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Hitchcock Sewell #3
The Hearse Case Scenario
ockey's new mystery finds Hitch up to his ears in murders, and the latest clues point to a Baltimore nightclub. Following his nose, Hitch uncovers a host of nefarious goings-on as well as some downright strange characters, including a felonious artist, a Miles Davis wanna-be, an Ida Lupino look-alike, and one very irritated dance instructor. Put them all together, throw in a bag full of cash and an incriminating Polaroid, and you have another surefire, humor-laced hit from one of the freshest voices writing in the mystery world today.
448 pages, Mass Market Paperback
First published February 1, 2002
About the author
Tim Cockey
15 books45 followersaka Richard Hawke
Tim Cockey is the author of the award-winning “Hitch” series: The Hearse You Came In On, Hearse of a Different Color, Hearse Case Scenario, and Murder in the Hearse Degree. He has been a story analyst for many major film and television companies, including American Playhouse, ABC, and Hallmark Entertainment. He grew up in Baltimore and now lives in New York City.
Tim Cockey is the author of the award-winning “Hitch” series: The Hearse You Came In On, Hearse of a Different Color, Hearse Case Scenario, and Murder in the Hearse Degree. He has been a story analyst for many major film and television companies, including American Playhouse, ABC, and Hallmark Entertainment. He grew up in Baltimore and now lives in New York City.
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Displaying 1 - 30 of 39 reviews
February 19, 2012
Tim Cockey’s third book in his ‘Hearse’ series, the 2002-published THE HEARSE CASE SCENARIO, is a very funny tale of undertaker Hitchcock ‘Hitch’ Sewell’s investigation of a local murder.
I thought I knew who the murderer was, changed my mind, changed it back, and not once was I right. A part of what makes a great mystery is this: a story where you can’t guess the ending.
The story starts with Hitch’s friend Lucy appearing at his funeral home and telling him she just killed her boyfriend Shrimp, a local who owns a popular jazz lounge. More murders pile up and lots of people may have the motives to do them. Meanwhile: Krishnas give away food, a man has hands the size of toasters, and a large painting is maneuvered out of a second story window.
As I’ve said, this is a great mystery just in the fact that you can’t guess the murderer (at least I didn’t). Other strengths of this book include the great building of characters and the several sub-plots going on.
My favorite character has to be Hitch himself with his slanted look at life. His conversations with his P.I. friend Pete Munger are classic. Hitch has a fabulously dry sense of humor. I LOVED it and kept laughing out loud all through the book.
I believe everyone who likes a good modern mystery will enjoy THE HEARSE CASE SCENARIO.
I thought I knew who the murderer was, changed my mind, changed it back, and not once was I right. A part of what makes a great mystery is this: a story where you can’t guess the ending.
The story starts with Hitch’s friend Lucy appearing at his funeral home and telling him she just killed her boyfriend Shrimp, a local who owns a popular jazz lounge. More murders pile up and lots of people may have the motives to do them. Meanwhile: Krishnas give away food, a man has hands the size of toasters, and a large painting is maneuvered out of a second story window.
As I’ve said, this is a great mystery just in the fact that you can’t guess the murderer (at least I didn’t). Other strengths of this book include the great building of characters and the several sub-plots going on.
My favorite character has to be Hitch himself with his slanted look at life. His conversations with his P.I. friend Pete Munger are classic. Hitch has a fabulously dry sense of humor. I LOVED it and kept laughing out loud all through the book.
I believe everyone who likes a good modern mystery will enjoy THE HEARSE CASE SCENARIO.
August 17, 2018
I almost gave up on this just a few pages on, but since I was determined to finish some of the many, many books I have collected over the last several years, choosing the one that was on the top of the pile, I stuck it out. Despite the numerous clichés and cornball humor, I did enjoy the book. I did not like many of the characters, but probably wasn't supposed to. Never saw the ending coming.
October 23, 2017
Man, this dude can write. He’s got a snappy noir humor thing I don’t think I’ve seen anywhere else. Good mystery too.
April 7, 2019
Couldn't finish. Waste of time
August 13, 2021
Good continuation of the series.
January 21, 2024
Not as good as the previous two. Still liked it, but was slow.
March 17, 2017
Enjoyable read with all threads leading to both the obvious and a surprise.
June 9, 2015
Plenty well-enough written to be five stars within its genre, but I knocked it down a peg because its lack of pretension to be other than a pleasant time passer. Not that there's anything wrong with that, mind you; I've read many worse.
