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6 of 6 people found the following review helpful:
4.0 out of 5 stars
Enjoyable, but Needed Time for One Last Edit, March 8, 2004
Aaron Tucker is reuniting with people at his 25th high school reunion, including Stephanie, who can still make men drool with her drop dead gorgeous looks. But part way through the party, she gets a call that her husband, conservative political activist Louis Gibson, has been murdered in his current mistress's apartment. Stephanie insists that Aaron investigate, even getting him a lucrative article deal with a high profile magazine if he does so. But Aaron hardly knows where to start. Meanwhile, the principal of his kids' school has come to him for help. Someone has set off three stink bombs, and the parents are putting pressure on her to find the culprit. Only problem is, she has no clue where to start. As if that weren't enough, the Tuckers are also experiencing the joys of pet ownership. There's certainly never a dull moment in Aaron's life. But can he juggle it all and solve the mysteries? There's certainly never a dull moment in the book either. Narrated first person with plenty of sarcasm and puns, I grinned, chuckled, and laughed my way through the entire book. You can't help but fall in love with the Tuckers. They are a wonderful, warm family who face life with a twinkle in their eye. The relationship between Aaron and his wife Abby is especially enjoyable. The plot starts a little slow, but gains speed the further you go in the book and has a few nice surprises before you reach the end. Being a conservative, I was a little put out by the "Liberal good, conservative bad" characterizations that popped up every so often, but I was able to shrug that off. My real problem with the book was the timeline. Entire days seemed to drop off the face of the earth with no explanation. Characters agree to meet one day, then meet another and act like it's what the plans were all along. I kept flipping back in the book to make sure I hadn't missed something. It doesn't affect the plot, but it sure is annoying. A final edit for these things and a few paragraphs scattered throughout to fill in missing time would have fix the problem. With that issue in mind, this is still an enjoyable book anyone will love. I will certainly be spending more time with Aaron and his family and friends.
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4 of 4 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
Funny without missing a beat, December 23, 2003
Like his protagonist, Aaron Tucker, Jeffrey Cohen has a "photographic ear" and eye for people and their quirks. This book is funny from front to back, without missing a beat.
Aaron Tucker is a happily married freelance reporter with something of a reputation for solving murders. The object of Aaron's teenage unrequited lust -- still a dish after 25 years -- asks him to investigate the murder of her husband. Known to Aaron and his buddies as Crazy Legs, the victim was a philandering and much-despised Washington lobbyist.
Snapdragon, a magazine that's "tired of being thought of as Rolling Stone's slow-witted cousin" offers to pay Aaron ten grand for a story on the murder. It's too good to pass up, even though he doesn't have a clue. He's watching the funeral on TV like everyone else.
Meantime, his daughter wants a pet lizard, someone is stalking his gorgeous wife, he's getting ominous phone calls, and the principal at Buzbee School wants him to find out who threw stink bombs into the girls' locker room, the boys' bathroom, and the gym.
Here's Cohen's description of the gym teacher: "Hester, the prototype for all gym teachers, was roughly 400 years old, and could still put me through a cinder block wall if the spirit moved her. She stood about six-foot-three, had triceps Arnold Schwarzenegger would find intimidating, and spoke in a voice high enough to qualify as a dog whistle."
The gym teacher I remember was short, wiry, and limber enough to be folded into a duffel bag, but Hester sounds familiar. That's the thing about the characters who make this story so funny -- either you know someone just like them, or you think you do.
I thought I had the murder mystery figured out. When Cohen sprung his surprise, I said, "Aw, gee," put the book down, and started laughing again. Then I got my can of deluxe mixed nuts out of the cupboard and finished reading the last few pages. Highly recommended!
-- Pat Browning, author of Absinthe of Malice, a Penny Mackenzie mystery.
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3 of 3 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
A great, witty mystery series, May 11, 2009
This is the second novel featuring screenwriter and stay-at-home dad Aaron Tucker, and it's wonderfully witty and smart. Tucker is charged with investigating two crimes, one being the unfortunate death of a former classmate's husband, who's discovered in his mistress's bedroom with a knife through his chest; the other crime being who left two stink bombs in his daughter's school. Oh, and there's the matter of a former client who's stalking his wife.
The joy in reading this book is watching uber-procrastinator Aaron do actual investigating work when he'd rather be watching television. Aaron's classmates/friends aid him in his invesigation, as do the local police. The characters are very realistically drawn; they could be your neighbors or co-workers, assuming that you have very droll co-workers.
In film parlance, a sleeper is something that achieves unexpected recognition or success, and that's what Jeffrey Cohen's series is: a witty mystery series that absolutely deserves a bigger audience.
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