Customer Reviews

The Hearse You Came in on

5 star:		(16)
4 star:		(18)
3 star:		(5)
2 star:		(3)
1 star:		(1)

 

 

This book was really fun to read. I rarely find a book that combines a good plot with full characters, pacing AND humor.

I won't say anything about the plot, b'c that's too risky of spoiling your discovery, other than to say it works well. Re character, the protaganist feels real, and not excessively... excessive. Sorry for the lack of elequonce - I'm not an author - but the protaganist feels like someone I might know. I like that. It sacrifices the "exotic" potential, but in trade off buys more "familiarity", which I prefer. And no, I'm not from Baltimore (the setting). The pace is nice - it starts leisurely, and then builds. The author isn't in a race, and reading it doesn't feel like having had two too many espressos.

Best of all, "Hearse" gave me some very humerous / entertaining scenes, and applies wit throughout. For me, this is just as important as a good plot hook, or accomplished writing skills. Hitch, the protaganist, (or is it Tim Cockey, the author?) has an amusing and wry take on the world that's NOT cynical or "the jaded cop". Does this mean that there aren't any serious parts? No. But it means that the read itself is good, and not merely the stuff that happens between first page and last.

I thoroughly enjoyed this book - I haven't had this much fun reading a book in a long time! Definitely a page-turner - I finished it within 2 days of purchasing it. Hitch's wry sense of humor and the numerous references to song lyrics added a lot. I would love to see this book made into a movie soon, and I look forward to reading the author's future books!

Hitch is a great character! No really....I laughed, I cried....well, I really didn't cry, but I was sad to know Tim Cockey doesn't have the second book ready to go! What a great story! --I will follow Hitchcock Sewell anywhere he wants to go! I just hope he takes his Aunt Billie and Alcatraz with him!

It's easy to summarize this series as featuring an undertaker sleuth, but this is a surprisingly upbeat and laugh-out-loud debut mystery.

Hitchcock ("Hitch") Sewell is not merely an undertaker, he's a 34-year-old, attractive, eligible undertaker in the Fells Point neighborhood in Baltimore. Continuing the family funeral business with his aunt, Hitch has plenty of time to indulge in his hobbies: drinking at the local bar and acting in amateur theatre with his sexy ex-wife, Julia. But mortuary work does bring one into contact with the recently dead, and Hitch is just the sort of man to get involved when suspicious circumstances complicate one's exit from this earth.

What makes this book so fun and charming is Hitchcock himself. His wry observations will make you laugh out loud, and there are some lively characters populating his neighborhood to spice up the story. Hitch is an interesting man, refreshingly complex. He's interested in a beautiful woman without being sexist, and he doesn't shy away from a fight, although he's no swaggering bully. His on-going flirtation with his ex-wife is a bit of a cliché in this genre, but a forgivable one.

The only drawback is that Hitch is not a very active sleuth in this novel; he's more an observer of other people's sleuthing, managing to be in the right place at the right time fairly frequently. This doesn't diminish the fun in any way, but it does leave the avid mystery reader feeling a little empty. Like Janet Evanovich's Stephanie Plum series, the plot is tangential to the real stars, the characters.

The next in this series is "Hearse of a Different Color."

Meet Hitchcock Sewell, Hitch for short and the star of this totally enjoyable mystery who just happens to be Baltimore's "most eligible undertaker" or bereavement consultant if you're sort of squeamish or want to be politically correct.

"A murder mystery mortician," you might ask at this point, "Can you be serious?" Sure, why not, having a mortician as your lead character is the most unique setup for a screwball mystery series that I seen in a long time. And Hitch is a most totally likable character. (Darling and loveable to most of the female readers of this book, I'm told.)

As the story begins Hitch is minding his business and "chaperoning the dead into their graves" at Sewell and Sons (there are no sons by the way, just Hitch and his Aunt Billie) when a beautifully women walks into Parlor One dressed for a hot game of tennis. She says she's Carolyn James and she wants to make funereal arrangements for ... herself. But then she backs down and makes a hasty retreat.

For Hitch it is infatuation at first site, and he's sure he's going to have to track down the mysterious Ms. James until the next day when Aunt Billie tells him that a "new client" had just been delivered ... a suicide by the name of Carolyn James. Hitch rushes to look at the body and realizes that he's never seen the woman before.