This a fun, breezy, fast-moving modern mystery set in Baltimore (the detective went to Frostburg University, a small school in the frozen tundra of western Maryland which is also my wife's alma mater!) involving the mythical NBA team the Baltimore Blues. Now, this is a bit of a clunky device because most readers in the Mid-Atlantic or with an interest in the NBA will know that the real Baltimore Bullets moved to the Capital Center on the outskirts of DC 30 years ago and were renamed the Washington Bullets, then moved most recently into the heart of DC and renamed the Washington Wizards ("bullets" being politically incorrect in violence-prone DC). They're gone, and they ain't comin' back, Mr. Cockey. Get over it.
Sorry for the small digression for a mild beef. It really doesn't detract from the book other than to firmly plant it in the fictional ether where it belongs anyway. Its just that the book lacks the gravitas (I love to say that word out loud: "gravitas", "gravitas", "gravitas" . . . ) to be a classic. . It doesn't teach me, inspire me, sadden me, enrage me, move me.
But in this day and age, its ability to amuse me is Worth my time (see my Amazon profile for my ranking scale) and four stars. Historical aging may give it gravitas enough to move up: I consider some of the hard-boiled crime fiction of writers like Dashiell Hammett worthy of What a classic status. In any case, I'll read others by this author (in series order):
1 - The Hearse You Came in On (Hitchcock Sewell Mysteries)
2 - Hearse of a Different Color
3 - The Hearse Case Scenario
4 - Murder In the Hearse Degree: A Novel
This a fun, breezy, fast-moving modern mystery set in Baltimore (the detective went to Frostburg University, a small school in the frozen tundra of western Maryland which is also my wife's alma mater!) involving the mythical NBA team the Baltimore Blues. Now, this is a bit of a clunky device because most readers in the Mid-Atlantic or with an interest in the NBA will know that the real Baltimore Bullets moved to the Capital Center on the outskirts of DC 30 years ago and were renamed the Washington Bullets, then moved most recently into the heart of DC and renamed the Washington Wizards ("bullets" being politically incorrect in violence-prone DC). They're gone, and they ain't comin' back, Mr. Cockey. Get over it.
Sorry for the small digression for a mild beef. It really doesn't detract from the book other than to firmly plant it in the fictional ether where it belongs anyway. Its just that the book lacks the gravitas (I love to say that word out loud: "gravitas", "gravitas", "gravitas" . . . ) to be a classic. . It doesn't teach me, inspire me, sadden me, enrage me, move me.
But in this day and age, its ability to amuse me is Worth my time (see my Amazon profile for my ranking scale) and four stars. Historical aging may give it gravitas enough to move up: I consider some of the hard-boiled crime fiction of writers like Dashiell Hammett worthy of What a classic status. In any case, I'll read others by this author (in series order):
1 - The Hearse You Came in On (Hitchcock Sewell Mysteries)
2 - Hearse of a Different Color
3 - The Hearse Case Scenario
4 - Murder In the Hearse Degree: A Novel
November 24, 2011
This is the third (and our third) in the five-book “Hearse” series by Tim Cockey. The first two were rather light-hearted mysteries, featuring Hitchcock Sewell, an undertaker who apparently has most of his days free to play amateur sleuth while his aunt mostly runs the funeral parlor. In “Scenario”, while there is still plenty of humor and zippy one-liners, the plot per se, with at least three murders to solve, is way too convoluted, with virtually each chapter highlighting a different “sure-thing” suspect – some of them over and over.
Hitch gets involved when a bar owner named Shrimp Martin inexplicably calls the mortuary to tell Hitch he’s been shot, and that Lucy, a friend of Hitch’s, was the shooter. Shrimp gets rushed to the hospital, where after emergency care saves his life, he is stabbed to death hours later in his hospital bed. From this precipitous start is spawned all manner of skullduggery, including pro basketball game fixing, blackmail, more murders, muggings, incriminating photos, bagfuls of cash, etc. While there is a level of suspense to all this, the plot is just too long and curvy – so by the end, we’re too tired to continue enjoying the machinations of our amateur, albeit paired with a real private eye this time. What the police are doing to solve the case while these two run all over Baltimore is conveniently unaddressed.
