Murder In the Hearse Degree: A Novel [Hardcover]

Tim Cockey (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: February 12, 2003

ibby, a former flame of Hitchcock Sewell, has returned to town with her two children, but minus one husband and one nanny. Libby's husband has been accounted for-she left him back in Annapolis. However, the nanny, Sophie, is truly missing. As soon as Hitch starts to nose around, Sophie turns up-literally-in the Severn River. She's quite dead, and just a little bit pregnant. The police suspect suicide, but Sophie's mom is adamant it's murder. Hitch's sense? He sides with the mother. Racing around town, Hitch finds more questions than answers. Murder in the Hearse Degree is another pitch-perfect mystery in a series that never disappoints, always surprises, and keeps the laughs-and corpses-rolling right along.

Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly

Those who enjoy lighthearted mysteries with screwball characters will relish Cockey's fourth outing to feature Baltimore undertaker Hitchcock Sewell. A former lover, Libby Gellman, who's left her abusive husband, Mike, asks Hitch to find Sophie Potts, her missing nanny. When Sophie turns up dead and pregnant, a supposed suicide, Hitch agrees to investigate. Hitch and his pal Pete Munger, a sometime PI, learn that Sophie was interested in ARK-the Alliance for Reason and Kindness-an amorphous religious organization. The case heats up when Hitch uncovers some puzzling connections: a friend of Sophie's, who'd accompanied her to visit ARK's shady director, Crawford Larue, is murdered; Larue's wife is having an affair with Mike; and Mike's uncle Owen, a high-powered attorney, is connected with ARK. Then Mike commits suicide. As usual, the writing is smooth and amusing: a man has muttonchop sideburns "thick enough you could hide toothpicks in them"; another has a moustache "the size of a small propeller." Fans will be glad to see such series regulars as Hitch's ex-wife, Julia; his mortuary partner, Aunt Billie; and 12-year-old mortician wannabe Darryl Sandusky. A passing parade of clients completes the offbeat cast.
Copyright 2003 Reed Business Information, Inc.

Review

"As usual, the writing is smooth and amusing." -- Publishers Weekly

"Briming with humor." -- Library Journal

"Check out Cockey for a walk of the mild side of murder." -- Denver Rocky Mountain News

"Cockey has added another worthwhile detective to the shelf." -- Book Street USA

"Cockey has created a genuinely funny sleuth in Hitchcock Sewell, Baltimore's premier undertaker." -- Dallas Morning News

"What really makes the book a treasure is Cockey's writing." -- San Jose Mercury News

See all Editorial Reviews

Product Details

• Reading level: Ages 18 and up
  
• Hardcover: 336 pages
• Publisher: Hyperion; 1 edition (February 12, 2003)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0786867124
• ISBN-13: 978-0786867127
• Product Dimensions: 9.3 x 6.4 x 1 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.3 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (14 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #1,085,932 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

8 of 8 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars TOPNOTCH COMBINATION OF MIRTH AND MAYHEM, February 5, 2003

By 

Gail Cooke (TX, USA) - See all my reviews
(VINE VOICE)    (COMMUNITY FORUM 04)    (HALL OF FAME REVIEWER)    (TOP 500 REVIEWER)    (REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Murder In the Hearse Degree: A Novel (Hardcover)

How refreshing it is when an imaginative author mixes mirth with mayhem and also creates a protagonist who draws readers like a magnet. Such is the case with Tim Cockey in The Hearse You Came In On, Hearse Of A Different Color, The Hearse Case Scenario, and now Murder In The Hearse Degree.

Fans will be heartened to find intrepid undertaker Hitchcock Sewell as charming and attractive as ever. He's still on the loose in Baltimore, and up to some new tricks. Sophie Potts, the young nanny employed by one of Hitch's former romantic interests, is found floating in a river. The police say suicide; Hitch says uh-uh.

But our merry mortician runs into more than a few road blocks as he tries to get to the soggy bottom of this death. There's the on-the-take former Kentucky governor, a more than questionable right-wing group of religious zealots (ARK, the acronym for the Alliance for Reason and Kindness) headed by a probably on the take and on the make director, a ham-on-wry actor (heavy on the ham), and a probing reporter who's more in pursuit of Hitch's ex wife, Julia, than the story.

It's a typical Hitch tale. In other words: terrific.

- Gail Cooke

4 of 4 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Sewell Charms Again, August 25, 2003

By 

YogaAnn "photoann" (Ridgefield, CT, USA) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Murder In the Hearse Degree: A Novel (Hardcover)

This is my very favorite of the Hitchcock Sewell series so far. Cockey kept me hanging, kept me interested in the characters, and kept me laughing. I'm not going to tell you the story, Cockey does a brilliant job of that. I can't wait for the next one!!

4 of 4 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Hitch Puts Baltimore On The Map, January 28, 2003

By 

Hilary E. House Jr. "aimbigh" (Denver, Colorado, USA) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Murder In the Hearse Degree: A Novel (Hardcover)

I've haven't ever been very interested in Baltimore, especially since the Colts left for Indianapolis, or in undertakers. Tim Cockey's Hitchcock Sewell has changed all that.
As a life-long mystery fan I associate certain fictional characters with their city. If you say San Francisco I think of Sam Spade. Boston brings up Parker, New York will always be Nero Wolfe and Mike Hammer, and Miami is Mike Shane. Until recently, if you said Baltimore I could only reply, "The Star Spangled Banner." But now I have met Hitchcock Sewell and he has put Baltimore on the Mystery genre map.
Hitch is an undertaker. He carries on the family business with his Aunt Billie at the Sewell and Sons Family Funeral Home. He approaches life (including his own) and death (not including his own) with an insatiable curiosity, considerable wit and charm, and surprising insight.
In Murder In The Hearse Degree, the 4th Hearse mystery, Hitch is asked, by a former lover, to look into the recent disappearance of her family's nanny. The nanny's body soon turns up in the Severn River, an apparent suicide, and the autopsy reveals an unsuspected pregnancy. The police seem satisfied with suicide but Hitch smells something fishy (besides the nanny's body).
As the scene moves from Baltimore to Annapolis to Washington D.C. and back, Tim Cockey sprinkles the landscape with memorable and believable characters, many of whom are suspects in the increasingly suspicious death of the nanny.
The gripping conclusion brings Hitch close to being a customer of his own services and leaves the reader with a strong desire to read the next installment as soon as possible. If you don't give the Hearse series a try, then, as Hitch would say, "Its your funeral."
By Mystery.words.com