Mating Season (Frank Coffin Mysteries) [Hardcover]

Jon Loomis (Author)

Book Description

Series: Frank Coffin Mysteries | Publication Date: April 28, 2009

Jon Loomis’s sharp and witty debut, High Season, starring Detective Frank Coffin, a onetime Baltimore homicide detective who came back to his hometown after one too many grisly crime scenes started to take their toll, was one of The Washington Post’s best mysteries of the year and an editor’s choice title for The New York Times Book Review. Coffin had hoped that the move to Provincetown, Massachusetts, would put an end to his panic attacks, but so far, the quirky Cape Cod tourist town has been every bit as brutal as the big city. Now in Loomis’s winning follow-up, Coffin has to get a grip in order to investigate the murder of one of the town’s most “popular” women.

Beautiful and the heir to a tremendous fortune, Kenji Sole had an active love life---a very active love life. When she’s found stabbed to death on the floor of her bedroom dressed only in a negligee, it’s clear someone very close to her is probably responsible. Since she didn’t care about her many lovers’ marital status, Frank and his partner Officer Lola Winters have their work cut out for them interviewing all of her lovers---not to mention their jealous wives---to find out who killed the much-sought-after Ms. Sole.

With Mating Season, another wry and wickedly suspenseful mystery, Loomis continues to be one of crime fiction’s most promising stars.

Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly

Det. Frank Coffin and his partner, Sgt. Lola Winters, look into the stabbing death of notoriously promiscuous dominatrix Kenji Sole, who had a gift for bringing out a man's inner jerk, in Loomis's riotous second mystery to feature the Provincetown, Mass., cop (after 2007's High Season). The investigators rattle nearly every skeleton in the official closets of the ultraliberal community as well as a few cages in the state attorney general's office. Between panic attacks and feeling increasingly tuckered out by fervid attempts to get his much younger yoga-instructor lover pregnant, Coffin confronts a number of life's real tragedies—in particular, the wish of his Alzheimer's-stricken mother to die. Such serious concerns lend depth to a black comedy full of raunchy vocabulary and kinky sexuality. Loomis appears to enjoy shock effects too much for their own sake, but he's definitely a writer to watch given his knack for illuminating human nature. (May)
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From Booklist

*Starred Review* When Kenji Sole is found stabbed to death in her lavish Provincetown, Massachusetts, beach home, Detective Frank Coffin and Sergeant Lola Winters have no lack of suspects. The beautiful and wealthy victim had a voracious appetite for sex with a rotating cast of older, married men, whose bedroom activities she recorded surreptiously, while her carriage-house tenant ran a home-based porn business. And she had just threatened to have her rich attorney father declared incompetent after he changed his will to favor his young mistress rather than his daughter. Amid the investigation, Coffin must find his dementia-suffering mother, who has run away from her nursing home, and work at impregnating his girlfriend, who desperately wants a baby. Meanwhile, Kenji’s hidden DVR becomes the hot potato that could solve the crime. Coffin’s second outing (after the acclaimed High Season, 2007) hardly could be better: Loomis’ prose is crisp and smart, and his characterizations ring true, with none more appealing than Coffin himself, a cop with a phobia of corpses. Reminiscent of Robert B. Parker at his best. --Michele Leber

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Product Details

• Hardcover: 289 pages
• Publisher: Minotaur Books; First Edition edition (April 28, 2009)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0312367708
• ISBN-13: 978-0312367701
• Product Dimensions: 8.5 x 5.8 x 1.1 inches
• Shipping Weight: 13.6 ounces
• Average Customer Review: 4.4 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (5 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #1,307,473 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

More About the Author

Jon Loomis is the author of two critically acclaimed mystery novels set in Provincetown, Massachusetts (HIGH SEASON, 2007, and MATING SEASON, 2009, both from St. Martin's/Minotaur). He is also the author of two books of poetry, THE PLEASURE PRINCIPLE (Oberlin College Press/FIELD Editions, 2001) and VANITAS MOTEL (Oberlin College Press, 1998), which won the 1997 FIELD prize for poetry. Loomis has been the recipient of numerous grants and awards, including two Writing Fellowships from the Fine Arts Work Center in Provincetown and the Halls Fellowship in poetry from the University of Wisconsin, Madison. He teaches English and creative writing in west-central Wisconsin, where he lives with his wife and family.

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

5 of 5 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Reading in Overdrive, July 1, 2009

By 

Bryant R. Stateham (Salina, Ks.) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Mating Season (Frank Coffin Mysteries) (Hardcover)

Sit back for a fast-paced romp in a town built for oddballs. Whether Providence is like this or not doesn't matter. The imagery Jon Loomis creates is fascinating. Just as his main character, Frank Coffin. For a detective to be squeamish over the site of blood is a bit different. But for one to be just down right unphysical in his job description sets him apart. Yet you like the guy. He's trying to be honest in a dishonest world. Read it. It'll hold your attention which, in my opinion, is the true test a good book must pass.

4 of 4 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars A New Dynamic Duo, May 26, 2009

By 

Bicycle Day - See all my reviews
(TOP 1000 REVIEWER)   

This review is from: Mating Season (Frank Coffin Mysteries) (Hardcover)

Detective Frank Coffin and officer Lola Winters return for their second go-round in a series from author Jon Loomis - the Frank Coffin Mysteries - that dives into the shallow waters of life behind closed doors.

As the pair attempt to solve the murder of a young woman, they face an array of eccentric characters - blackmailers, jealous wives, former lovers of the victim - lurking around every crevice that may contain a clue. Provincetown, Massachusetts, was rocked by the apparent homicide, but there are many secrets that may need to be uncovered for this crime to be solved....and sometimes it's just best to leave such dusty corners alone.

With solid dialogue and a pace in the plot that makes it a steady race to the end, Loomis has a dynamic duo in Coffin and Winters and a rich setting that will make for a prosperous franchise in crime fiction.

2 of 2 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Book Two is a Winner - I look forward to a long, exciting series, September 15, 2009

By 

Dom Miliano (Denville, NJ USA) - See all my reviews
(VINE VOICE)   

This review is from: Mating Season (Frank Coffin Mysteries) (Hardcover)

I can't recall how I found "High Season" - the first in this series but I want to thank whom ever that person was. The author has captured the energy of P'Town and its eccentric residents without making the place and its people a cartoon.

The lead character, Frank Coffin, is 3 dimensional - flawed, human and interesting. His relationship with Lola (his partner) is a mix of respect and potential romantic entanglements (wanna bet they wind up in the sack?). I'm surprised that the author has picked Provincetown as the setting for the series because or its limited potential for mayhem. But based on the expert way he has crafted the first two books, I bet he has no trouble finding new rocks to look under.

In this edition, Coffin has to solve a macabre murder in which almost anyone could be the bad guy. In fact, there are enough clues to make a case for any one of the victim's many "boy friends" - including some who are very close to Coffin and Lola. But author Loomis has demonstrated an ability paint a landscape of possibilities that keep the reader turning the pages to see which, of many potential bad guys is the real bad, bad guy.

Loomis is also adept at portraying the dramatic interplay between characters using sharp, well-written dialog. As a car guy, I am frustrated by Coffin's lack of automobile skills but it goes well with his character - someone not all that interested in things, he is more about people and, of course, what I might describe as his own brand of justice.

If you are expecting a Dirty Harry tough guy, skip this series. If you want crisp, well written prose, sharp dialog, clever plots and plot twists seasoned with a strong sense of place, look no further. The Frank Coffin series is a winner.