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Murder In The Hearse Degree

by Tim Cockey

Tim Cockey has manufactured a most unusual hero, Hitchcock Sewell, who is, of all things, an undertaker. After seeing the author's surname, one can't help but wonder if his lead figure hasn't perhaps inherited qualities indicative of Mr. Cockey himself. Murder In The Hearse Degree shows Hitch to be a little nosy about suspicious deaths, as well as a little cocky in his attitude! Tim Cockey's wisecracking champion is a mix of author Jonathan Gash's Lovejoy and Agatha Christie's Miss Marple. Hitchcock Sewell is a man who not only knows how to embalm dead bodies, but how to discover why anyone who eventually comes to his basement for burial preparation got that way. Only if their death is dubious, of course. On top of that he's tall, young, and good-looking. All qualities helpful in the somber business he's into along with his Aunt Billie.

Murder In The Hearse Degree opens with – what else? – a funeral. However, this funeral serves more to introduce us to some of the characters in the book (and I do mean characters) than it bears much relation to the mystery's major content. That begins when Sophie, a young nanny, has just been removed from the Severn River as a possible suicide. Sophie had been hired by Libby, one of Hitch's former love interests, who is currently married to a man proven to be unworthy of her.

Mortician Hitch has his funeral parlor in Baltimore, Maryland; and the setting for Murder In The Hearse Degree takes us all around that location, including Annapolis and its contingent of young naval cadets. Proving to the police that Sophie's demise wasn't just a suicide moves Hitch to contact not only her parents, but a felonious former governor of Kentucky, a very bad actor starring in a play by Chekov, a right wing religious organization with a secret negative history, and a tabloid journalist with a penchant for Hitch's ex-wife. Hitch also enlists the aid of his friend – who is in the middle of marital difficulties – private investigator Pete Munger.

The underpar actor, Tom Cushman, is suspected of murdering Sophie when it's brought to light that he might also have a reason to get her out of the way. Suspicion of Tom, though, is nullified when Tom himself becomes a target of the killer. He dies in the hospital after a brutal attack. The religious organization, known as ARK (Alliance for Reason and Kindness), harbors more suspects; plus the facts Hitch manages to uncover, which could easily cause disbanding of the entire group.

The search for truth turns up another nanny – a girl named Cindy Lehigh. Cindy was working as a waitress when she suddenly decamped from her job with cash from the till, an hasn't been heard from since. Cindy's in hiding, but Hitch finds her and learns why she departed her former job so hurriedly: Cindy knows something that could get herself killed. Hitch also gets himself involved with an attractive female caterer named Faith, and takes time out from his search and his business to sexually please both her and himself. Then Libby's nefarious husband Mike commits suicide and Hitch has another body for his funeral parlor – this one a funeral with a closed casket.

Murder In The Hearse Degree has enough subplots to satisfy any mystery fan, and Tim Cockey uses them all to advantage in his manipulations of them to leave you wondering which one will turn out to be the thread that leads to Sophie's murderer. Hitchcock Sewell makes that breakthrough, placing himself in the unenviable position of facing a gun while he attempts to calm an unrepentant, volatile, and highly nervous killer.

Alan Paul Curtis

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