Jeffrey Cohen’s Some Like it Hot-Buttered is a “Double Feature Mystery” which is a humorous and creative addition to the genre of cozy mysteries.
Setting
It all starts in row S, seat 18, with a tub of popcorn. This seat is located in Comedy Tonight, a semi-renovated movie theater formerly known as The Rialto. Comedy Tonight is a single-screen, dilapidated theater which shows a lot of promise and nothing but comedies – both classic and modern.
The Comedy Tonight movie theater boasts of “astonishing … over-the-top architecture.” It features plaster moldings, discreet lighting, a huge chandelier, paintings on the ceiling and a roped-off balcony of questionable structural integrity. Elliot Freed is the new owner of the theater. His office is the size of a broom closet because it literally is (was) a broom closet. Although his office is small, a large amount of action takes places within its tight confines.
Character Development
Meet Elliot Freed. It is refreshing to have a man as the main character in a cozy mystery novel. Cohen clues us into Elliot’s lifestyle right from the get-go. Freed is a recent business owner. He is divorced and doesn’t own a car – he rides his bicycle back and forth to work. When he needs to go somewhere which necessitates automobile transportation, he either mooches rides from friends (even his ex-wife), or he convinces a local mechanic to allow him to “test drive” one of the cars that has been brought to his shop for repairs -- he's resourceful.
Elliot is also a one-time author whose book was purchased, “reworked,” and unfortunately made into an erotic film. He is a lover of comedies with a witty sense-of-humor. With money from the book sale, alimony from his ex, and the sale of a house, he purchases the Rialto theater which had been on the real estate market for years. Freed purchases the theater along with its leaky roof, mouse-infested basement, broken seats, peeling paint and questionably-safe balcony. And that’s the short list of problems. Elliot Freed takes it personally when someone dies in his theater.
Supporting characters include:
- Anthony – a movie-maker wannabe, and possibly only one of two human beings who can thread and operate the ancient movie projector in the Comedy Tonight projection room
- Sophie – The Goth snack bar employee who may be wiser than she lets on
- Sharon – Elliot’s kissable ex-wife
- Dad – The one person Elliot can count on for help with the theater’s renovation, and for a timely piece of wise advice
- Vincent Ansella – An insurance executive, a lover and collector of comedies, and the unfortunate devourer of tainted popcorn
- Amy Ansella – Wife of the aforementioned popcorn devourer, and a woman of questionable morals
- Sergeant Meg Vidal – A police friend who Elliot followed when doing research for his first (and only) book.
- Joe & Christie Dunbar – Friends of Vincent Ansella, but not so friendly with Amy Ansella
- Marcy Resnick – She works with Vincent Ansella, and she’s in love
- Sergeant O’Donnell, Chief Dutton, Officer Leslie Levant – Federal and local officials who jump to conclusions, close down the little theater on occasion for further investigation, and vainly tell Elliot to keep his nose out of the investigation. But of course they couldn’t have solved it without him. They are also the targets of Elliot’s funniest thoughts and come-backs.
Some additional characters are introduced haphazardly, and it may cause you to scratch your head and think, “Who is this person? Where did that name come from?” For example, Chapter 39 (of 50) opens with the name “Lisa Ansella Rabinowitz.” She is the sister of the victim, but we haven’t seen her name since Chapter 7 when Freed reads Vincent Ansella’s obituary. So by Chapter 39 you find yourself asking, “How did Elliot come up with the sister’s name and contact information?” It’s a bit too disjointed. One other occurrence involves a friend of Anthony’s named Carla. Apparently they both attend Montclair State University, but the prior connection is somewhat elusive.
Plot Development
The plot of Some Like it Hot-Buttered is off and running from the first sentence. As the story opens, a dead man has already been discovered. It is soon established that the man has been murdered. Elliott Freed, the theater owner, takes a personal involvement in the case when one of his young employees becomes the lead suspect.
Characters are introduced one right after the other, the investigation begins, and by page 25 there is already a very likely suspect, a sub-plot, and a missing person.
The well-detailed plot includes a chase scene; a “stabbing;” a missing person; minor, romantic interludes; a DVD pirating operation; shootings; an affair; and a female impersonator. The story is fast-moving and holds your interest until about two-thirds of the way through of the novel. About this point, the plot seems to stall. Situations are rehashed, already-interviewed characters are re-interviewed, and some new characters show up out of nowhere. As mentioned above, this is where Lisa Ansella Rabinowitz and Carla are visited out of the blue. The additional interviews add more pages to the book, and a few more tidbits of information to the story, but the information could have been gathered during prior interviews and thus kept the plot moving at its prior satisfactory speed.
As to “whodunit,” you know I’d never tell. You may not be able to figure it out, and that bugs me a bit. Elliot’s own unique perspective unravels this one – the facts of the case don’t really allow the reader to use their own abilities to put two-and-two together. I will tell you it’s none of the usual suspects, and I suppose there is something to be said for a creative, unexpected approach.
A Sense of Humor
Cohen’s use of wit, humor and zingers provides pleasure not always found in mystery novels. You may find yourself grinning as you read, especially during the first half of the story.
Another fun aspect of this novel is Cohen’s continual reference to comedies. He supplies the names of many comedies, the year they were released and sometimes references to the actors or plots. If you are a comedy lover, you can create quite a list from the titles Cohen provides throughout the novel. For example, and you may have already caught on, the title of the book, “Some Like it Hot-Buttered,” is a play on the movie title “Some Like it Hot” which is a 1959 comedy starring Marilyn Monroe, Jack Lemmon and Tony Curtis. Cohen inserts a few pages at the back of the book to include “Further Funny Film Facts for Fanatics.”
Cohen’s Some Like It Hot-Buttered surprisingly provides a male main character, humor, and a cozy mystery novel setting that doesn’t involve food aside from the deadly popcorn and some well-aimed Milk Duds. Its well worth the read. Other titles in Jeffrey Cohen's “Double Feature Mystery” collection include A Night at the Operation and It Happened One Knife.
Source:
Cohen, Jeffrey
Some Like It Hot-Buttered
New York : Berkley Prime Crime, c2007
ISBN: 9780425217993
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