Fortysomething and divorced, Anneke has just lost her Ann Arbor, Michigan, home and all its contents - including her extensive collection of Art Deco objects - to a fire. She finds temporary refuge in Mackinac Court, an intriguing grouping of mismatched houses filled with equally unlikely tenants. In the midst of a winter snowstorm, Anneke gets to know her neighbors in the court, and hears their arguments for and against selling the houses to an office-park developer. But rancor turns lethal when one of the residents is later found lying dead in the snow, and Anneke starts to question the earlier, presumably natural death of an influential old woman who had lived in the court. With occasional help - and a lot of moral support - from her police lieutenant lover, former Pittsburgh Steeler Karl Genesko, Anneke sorts out the jealousies and rivalries in the small group - and arrives at a dangerous solution.
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Book Description
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. --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.
Copyright 1995 Reed Business Information, Inc. --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.
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. --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.
Copyright 1995 Reed Business Information, Inc. --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.
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Most Helpful Customer Reviews
2 of 2 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
A new series...,
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,
By Linda S. Myers (TN) - See all my reviews
Amazon Verified Purchase(What's this?)
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.,
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!
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