This is just the start of many fun twists and turns that will keep you going throughout the entire book until the very last page. And if you just happen to have an interest in the theater as I do, you won't want to miss the outrageous subplot involving the Gypsy Player's production of Our Town with Hitch playing the part of the stage manager. It takes the idea of concept productions to the hilarious extreme.

This book was published two years ago, but I didn't catch up to it until last year. So I give it a belated ***** and recommend it to you all. The author has since added two more books to the series which are currently on my to read list.

Hitchcock Sewell is a little surprised when the beautiful Carolyn James walks into his mortuary in a tennis outfit and starts asking questions about arranging her own funeral. When she changes her mind and walks out, Hitch does his best to shrug it off. But then Carolyn James turns up dead from suicide. Only it wasn't the woman he met two days ago. More then a little curious, Hitch starts to investigate, uncovering more then he ever bargained for in the process. Meanwhile, he must also survive rehearsals at the Gypsy Players, the worst amateur playhouse in history.

This is a fun debut mystery. Hitch's observations and witty/sarcastic narration made the story easy to read. The plot twists quite a few times, and I had no clue what would happen next. The characters were likable, interesting, and well developed for a debut. My only complaint was that the story dragged in parts. A little meandering was ok in the beginning, but overall the story could have used some tightening.

Lovers of humorous mysteries will love this book. A star is born in a new series that will entertain readers for years to come.

Tim Cockey's hilarious debut about Hitchcock Sewell, undertaker-turned-detective is a great comic mystery, with a touch of noir, and some well-turned one-liners. You'll laugh along as Hitchcock gets mixed up with dames, murder and cops with no sense of humor (not necessarily in that order).

Cockey's writing is deft & hilariously funny, and his character descriptions are marvelous. You'll definitely feel like you know some of the people he describes. I cannot recommend this book highly enough! (and no, even though I know him, he is NOT paying me for this review.....right, Tim?)

Go out, buy this book, and chase away your blues! I read it in two sittings...and I'll be reading it again! Hey, why not buy two, and give one to a friend!

Tim Cockey's The Hearse You Came In On has some fabulous things going for it--great dialog, great one-liners, quirky and lovable characters (especially the achingly earnest mortician-hero), and a tie-in with Our Town that actually works into a plot point--that make it a fun, fast, pleasant read. But it does have some of the deficiencies you might expect in a first effort; for one, character cliches abound, which made it easy to unravel most of the puzzle, and for another, the pacing was a bit slow in the beginning and almost frenetic at the end. But these are small quibbles--go ahead, take a little trip to Baltimore and meet the folks, both below and above ground. You won't regret it.

I had a terrible flu and a stack of books. This one was the most distracting. I loved Hitch's voice and his profession--not too many mortician sleuths out there. I was not surprised by the big plot twist at the end, but so what? I'll take an "needlessly handsome" undertaker over a mind-blowing finish any day.

Whoever set the tone for the jacket of Tim Cockey's debut, The Hearse You Came In On, either did not read the book thoroughly or wanted to be the king of the spin docters. It is billed as witty, snappy, funny, screwball, and affectionate (in regards to the setting of Baltimore). While the book is not without a laugh or two and a number of wonderful cynical barbs from Hitchcock Sewell, mortician extraordinare, it is also a twisting morality tale that touches on domestic abuse, political corruption, bitter unrequited love, and a pile of bodies.

Cockey does a wonderful job of introducing the reader to Baltimore and the inhabitants of its seedy dives and seedier country clubs. Reluctant detective (aren't they all?) Hitchcock Sewell wanders through the story observing the evidence pile up, but rarely takes part in the action itself. Instead, a real detective with a mysterious streak named Kate Zabriskie takes the initiative and filters the outcomes back to Sewell, who has fallen for her and her secretive ways. It's an odd way to write a mystery novel, but it works. Not seeing most of the action firsthand keeps the reader guessing at how much of the secondhand information is truthful.

It's also a complicated novel, but Cockey keeps the pace going as the forerunners of the state's gubernatorial race begin surfacing in the murder of a tennis coach and the suicide of a lonely girl. Just be sure that you don't let the perky title and the whimsical jacket fool you into thinking this is along the lines of Lawrence Block's Burgler series or Kinky Friedman's Kinky series...this is serious stuff, suitable for true mystery lovers.