The Hearse Case Scenario (Hitchcock Sewell Mysteries)

This third novel starring hapless Baltimore undertaker Hitchcock Sewell puts Hitch in the middle of a puzzle that gets weirder by the minute. His old friend Lucy has shot her lover, sleazy nightclub owner Shrimp Martin, and disappeared. Shrimp's gunshot wound isn't fatal, but a mysterious hospital visitor delivers the coup de grâce, a direct stab to the heart. Naturally the police think the loopy Lucy must be the killer. Hitch tracks Lucy to a beach house where she's hiding out in the company of Hitch's ex-wife Julia, and a private detective tracks Shrimp's missing stepbrother to some pungent underbrush, where his body's been since before Lucy shot Shrimp. Meanwhile, Hitch has found an informant, a sexy but oddly hostile waitress from Shrimp's club, who drops dark hints of illegal gambling and hidden bags of cash.

Add to the mix a sultry nightclub singer, a cocky trumpet player, a bad-boy basketball pro with a mean punch, and assorted other oddballs and suspicious characters, and you might almost think you've fallen into the Baltimore version of a Janet Evanovich novel. But hold your hearses--Hitch's wisecracking style is entirely his own, and it's a pleasure to read. --Barrie Trinkle