Customer Reviews

Mating Season (Frank Coffin Mysteries)

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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.

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.

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.

As the story begins we learn two things: Provincetown detective Frank Coffin has a recent history that has left him vulnerable to fainting spells; and a wealthy young woman, Kenji Sole, has been brutally stabbed to death in the bedroom of her luxurious home. Assigned to the case by special request, Coffin and his sidekick, Lola Winters, soon discover that Kenji had a great fondness for men. Many, many men. Including the powerful and the married. Kenji is a connoisseur of all things male, a talented woman whose paramours are willing to risk marriage, family and reputation to continue their affairs with her. A little out of sorts when the investigation begins, by the resolution Coffin's eye is twitching like the enraged inspector in the Pink Panther movies. But then this is the kind of case that will drive a detective to the brink, presenting the detective with a complicated mix of false leads and unfaithful husbands seduced by the very active murder victim.

Peopled with eccentric characters from all walks of life, this cast is outrageous and colorful. P-Town is known for its cultural diversity, the case ranging from Kenji's entrepreneurial house-sitter to some very important people in the state government. From P-Town locals to an influx of eastern Europeans willing to clean homes or appear in adult films, this novel is defined by the personalities that drive the story. The gruesome murder- and a few other nasty encounters- are neatly offset by the author's tongue-in-cheek humor, one of Coffin's final skirmishes with a large, bald man in a pink jacket at a combination head/adult toy shop called Spank Yo Mama. Mating Season is a crime novel liberally spiced with the inanities of human behavior, mystery-lite with plenty of local color for flavor. Murder and mayhem make strange bedfellows in this lighthearted thriller. Luan Gaines/2009.

A rich nympho with a sexual fetish and a love of porn beds numerous married men in Provincetown and records the action. When she ends up dead and her deeds are exposed there are a lot of nervous men and angry wives, providing plenty of suspects for Detective Coffin and his partner. But that is just the beginning. The missing tapes appear destined for the Internet . . . There are a few loose ends the author fails to explain, but this is considerably better than the first of this series. You won't go wrong by giving it a try.