Former theater production stage manager Jonathan Froscher debuts his first novel with the introduction of Senior Investigator Thomas Jamison Wilder--very intelligent, very handsome, and very gay. Someone has taken a weedcutter to Lucille Driver, wife and mother of three of the most devious men in town. As someone continues to knock off the entire Driver clan, Tom must juggle a busy love life with solving the case.
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Book Description
Editorial Reviews
From Publishers Weekly
A former stage production manager who has written musicals for children, Froscher delivers this fluff-and-feathers debut with high-camp style. The well-known, sexagenarian stage team of Sam and Wendy Schaeffer and their younger friend and "keeper," gay Buddy Keepman, move to liberal Woodstock, N.Y., little suspecting that bigotry and murder lurk in their new environs. Nor does Buddy expect to find true love after his companion's death two years earlier. But these elements appear on cue. The prying matriarch of a hated local family arrives to help them move in. Shortly afterward, her body is found in the orchard by the Shaeffers' local housecleaner whose screams alert Tom Wilder, a state policeman who lives in another building on the property. Rushing from the shower and wearing only a towel, Tom encounters the Schaeffers and Buddy. Love and the murder investigation begin simultaneously. Soon, the victim's husband is killed with a hatchet. When their loathsome sons are murdered, Tom is left to wonder who had it in for the entire clan. Could it be the black gardener who suffered the group's vociferous racial slurs? Or the lesbian couple who were publicly castigated by them? Or the housekeeper who was repeatedly raped by the sons? The fairly summary ending adequately ties the threads of the plot, but the star of this show is the witty, articulate cast.
Copyright 1998 Reed Business Information, Inc.
Copyright 1998 Reed Business Information, Inc.
From Kirkus Reviews
What ought to be the biggest celebration in Woodstock in 30 years--the arrival of those pillars of the American musical theater, Sam and Wendy Gayle Schaeffer (think Comden and Green, think Nichols and May) at Appletop, the estate they've just boughtis marred, as usual, by the lowlife Driver family. This time, the trouble is with Lucille Driver, brained with a weed- whacker as she's cutting the lawn in Appletop's orchard. But her death is only the curtain-raiser in an all-out assault on her marijuana-growing husband and lying, raping sons. Who on earth would want to kill an entire family? Senior State Police Investigator Tom Wilder, enticed from the closet by the Schaeffers' fetching manager, Buddy Keeper, can't take a step outside his bed (or roll over inside it) without hitting somebody who'd be happy to take on the job, from abused cleaning woman Mary Margaret Mudd to arson victims Marc and Tiffany Markowitz to rival brush-cutter Wally Ellsworth. Despite the high death toll and the epidemic hatred of the Drivers, though, the tone here is so consistently, rather desperately zany that you keep expecting the rest of the cast to join Sam and Wendy in the musical interludes that first-timer Froscher scatters around as generously as red herrings. One thing's for sure: Those maniacally upbeat showbiz types sure knew where they'd fit in with the natives. ``Gay'' only begins to describe a latter-day Woodstock as consistently fey as if the whole town were made out of gingerbread. -- Copyright ©1998, Kirkus Associates, LP. All rights reserved.
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Most Helpful Customer Reviews
2 of 3 people found the following review helpful:
2.0 out of 5 stars
And everywhere was a song and a celebration...,
By A Customer
This review is from: The Woodstock Murders: (or Happiness is a Naked Policeman) (Hardcover)
There's little enough gay mystery out there, so I don't want to sound too discouraging. The main problem for me with THE WOODSTOCK MURDERS was the humor. I'm beginning to think it is very difficult to combine laughs with suspense--when it works it's fabulous, but unfortunately (Fred Hunter's Alex Reynold's series is a case in point)it's almost impossible to get the right balance of comic with seriousness. But I cut Froscher some slack because it's his first book and because he has a show business background and so most of his characters are going to be a little larger than life (but if one more character burst into song, I was going to have to hurt someone). I liked the character of Buddy (who, despite the book jacket, is really the main character), but I never felt like Tom was real (or very interesting). Again, not surprising (considering Froscher's background). As is typical in most series, the two main characters got together way too fast (anti-climactic--in all the ways that really count). It doesn't allow for the reader to get to know and care about the characters. That kind of thing needs to be milked. Also, I think this was a let-down because there was no threat ever to Tom or Buddy. I don't require car chases or gun battles, but a feeling of jeopardy (even if false) might have helped. That said, I would still buy the next book and give it a try.
3.0 out of 5 stars
Promising start to a new mystery series,
By A Customer
This review is from: The Woodstock Murders: (or Happiness is a Naked Policeman) (Hardcover)
Joe Keenan is my gay comedy god, so I'm afraid I end up comparing any gay comedic writing I come across to the books of JK. The author of this book is no Joe Keenan, but having said that, The Woodstock Murders is still an absorbing mystery with fun characters that the reader ends up caring about by the end of the book.
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