Customer Reviews

Dating Dead Men: A Novel (Wollie Shelley Mystery)

5 star:		(21)
4 star:		(7)
3 star:		(14)
2 star:		(2)
1 star:		(4)

 

 

The biggest complaint I have about this book is that I'm finished. I decided to pick up one of Harley Jane Kozak's romantic comedy mysteries on the high recommendation of Entertainment Weekly. From their review, I expected that the book would be competently written. I didn't expect it to make me laugh out loud or to make me care for her characters quite so much.

In that, I can see, I differ from some of Amazon's other reviewers.

This book is definitely a hybrid, which may make it a challenge to fans of the traditional mystery. It has many qualities of the romantic comedy. In that guise, Kozak reads most to me like MaryJanice Davidson (without the vampires). Of the other mystery writers I read, Kozak reminds me most of Joan Hess, particularly with Hess' Claire Malloy mysteries. But we're not dealing with the slow meticulous gathering of clues common to the mystery genre--and which for many of us is the primary pleasure of the reading of that type. From the start, this novel is a joyride, with some interesting scenery along the way. Less Ellery Queen. More Inspector Clouseau. But without all the bumbling...and with a lot more focus on dating and shoes.

Our heroine, Wollie Shelley, is warm and believable--larger than life, but--in my opinion--true to it. Her relationship with her mentally ill brother (which propels the story) feels genuine, not exploitative. Some of his symptoms may be cliche, but he is not--he is highly sympathetic. Wollie's career goals and dreams feel integral, not window-dressing tossed in to simulate character depth. As with many comic characters, she is often impulsive, but her impulsiveness doesn't seem contrived simply to move the plot along. Her behavior seems of a piece with her personality.

I plan to pick up the second Wollie Shelley mystery immediately. If it's even half as much fun as this one, Kozak will have earned herself a loyal fan.

I was introduced to this book when a review compared it to Janet Evanovich's Stephanie Plum novels. Like those novels, Dating Dead Men is humorous, has a naive and struggling heroine and has an intelligent mystery. The Plum novels are set in the down-to-earth Trenton, NJ. Ms. Kozak puts her heroine (the unlikely named Mary Wollstonecraft Shelley - "Wollie") in the ritz and glamor of LA.

Well, almost in the ritz and glamor - she's more on the outskirts, struggling as manager of a Welcome! Greetings card store. Alarmed by a phonecall from her brother, a resident at a local mental hospital she hurries to him, only to discover a dead body in the hospital's driveway. She quickly becomes entangled with an unlikely "doctor" Gomez Gomez and his ferret.

Before long Wollie is swept into a mystery involing the mafia, strange Swedes, the three 'C's and much more besides. In the midst of all this she's trying to date 40 guys in little more than 40 days for "research" and has to impress the unimpressible Mr. Bundt who has the power to upgrade her store to Willkommen status. Needless to say, things become adequately complicated!

Harley's biggest strength is in her colorful characters (sometimes a little too colorful - nobody would really have a name like Wollie!). They ooze life onto every page with a rich coating of LA character on top. Many people make an appearance in this book. At some points it becomes difficult to keep track of all the relationships between the mafiosi. This isn't a fault with the writing - our heroine is having trouble herself and often provides some useful summaries.

Harley says in her afterword that this book took a long time to get written. Let's hope the next one doesn't take as long but is just as good. This is highly recommended.

Wollie Shelley is a mess. Her life is overflowing with one thing after another. She is a greeting card artist, is working on owning her own Greeting Card store, is dealing with a group of off kilter frinds (very, loyal friends), a brother in a mental hospital and an uncle who maybe should be. Throw into this that she is part of a dating project in which she has to date 40 men in 60 days. She has plenty to do.

