Curly Smoke: An Anneke Haagen Mystery [Hardcover]

Susan Holtzer (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: October 1995

When a fire forces her to move from her Ann Arbor home to a real-estate development, computer consultant and occasional sleuth Anneke Haagen and her police lieutenant boyfriend find themselves in the middle of the other tenants' deadly disagreements.

Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly

Fire follows Ann Arbor, Mich., computer whiz and Art Deco collector Anneke Haagen in her second cozy outing (after Something to Kill For). After her house burns to the ground, she relocates to a cottage in an isolated courtyard dominated by five houses and becomes embroiled in a neighborhood dispute. The courtyard is the proposed site of a 16-story office park, but not all of the current owners are willing to sell. An old woman, one of two remaining holdouts, has just died of apparently natural causes. James, the most vocal of the graduate students who rent there, updates Anneke on the disagreement. When he is found strangled with dental tape, Anneke is convinced his murder is connected to the proposed sale. Convincing her lover, police detective and former Pittsburgh Steelers linebacker Karl Gennesko, takes a little effort. When the cottage bursts into flames, Anneke wonders whether the arsonist was aiming to get her to move or to kill her. Holtzer doesn't generate much heat in this mystery, but she orchestrates the elements well, setting her savvy sleuth in a recognizable Ann Arbor populated by campus activists and the town elite. Author tour.
Copyright 1995 Reed Business Information, Inc.

From Library Journal

Set in Chilly Ann Arbor, Michigan, Holtzer's second mystery (following Something To Kill For, St. Martin's, 1994) features self-employed computer programmer and amateur sleuth Anneke Haagen. After her home is destroyed by fire, Anneke moves into a small residential enclave that is surrounded by businesses. Days after her relocation, Anneke discovers a body. The victim is an acquaintance who had fought to stop real estate developers from razing the neighborhood. With the aid of her police detective lover, the fortyish Anneke accumulates clues that will implicate one of her nine somewhat strange neighbors. Measured but inviting prose, refreshing characters, and crisp plotting.
Copyright 1995 Reed Business Information, Inc.

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Product Details

• Hardcover: 213 pages
• Publisher: St Martins Pr; 1st edition (October 1995)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0312134584
• ISBN-13: 978-0312134587
• Product Dimensions: 8.2 x 5.6 x 0.9 inches
• Shipping Weight: 14.4 ounces
• Average Customer Review: 4.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (3 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #3,191,021 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

2 of 2 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars A new series..., June 12, 2001

By 

Jenny "gigglingone" (Bay Area, CA) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Curly Smoke: An Anneke Haagen Mystery (Mass Market Paperback)

This series by Holtzer is a great collection of mystery reading...I read them a little out of order, so you may want to start with the first one (I think this is the second one), but they are great no matter what order you read them in!

1 of 1 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Good series continuation, January 31, 2010

By 

Linda S. Myers (TN) - See all my reviews

Amazon Verified Purchase

This review is from: Curly Smoke: An Anneke Haagen Mystery (Mass Market Paperback)

Curly Smoke is the second in Susan Holtzer's Anneke Haagen series of cozies/police procedurals. The protagonist is a middle-aged computer consultant in Ann Arbor, Michigan, who faces the uncertain alternatives of personal independence versus a developing relationship with Karl Genesko, a homicide lieutentant in the Ann Arbor police. Prior to the opening of Curly Smoke, her house burned, so Anneke has rented a tiny cottage in a small neighborhood downtown. First, an elderly woman in a neighboring Victorian house dies, apparently of natural causes; then, following a massive snowstorm and a neighborhood party in the snow, an architecture student living in a student rental is murdered. The motive for James Kennally's murder is not clear--he had been a vocal leader in the Ann Arbor gay rights coalition, and he had been involved in the fight to preserve the neighborhood from development. Tension is raised when an unsuccessful attempt is made to burn Anneke's cottage and when the first death is identified as a probable murder. Discovering the motive is essential to discovering the murderer. The plot is very much dependent on specific weather conditions, and Ms. Holtzer does an excellent job of integrating setting with plot structure. The mixture of housing and people types in older neighborhoods in college towns is realistic, adding to the verisimilitude of the novel. The ending is somewhat a surprise, but the clues to both motive and murderer are provided fairly.

This series is interesting because its heroine is a mature woman. Ms. Holtzer does not give Anneke great deeds of daring but makes cooperation with the police an integral part of the plot. The characters in Curly Smoke are slightly less developed than in Something to Kill For, and Karl Genesko is too good to be true, but these are small caveats. This mystery is well worth the time.

1 of 1 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars An eclectic mystery set in a university town., November 29, 1996

By A Customer

This review is from: Curly Smoke: An Anneke Haagen Mystery (Hardcover)

This book is set in Ann Arbor, Michigan--a snowbound, university town. Both characteristics are necessary to the murder and subsequent intrigue of this book--but there is nothing that prepares us for the almost surreal eclecticism of the setting, which involves ice storms, arson, poison, murder, and passion. Throw into that mix the realism of the geography and the history of the community--and you have a good wintertime read in "Curly Smoke". The prose is well written, and the conventions of the mystery genre (police procedure, computer intrigue, and a closed and snowbound neighborhood) are handled deftly and with believability. Good entertainment!