Some Like It Hot-Buttered: A Double Feature Mystery
By Jeffrey Cohen
Berkley Prime Crime, $6.99
ISBN: 978-0-425-21799-3
Click here for an interview with the author.

When Elliot Freed noticed that the man seated in the audience wasn't laughing during a screening of Young Frankenstein, the Comedy Tonight theatre owner knew something was wrong. What Elliot didn't expect was to be told that Vincent Ansella was dead, poisoned by popcorn. The sudden disappearance of the Comedy Tonight's projectionist/usher/etc. Anthony, combined with the discovery of boxes of pirated DVDs (of a Rob Schneider "comedy," no less) has the police focusing on the Rutgers student despite Elliot's belief that Anthony had little interest in making money. Encouraged by his father and attracted to the lovely police detective, Elliot decides to track down his missing employee and protect his beloved theatre from ever again becoming a crime scene despite someone's attempts to sabotage it.

Cohen's extensive background in the entertainment business as well as his love of comedy films shine through in this vastly entertaining and humorous mystery. Elliot, still tied to the ex-wife who pays him alimony, proves to be an extremely complex character who immediately engages the reader with his wit and intelligence. Half of the fun of this new series is learning movie trivia, with the other half being Cohen's delightful characters, primarily a wannabe goth girl and a savvy police chief. Elliot proves to be a surprisingly adept investigator yet it's no shock that it's his knowledge of comedy films that helps him to uncover the guilty. This is a very enjoyable new series that creates its own niche in the mystery genre.

Review by CINDY CHOW

©2007 Lorie Ham. All rights reserved.