While on a late night visit to the mental hospital to take her brother aluminum foil (read the book to find out why :)), she first sees a dead body on the way to the hospital lying in the road. Since she fears that her brother has knowledge of it, or may have something to do with it, she takes no immediate action. While at the hospital, she is taken somewhat hostage by a man pretending to be a doctor who is actually running from the mob, and has some knowledge of why the guy is dead in the road.

What follows is a completely amusing and engrossing tale of how this all works out in a really fresh new way of doing so. I found certain elements just a little far fetched (can't tell you what they are without giving something important away), I still found it a very good read and am currently reading the second in the series.

I found Wollie to be a fun herione with a lot of very real elements about her. You can't help but like her and look forward to what she might do next.

I highly recommend this book. I did recognize that the author was an actress and do know who she is. I don't see why some have made that an issue. I think her work as an author and as an actress stand alone and speak for themselves. I recommend her both as an author and an actress.

Wollie Shelley's life is already packed full. She's undergoing evaluation to turn her Welcome! greeting card store into a Willkommen! store so she can buy it. And she's agreed to take part in a dating study, meaning she must go on 40 dates in 60 days after they've been screen by her friends. The last thing she needs is that call from her brother.

P.B. is paranoid schizophrenic and living at a psychiatric hospital. When he calls saying he's witnessed a murder, Wollie doesn't take it too seriously. Still, she decides to head out after her date that night to investigate...and almost runs over the dead body in the driveway. Going inside to make sure he's ok, she is kidnapped by a handsome "Doc." Her attraction getting the better of her, she tries to help out Doc, and winds up with various criminals hot on her trail. Will this effect her store getting its upgrade? And can she keep to the dating schedule her friends have set up for her? Will she even be alive to finish the study?

I initially thought the mystery would surround the dating project and was mildly disappointed when I realized it wouldn't. That didn't last for long, however, as I was soon swept up in the plot. It's a bit overwhelming at first with lots of characters and sub-plots to keep straight, but I soon got everything together and just hung on for the ride.

Wollie is a great character, as are her friends. While I have a bit of a problem believing how she handled things at first, that might just be because there's no way I'd handle things that way. By the second half of the book, I really didn't care about that any more and just settled in for the fun. And the plot was great. The dates took on an almost surreal aspect to them as she was trying to stay one step ahead of the bad guys while on them. And the story kept me guessing until the end.

This first book is a winner. The only downside is I don't see how Ms. Kozak can possibly top it. Still, I look forward to seeing her try.

This is a great read! And a grand-slam outta the park for first-timer Kozak!

With abundant wit, humor, and brains, Wollie Shelley takes on L.A., her franchiser, her best friend, serial-dating, her take-no-prisoners assistant, nutso brother, and a sexy kidnapping stranger in this wonderful mystery romp.

Yay! for Wollie. Yay! for Kozak. Can't wait for the next one.

In 'Dating Dead Men', Harley Jane Kozak marries Murder and Romance, then gives birth to good clean fun. With a heroine in desperate need of a "What Not to Wear" intervention, and a hero who may or may not be the good guy, this story moves the reader forward so fast they'll get page-turning papercuts. Like every good novel in this genre, the clues are well paced and sneaky enough to fool you every time. The characters are so three-dimensional that after romping with them for a few chapters you want to have a big dinner that includes them all. I'm on the waiting list for the sequel!

The author, Harley Jane Kozak, was an actress who appeared in, among other things, StarGate SG1. Because I liked her in various roles, I thought I would give her books a shot. She came to Omaha to do a book signing when her second book was released, and I bought both her first and second book, and got them both signed.

Now that her third book is coming out in 2 weeks, I picked up the first book from my massive to-read pile and began reading. I wish I hadn't.

This book is in desperate need of a good editor. Whoever she had for the book, well, they weren't good. And Ms. Kozak's writing? It's dreadful.

I have a cousin who is seven years old. He alternately thinks he's a firefighter and a washing machine repairman, often within the same breath, and he'll concoct a full story about how he has to go out and do whatever job it is, and he can tell a story much better than Ms. Kozak.

