Saturday, December 29, 2007

Mystery Book Review: Some Like It Hot-Buttered by Jeffrey Cohen

Mysterious ReviewsMysterious Reviews, mysteries reviewed by the Hidden Staircase Mystery Books, has written a review of Some Like It Hot-Buttered by Jeffrey Cohen. For our blog readers, we are printing it first here in advance of its publication on our website.

Some Like It Hot-Buttered by Jeffrey CohenBuy from Amazon.com
Some Like It Hot-Buttered by Jeffrey Cohen
A Double Feature Mystery with Elliot Freed

Berkley Prime Crime (Mass market paperback)
ISBN-10: 0-425-21799-X (042521799X)
ISBN-13: 978-0-425-21799-3 (9780425217993)
Publication Date: October 2007
List Price: $6.99

Synopsis (from the publisher): Elliot Freed, a recovering writer and husband, socked all his savings-and the alimony from his ex-wife-into the Comedy Tonight movie theater, never suspecting it would become a crime scene...

Poisoned popcorn killed the dead guy in Row S, Seat 18, and to the chagrin of the local police, Elliot starts his own investigation, one that may put the theater-and Elliot-on the cutting room floor.

Review: Some Like It Hot-Buttered is the first comedy/mystery by Jeffrey Cohen in the Double Feature series that introduces theater owner Elliot Freed.

Elliot owns "Comedy Tonight" where comedy buffs can attend movies from the 30s through the present. Together with Sophie, assigned to the concession stand and the all-important task of popping corn, and Anthony (not Tony) who sells tickets, takes tickets, and ushers the guests to their seats, Elliot is working to make the theater a thriving business. During the showing of Young Frankenstein one night, a friend a loyal patron is found dead in his seat. Everyone thought he had a heart attack, but the coroner rules that he was killed by poison on his popcorn. The theater is now a crime scene, and to make matters worse, the police find boxes of pirated DVDs in the backroom. And then Anthony disappears making him the prime suspect for being both a killer and a pirate (though the crimes hardly seem related). Elliot believes the police are more interested in the case of the illegal movies than in the dead patron, so he sets out to find the man's murderer.

This is a very funny mystery. It may help if the reader is a fan of older movies, especially comedies, to enjoy some of the humor here, but even those who have never seen a black-and-white film will appreciate what Cohen has achieved. The characters are well-defined, the dialog frequently laugh-out-loud funny, and the plot adequately complex without being overly complicated.

Some Like It Hot-Buttered is a terrific debut to a series that should have a lot of potential. There's certainly no shortage of movie titles to play off of!

Special thanks to guest reviewer Betty of for contributing her review of Some Like It Hot-Buttered and to Breakthrough Promotions for providing a copy of the book for this review.

Review Copyright © 2007 — Hidden Staircase Mystery Books — All Rights Reserved.

For more visit Mysterious Reviews, a partner with the Hidden Staircase Mystery Books which is committed to providing readers and collectors of with the best and most current information about their favorite authors, titles, and series.

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