The Hearse You Came in On

Rating:
Summary: Baltimore Bore
Review: This author hits all the low lights on his way to telling a far too predictable tale about a murder in Charm City. His main characters are hollow stereotypes, and the story went absolutely nowhere fast. I couldn't get past the first hundred pages. Yawn. Save your money.

Rating:
Summary: Wit & Wisecracks Amidst The Murdered
Review: This book was really fun to read. I rarely find a book that combines a good plot with full characters, pacing AND humor.

I won't say anything about the plot, b'c that's too risky of spoiling your discovery, other than to say it works well. Re character, the protaganist feels real, and not excessively... excessive. Sorry for the lack of elequonce - I'm not an author - but the protaganist feels like someone I might know. I like that. It sacrifices the "exotic" potential, but in trade off buys more "familiarity", which I prefer. And no, I'm not from Baltimore (the setting). The pace is nice - it starts leisurely, and then builds. The author isn't in a race, and reading it doesn't feel like having had two too many espressos.

Best of all, "Hearse" gave me some very humerous / entertaining scenes, and applies wit throughout. For me, this is just as important as a good plot hook, or accomplished writing skills. Hitch, the protaganist, (or is it Tim Cockey, the author?) has an amusing and wry take on the world that's NOT cynical or "the jaded cop". Does this mean that there aren't any serious parts? No. But it means that the read itself is good, and not merely the stuff that happens between first page and last.

Rating:
Summary: Another winner of the "Great Title" Award
Review: This title gets one of my "Great Title" awards - right up there with "Helen Hath No Fury" - but the book itself is somewhat uneven. The title, of course, is a paraphrase of part of an invective, which, IMHO, is better appropriated in James Carville's "And the Horse He Rode In On: the People v. Kenneth Starr."

"Hearse You Came In On" is a fun (yes, some funeral directors can be fun - ask Oprah and her friend Stedham or my friends Robert, Jeff & Diane) murder mystery that introduces a delightful new cast. The ending would leave us wondering, except that the publisher, to entice us into reading the next book "Hearse of a Different Color" (another candidate for "Great Title" award - this one a paraphrase of the famous horse in "The Wizard of Oz,") has included a blurb and the first chapter of this sequel at the end of "Hearse You Came In On."

Rating:
Summary: Hitchcock I Love You
Review: This was a great book. I've just recently heard of this series and they sounded like fun. I wasn't disappointed. The author's humor is non stop throughout the book, no matter how dire the situation, so you can't help but love the main character who is an undertaker in Baltimore.

I highly recommend this book.



Rating:
Summary: What a delightful book!
Review: Tim Cockey's first book is a delight! Not only is Hitch a character that you like instantly (and hope to see much more of!) there is also the added pleasure of a deviously twisting plot to keep you riveted in your seat. Congratulations to Mr. Cockey on a well-written and very entertaining first novel. I hope there will be many more to come.

Rating:
Summary: A classic comic mystery
Review: Tim Cockey's hilarious debut about Hitchcock Sewell, undertaker-turned-detective is a great comic mystery, with a touch of noir, and some well-turned one-liners. You'll laugh along as Hitchcock gets mixed up with dames, murder and cops with no sense of humor (not necessarily in that order).

Cockey's writing is deft & hilariously funny, and his character descriptions are marvelous. You'll definitely feel like you know some of the people he describes. I cannot recommend this book highly enough! (and no, even though I know him, he is NOT paying me for this review.....right, Tim?)

Go out, buy this book, and chase away your blues! I read it in two sittings...and I'll be reading it again! Hey, why not buy two, and give one to a friend!

Rating:
Summary: A Great First Effort...
Review: Tim Cockey's The Hearse You Came In On has some fabulous things going for it--great dialog, great one-liners, quirky and lovable characters (especially the achingly earnest mortician-hero), and a tie-in with Our Town that actually works into a plot point--that make it a fun, fast, pleasant read. But it does have some of the deficiencies you might expect in a first effort; for one, character cliches abound, which made it easy to unravel most of the puzzle, and for another, the pacing was a bit slow in the beginning and almost frenetic at the end. But these are small quibbles--go ahead, take a little trip to Baltimore and meet the folks, both below and above ground. You won't regret it.

Rating:
Summary: Hitch Is A Stitch
Review: Until I read this book, I never thought of a mortician as being fun, but Hitchock Sewell changed my mind.

Hitch and his Aunt Billie operate a funeral home, and that is where I want to go since there never seems to be a dull moment there.

Hitch seems to be drawn into circumstances beyond his controm, and often with very funny results.

If you enjoy a good laugh, while reading a mystery, this is the book you must read.

Rating:
Summary: Well-told tale of politics and passion
Review: Whoever set the tone for the jacket of Tim Cockey's debut, The Hearse You Came In On, either did not read the book thoroughly or wanted to be the king of the spin docters. It is billed as witty, snappy, funny, screwball, and affectionate (in regards to the setting of Baltimore). While the book is not without a laugh or two and a number of wonderful cynical barbs from Hitchcock Sewell, mortician extraordinare, it is also a twisting morality tale that touches on domestic abuse, political corruption, bitter unrequited love, and a pile of bodies.

Cockey does a wonderful job of introducing the reader to Baltimore and the inhabitants of its seedy dives and seedier country clubs. Reluctant detective (aren't they all?) Hitchcock Sewell wanders through the story observing the evidence pile up, but rarely takes part in the action itself. Instead, a real detective with a mysterious streak named Kate Zabriskie takes the initiative and filters the outcomes back to Sewell, who has fallen for her and her secretive ways. It's an odd way to write a mystery novel, but it works. Not seeing most of the action firsthand keeps the reader guessing at how much of the secondhand information is truthful.

It's also a complicated novel, but Cockey keeps the pace going as the forerunners of the state's gubernatorial race begin surfacing in the murder of a tennis coach and the suicide of a lonely girl. Just be sure that you don't let the perky title and the whimsical jacket fool you into thinking this is along the lines of Lawrence Block's Burgler series or Kinky Friedman's Kinky series...this is serious stuff, suitable for true mystery lovers.

Rating:
Summary: Dark deeds & dark humor!
Review: With a born-again Buddhist ex with whom he still has an occasional fling & an understanding widowed aunt who runs her husband's funeral parlor, Hitchcock Sewell, has a way with grieving relatives & alarmed women.

A jaunty novel of eccentric people in the city of Baltimore. It is a mystery with attitude - that of a droll & observant young mortician! His perspectives on life, love & the dearly departed are often funny, poignant & actually insightful!

Nothing earth-shaking - gets a bit bogged-down with political shenanigans yet is a different kind of mystery with a slew of interesting twists, venal & likable characters & many one-liners that had me chuckling with dark humor!