She may have a wonderful story idea, but she has no idea how to get that story across to the reader, and the way she writes is so bad it may cause your brain to turn to mush as you read it.

I gave up at page 52. I cannot read another word. It's so painful, it's a chore, and it's a bore.

From page 52 -
"I'm so sorry. You know how, when you're in reverse, you confuse the brake and the accelator, because you're fac backwards? What?"



I assume "fac" is supposed to be "facing" and "accelator" should be "accelerator" ... but I can't be sure. She also spent half a page making absolutely sure we understand the main character's name is pronounced Wolly, just like Molly or Golly.

Spend your money on another book. If you feel you absolutely have to have this, then I encourage you to go above and click that "search inside" option. Read the first two pages, then decide if you can stomach the rest.

Heroine: tall/buxom

Who in her right mind would want to date 40 men in 60 days? Greeting card designer and shop owner Wollie Shelley, that's who. Because let's face it, there's not a lot of money in the card business when your shop is located on the seedy side of L.A. The $5000 payment for participating in the dating research study would mean the world to Wollie. And as an added bonus she reveres her new boss, radio personality Dr. Cookie Lahven, and is thrilled to be assisting her with gathering material for her new book, "How to Avoid Getting Dumped All the Time".

But an attempt by Wollie to visit her mentally ill brother at a hospital puts a damper on the project in the form of a dead body. And Wollie is so worried that her brother might have had something to do with it that she avoids alerting the authorities. Instead, she allows herself to be kidnapped by an attractive man disguised as a doctor in the hopes that she can buy some time and solve the crime herself.

She crosses paths with so many bad guys along the way that she could pen her own guidebook, "How to Avoid Getting Dumped--in a River by a Mobster".

What worked for me:

I genuinely liked Wollie and found her to be a sympathetic character. I liked her kidnapper too, and thought the sexual tension between them was a lot of fun. (The pet ferret was a nice touch as well.)

The writing style and humor might not appeal to everyone, but I sure got a kick out of them.

         Size-wise Wollie was very tall and on the buxom side. (It's not often I run across a book where the romance pairs a taller woman with a shorter man.)

What didn't work for me:

I was disappointed that I didn't get to know Wollie's friends a bit better. I am hoping that they get more time on center stage in the next book.

I had some trouble keeping the various characters and plotlines straight at times.

Overall:

          This breezy, quirky book should go straight to the beach with you. Do not pass Go, do not collect $200.

Warning: this book contains some coarse language and a mildly sexy scene or two.

If you liked "Dating Dead Men" you might also enjoy "Princess Charming", "Infernal Affairs", "Name Dropping", "Bet Me", "Crazy For You", "Switcheroo", theStephanie Plum mystery series, "Ain't Nobody's Bizness", "Plum Girl", "Fast Women", "Welcome to Temptation", "Faking It", the Odelia Grey mystery series, the Southern Sisters mystery series, or the Josephine Fuller mystery series.

So I'm reading this book on an airplane laughing aloud several times a page and I look up to see at least three people staring at me.One lady points at the book and gives an encouraging nod so I show her the cover.She holds up her hand,gives the "hold it right there" sign, opens her laptop and takes down the title. Someplace in Phoenix is a woman laughing aloud and thanking me.It was nothing.Really. OK, you're welcome.

Wollie Shelley has to date 40 men in 60 days, as part of a research project for radio talk-show host and author Dr. Cookie, while desperately trying to pass inspection for an upgrade to her card shop from Wollie's Welcome! To Wollie's Wilkommen!

On her way to a state-run mental hospital to visit her brother, Wollie discovers a dead man in the roadway, is taken hostage by a man posing as a doctor, and ends up taking care of a ferret while dodging the mob and two Swedish men intent on killing her.

Wollie is a fun character - hope to see more with her - and the read one I thoroughly enjoyed. With plenty of offbeat characters, a good plot, and twisting mystery, you won't be disappointed.