Jeffrey Cohen - Some Like It Hot Buttered (2007)
Reviewed by Yvette Banek
Jeff Cohen has begun a new series featuring another nice, schleppy hero with a heart of gold. This seems to be his specialty and I, for one, couldn’t be happier. Nice guys do finish first.
As in Cohen's previous series starring the one and only Aaron Tucker, journalist/crime-solver/father extraordinaire, this new book has, at its heart, an everyman who just happens to get involved in murderous doings, and we, thankfully, get to go along.
Taking the death of the guy in row S, seat 18 of his newly renovated small town movie theater as an affront, Elliot Freed decides to help out the police even if they don’t want or need it. I mean, wouldn’t you?
“Were you the one who found him?” I asked Anthony (not Tony, mind you), the ticket taker/usher/projectionist. Anthony, a Cinema Studies major at Rutgers University, was nineteen years old, and a film geek from head to toe (sorry Anthony, but it’s true). He was wearing black jeans, a t-shirt with a picture of Martin Scorsese on it, and a puzzled expression that meant he was wondering how to work this event into his next screenplay…
“Sophie found him,” he said, indicating our snack stand attendant/ticket seller/clean-up girl who was standing to one side…
Here is Elliot, barely making ends meet, operating a specialty theater in Midland Heights, New Jersey where multi-plexes are the norm when what should happen? A guy drops dead in the middle of Young Frankenstein night. Death by popcorn. Not only is it an insult to Elliot, but an insult to Mel Brooks as well. It is simply not to be borne.
Elliot’s theater is different in that it specializes in funny films. Funny as in funny-ha-ha, that is. Hence the name: Comedy Tonight, an old theater bought on a whim with part of the money garnered from the sale of one measly screenplay to Hollywood. Now all Elliot wants is to make a living from the fruits of his fascination with classic funny films. And, by the way, where else can you go to see two flicks for the price of one these days? One classic and one new. So what if the new is dreck. Better to make a comparison I say.
In truth, Elliot’s personal expenses aren’t dire since he doesn’t own a car. He’s also single and not too proud to take a bit of alimony from his ex-wife. A true eccentric in an auto-obsessed state, he rides a bike from his townhouse in the neighboring town of New Brunswick, back and forth to the theater. When he does need a car, he borrows one from his friend the auto mechanic who often, conveniently, has cars lying around his lot. This is Elliot’s way of contributing to the “greening” of his own little corner of the world.
Okay, so when the dead guy shows up, Elliot decides to look around. Especially after his projectionist, Anthony, disappears and a large stash of counterfeit movies is found in the theater’s basement.
Aided and abetted by a good looking blonde named Leslie Levant, who happens to be a cop, not to mention the well meaning interference of Elliot’s ex-wife Sharon, for whom he still carries a match-sized torch, and the ditzy Goth wannabe Sophie, she of the ticket booth and snack-stand concession (and one of the author’s more inspired creations), Elliot is soon making headway into murder. And alas, finding out that crime fighting can be very dangerous to your health and well being.
One of the things that makes Jeff Cohen’s books so special is the setting: the suburban towns of New Jersey, not an over-used mystery milieu. Avoiding the caricature of smoke-filled, chemically congested swampland or Sopranos wiseguy haven, Jeff makes New Jersey seem as “normal” as anywhere else – which, of course, it is. Well, normal with a few dead bodies scattered here and there.
I read Some Like It Hot Buttered in one fell swoop, a bag of popcorn (minus the poison) at my side. (Just to keep in the spirit of the thing.) Not only is the book funny, which you would expect from Jeff Cohen, but it is also well-plotted (also expected) and loaded with plenty of mis-direction. Plus you get to meet another terrific bunch of characters for whom the author obviously has great affection. Always a very good thing.
Posted by Yvette Banek in Book Reviews | Permalink
