good reading.

Rating:
Summary: MEET THE MURDER MYSTERY MORTICIAN
Review: Meet Hitchcock Sewell, Hitch for short and the star of this totally enjoyable mystery who just happens to be Baltimore's "most eligible undertaker" or bereavement consultant if you're sort of squeamish or want to be politically correct.

"A murder mystery mortician," you might ask at this point, "Can you be serious?" Sure, why not, having a mortician as your lead character is the most unique setup for a screwball mystery series that I seen in a long time. And Hitch is a most totally likable character. (Darling and loveable to most of the female readers of this book, I'm told.)

As the story begins Hitch is minding his business and "chaperoning the dead into their graves" at Sewell and Sons (there are no sons by the way, just Hitch and his Aunt Billie) when a beautifully women walks into Parlor One dressed for a hot game of tennis. She says she's Carolyn James and she wants to make funereal arrangements for ... herself. But then she backs down and makes a hasty retreat.

For Hitch it is infatuation at first site, and he's sure he's going to have to track down the mysterious Ms. James until the next day when Aunt Billie tells him that a "new client" had just been delivered ... a suicide by the name of Carolyn James. Hitch rushes to look at the body and realizes that he's never seen the woman before.

This is just the start of many fun twists and turns that will keep you going throughout the entire book until the very last page. And if you just happen to have an interest in the theater as I do, you won't want to miss the outrageous subplot involving the Gypsy Player's production of Our Town with Hitch playing the part of the stage manager. It takes the idea of concept productions to the hilarious extreme.

This book was published two years ago, but I didn't catch up to it until last year. So I give it a belated ***** and recommend it to you all. The author has since added two more books to the series which are currently on my to read list.

Rating:
Summary: You will smile all the way to the Funeral Parlor
Review: Near the end of the book, Baltimore undertaker, Hitchcock Sewall contemplates making a "noble effort" and concludes that to attempt a "noble effort in the face of certain failure is not really noble at all. It is just plain stupid".

After all that "Hitch" has been through to get to that point, you have to give him high marks for paying attention. You also have to give Tim Cockney high marks for such an entertaining first novel. It has memorable, hilarious and hateful characters. It has funny, tense and always well scripted moments.

And it also has a mystery. Who killed the blackmailing tennis pro. And who is still blackmailing a US Senate candidate. As we read toward the answer to that conclusion we spend time at The Screaming Oyster Saloon, Sewall & Sons Family Funeral Home, Heayhague, Maine (pronounced Hee Haw),The Moose Run Inn and various and sundry locations around Baltimore, including the police station.

The characters are priceless. You will chuckle, you will smile, you will laugh out loud and you will come away with the feeling that your money was well invested in this promising new novelist.

Rating:
Summary: You will smile all the way to the Funeral Parlor
Review: Near the end of the book, Baltimore undertaker, Hitchcock Sewall contemplates making a "noble effort" and concludes that to attempt a "noble effort in the face of certain failure is not really noble at all. It is just plain stupid".

After all that "Hitch" has been through to get to that point, you have to give him high marks for paying attention. You also have to give Tim Cockney high marks for such an entertaining first novel. It has memorable, hilarious and hateful characters. It has funny, tense and always well scripted moments.

And it also has a mystery. Who killed the blackmailing tennis pro. And who is still blackmailing a US Senate candidate. As we read toward the answer to that conclusion we spend time at The Screaming Oyster Saloon, Sewall & Sons Family Funeral Home, Heayhague, Maine (pronounced Hee Haw),The Moose Run Inn and various and sundry locations around Baltimore, including the police station.

The characters are priceless. You will chuckle, you will smile, you will laugh out loud and you will come away with the feeling that your money was well invested in this promising new novelist.

Rating:
Summary: A sleuth who can bury his failures
Review: Publishers apply a certain amount of pressure to crime writers - there are decided advantages in creating a serial character, a police officer or private detective or gifted amateur who can appear in a string of novels and win over a loyal audience, guaranteed to buy the next book, and the next. Look at Ruth Rendell's Wexford, Ian Rankin's Rebus, Ed McBain's 87th Precinct, Christie's Miss Marple, or Sherlock Holmes himself.

The challenge for the crime writer, then is to create someone who can grow in the part, someone who has a unique provenance, some personal characteristic which will set him or her apart. Patricia Cornwell discovered this in her forensic scientist, Scarpetta.

So what better device for uncovering a regular stream of bodies than to make your amateur sleuth an undertaker by trade? Enter Tim Cockey and his Baltimore funeral director cum private eye, Hitchcock Sewell. I mean, would you really want to entrust the burial of one of your loved ones to someone called `Hitchcock'?

In the first of Cockey's novels, "The Hearse You Came In On", a leggy blonde gatecrashes a wake at Hitch's funeral parlour. He's captivated ... and immediately intrigued. He learns that she's come to arrange her own funeral ... but she disappears before he can discover much more about her. His introduction to the role of sleuth begins with his efforts to track her down ... and then the bodies begin to appear.

Cockey's novels are relatively slow-paced, in keeping with his hero's trade. They are stiff with deadpan humour and one-liners. The plots are neatly cultivated, and his writing gets more sophisticated with each book in the series. In this first one, he's in a bit of a rush to tie up the loose ends and explain what happened. He sacrifices characterisation a bit in the process - Cockey can be cruel with his characters, a bit instrumental in places. And, because he has a rank amateur chasing the murderer, he has to fall back on some sleight of hand assistance from a friendly cop or two to propel the story forward.

But, over all, an enjoyable read, a character you can get in to, and a promising start.


Rating:
Summary: Hearse what I'd like you to know.
Review: Thanks for showing an interest in my book, 'The Hearse You Came In On.' My book is a murder mystery. It fits into the 3-M category. (Murder, Mayhem & Mirth). The story is set in Baltimore, which happens to be where I was set until a twister ripped my little farm house off its supports and sent it spinning off into a strange and wondrous place, called New York City. Even if I can't get back to Baltimore for real, I've managed to do it in this book. For those of you who used to watch 'Homicide' (or who still do, on Court TV) "Hearse" is set in the same section of Baltimore as the TV show, the Fells Point section. My central character is an undertaker, but one like no other undertaker you've ever met. That is unless in your travels you've met a terribly handsome and witty and offbeat undertaker who happens to solve crimes and act in lousy community theater productions in his spare time. His name is Hitchcock Sewell. Sometimes I think I'm a mean father for tagging the guy with a name like that. But it grows on you. Trust me.

My intent in writing this book was to find that combination of laugh-out-loud humor and page-turning mystery. Everybody who I've spied on so far while they're reading the book has been laughing and turning the pages...so it could be I've succeeded. I also spotted someone the other day running through the rain holding it over their head. So apparently the book has multiple uses. This is good to know before you make your purchase. If you're looking for gore and guts and blood and violence (and don't get enough already from the TV news) you'd better steer clear of my book. But if you're in the market for a story filled with local color, entertaining characters, a couple of murders, a dog named Alcatraz and a couple of scene-stealing women (and all of it waterproof!) then this is your book. It's one of the most inexpensive ways I know to take a trip to Baltimore.

Feel free to contact me with your comments on my book. I pay the going rate of three cents for every favorable comment, and a nickel for the big-ticket superlatives. Negative comments are also welcome...though of course you'll have to be prepared for a hearse to pull up outside your home within 3 to 5 business days.

One more thing. "The Hearse You Came In On" is the first book in a new mystery series. If you get in now, you'll know all sorts of stuff that people who start in on later books won't know. I trust you'll use this advantage responsibly.

All the best,

Tim Cockey