Murder... Suicide... Whatever... [Paperback]

Gwen Freeman (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: March 15, 2007

Fifi Cutter is an acerbic, bi-racial twenty-something, with family issues and a delightfully cynical world view. Just fired from her boring, but steady job at Colchester Casualty, she is barely making it as an independent insurance adjustor when her freeloading half-brother, Bosco Dorff, shows up with the news that their Uncle Ted has been murdered. Fifi is hired to investigate. Ted was an insurance broker to the stars–porn stars. Posing as grief counselors, Fifi and Bosco interrogate a colorful array of suspects, including Ted’s smoking hot mistress, his portly assistant, and his deadly competition, Corazon Villareal. Fifi zips around LA to check out the various and vaguely guilty suspects -- all classic LA characters. When Bosco disappears, however, Fifi is catalysed into immediate action, finding the unlikely killer and gaining an unlikely accomplice.

Editorial Reviews

From Booklist

When a novel's principal characters are a currently unemployed insurance investigator named Fifi Cutter and her usually unemployed half brother, Bosco Dorff, you know you're in for a bit of weirdness. Debut novelist Freeman doesn't disappoint: from its first page (wherein Fifi and Bosco get into an argument about whether they have an Uncle Ted) to its last, the book sparkles with offbeat wit and snappy dialogue. The characters grab us from the moment we meet them, and the story, in which Fifi and Bosco pretend to be a private-eye team in order to investigate the death of the aforementioned Uncle Ted, is well constructed. The author, a lawyer who handles cases involving insurance companies and death-row inmates, writes with the breezy style of someone who has been doing it for years: the writing feels light, effortless, entirely natural. The novel is billed as "A Fifi Cutter Mystery," which gives the impression that more will follow. Let's hope so. David Pitt
Copyright © American Library Association. All rights reserved

Product Details

• Paperback: 270 pages
• Publisher: Capital Crime Press (March 15, 2007)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0977627616
• ISBN-13: 978-0977627615
• Product Dimensions: 8.5 x 5.6 x 0.8 inches
• Shipping Weight: 10.4 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (12 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #181,828 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

17 of 17 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Reviewed by Barb Radmore, March 21, 2007

By 

Front Street Reviews www.frontstreetreviews.com - See all my reviews

This review is from: Murder... Suicide... Whatever... (Paperback)

Murder...Suicide...Whatever is not the book for anyone who wants to take their mystery seriously. Gwen Freeman has written a fun, tongue in cheek romp that stretches the boundaries of political correctness with Gumby-like elasticity. The same audiences that made Borat a chart topping hit at the movies will love this book too.

When Ted Heffernan dies, in his office with his door sealed by a giant birthday banner, it is assumed by everyone to be suicide. Everyone except one broker in the office, Eddie Walker and Ted's "nephew" Bosco Dorff. They are convinced it was murder but are hard pressed to prove it.

Fifi is not happy when Bosco shows up on her doorstep. She is having enough trouble supporting herself without having to worry about her not so beloved half relative. Bosco is long on charm and good looks, but short on funds and morality. But he soon forces his half sister Fifi into helping with the investigation into the Ted's death, even though she knows it is not a good idea on any level. There are plenty of suspects, all with good motives and it is up to Fifi to untangle the truth. What ensues is a murder investigation that includes grief counselor impersonations, talking halloween mats and porn movies.

Freeman is able to deftly write an authentic locked door puzzle while directing the theater of the absurd. It is a juggling act that she manages with fascinating flair. She is able to take her imaginatively created characters through a plot that leaps and turns without losing her focus. To manage that while also causing her readers to laugh out loud is a literary gift.

10 of 10 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Sassy heir to Stephanie Plum, June 14, 2007

By 

Liz K. (Davis, CA USA) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Murder... Suicide... Whatever... (Paperback)

The other reviews share plenty of plot points, if that's what you want. I'll just say the plot keeps you reading, the characters keep you laughing, and the solution leaves you satisfied. If Stephanie Plum is becoming too predictable and formulaic for you, switch to Fifi Cutter, and hope she has more adventures to follow.

3 of 3 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars A genuine mystery., July 5, 2008

By 

Pentiumm (East Providence, RI United States) - See all my reviews

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This review is from: Murder... Suicide... Whatever... (Paperback)

Fifi Cutter, a freelance insurance adjuster overwhelmed with bills and unappetizing relatives, finds her no-good half brother, Bosco, at the door one day. Bosco brings news of Uncle Ted's death and insists that it was murder.

Fifi doesn't believe it. Uncle Ted died inside his office, "locked" with birthday decorations taped across the door by coworkers. The fragile tissue paper was neither ripped nor re-taped, and the coroner said that Uncle Ted had a heart attack.

But Bosco insists it was murder, and so does Eddie, Uncle Ted's colleague. Eddie is a bit smarmy, but he hires Fifi and Bosco to find the killer. Fifi doesn't quite believe there is a killer to be found, but she really believes in the money Eddie offered.

Thus ensues a true, classic, old-fashioned (although the context is modern) locked room murder mystery. There are suspects aplenty, clues gradually unfold throughout the story, and the identity of the murderer is unknown until the final chapter.

This is why I gave the story 5 stars. Most modern authors do a poor job with mysteries - either we know throughout the story the identity of the murderer, or there is a murder at the beginning of the book, the identity revealed at the end of the book, and god awful filler about "relationships" and "character development" in between. When I read a mystery, I want it to be a mystery.

In addition to the mystery, there is some good humor along the way. Some of it is trying too hard, but the author comes up with a number of trenchant one-liners.