These novels are not meant to be complex thrillers – but the length and seesaw plot detracted from what might otherwise have been a tale as entertaining as the first two outings. We will probably read the remaining two when the spirit moves; we just hope the author emphasizes the humor and skips the complicated intrigue; and that the editor sharpens his red pencil!
Hitch gets involved when a bar owner named Shrimp Martin inexplicably calls the mortuary to tell Hitch he’s been shot, and that Lucy, a friend of Hitch’s, was the shooter. Shrimp gets rushed to the hospital, where after emergency care saves his life, he is stabbed to death hours later in his hospital bed. From this precipitous start is spawned all manner of skullduggery, including pro basketball game fixing, blackmail, more murders, muggings, incriminating photos, bagfuls of cash, etc. While there is a level of suspense to all this, the plot is just too long and curvy – so by the end, we’re too tired to continue enjoying the machinations of our amateur, albeit paired with a real private eye this time. What the police are doing to solve the case while these two run all over Baltimore is conveniently unaddressed.
These novels are not meant to be complex thrillers – but the length and seesaw plot detracted from what might otherwise have been a tale as entertaining as the first two outings. We will probably read the remaining two when the spirit moves; we just hope the author emphasizes the humor and skips the complicated intrigue; and that the editor sharpens his red pencil!
January 5, 2018
#3 in the Hitchcock Sewell series. "2003 Lefty Award; Finalist 2003 Barry Award for Best Novel"
Baltimore mortician Hitchcock Sewell series - Hitchcock Sewell, Baltimore's wisecracking mortician/sleuth, sets out to exonerate his hapless childhood friend, Lucy, accused of murdering her low-life boyfriend, Shrimp Martin. Sure, Lucy shot him, but she wasn't the one who killed him. Hitch's search begins with Shrimp's nightclub and the cast of characters who worked there the captivating, no-nonsense singer; the jazz trumpeter who speaks in circles; and the contemptuous bartender with a hidden agenda. When Arthur, Shrimp's stepbrother and the club's photographer, goes missing, Hitch cajoles the hangdog private detective who's looking for Arthur into helping him find Shrimp's real killer. Together they stumble onto an elaborate gambling scheme, an unorthodox and very one-sided business partnership and the details of the year-old murder of an all-American college girl (whose body was found at Shrimp's club).
Baltimore mortician Hitchcock Sewell series - Hitchcock Sewell, Baltimore's wisecracking mortician/sleuth, sets out to exonerate his hapless childhood friend, Lucy, accused of murdering her low-life boyfriend, Shrimp Martin. Sure, Lucy shot him, but she wasn't the one who killed him. Hitch's search begins with Shrimp's nightclub and the cast of characters who worked there the captivating, no-nonsense singer; the jazz trumpeter who speaks in circles; and the contemptuous bartender with a hidden agenda. When Arthur, Shrimp's stepbrother and the club's photographer, goes missing, Hitch cajoles the hangdog private detective who's looking for Arthur into helping him find Shrimp's real killer. Together they stumble onto an elaborate gambling scheme, an unorthodox and very one-sided business partnership and the details of the year-old murder of an all-American college girl (whose body was found at Shrimp's club).
December 5, 2008
Not as good as the last two novels featuring Hitchcock Sewell, amateur detective in his spare time and funeral parlor director the rest of the time. We find in this novel a friend of Hitch being accused of murder but Lucy is one unlucky girl and a bit of a simple girl too. There is plenty of people who wanted her boyfriend dead but she's the most convenient suspect since she shot him. An intricate plot that takes way to long to gel, too much of zany Julia, bad guys that are more cartoon than bad and a depressed private eye slow down the pace and my enjoyment of this novel. Won't stop me from reading the next one but this is an average title in the series.
January 27, 2014
This is the 3rd in Tim Cockey's series about Hitchcock Sewell, co-owner of a funeral home in Baltimore with his aunt Billie. Reminiscent of Janet Evanovich's Stephanie Plum series in that quirky, comical things happen the Hitch. I also liked that I knew the places he talked about - the Inner Harbor, Fells Point, Canton, Hunt Valley. I've thoroughly enjoyed all of this series, wish he'd write more.
May 2, 2008
When Hitch's longtime friend is charged with the murder of a local nightclub's owner, She goes into hiding and takes Julia with her. With the help of a local PI in the midst of a midlife crisis, Hitch searches for the real killers in jazz clubs and at Blues games.
Another good Hitchcock Sewell tale; this mystery better than the last, I think.
Another good Hitchcock Sewell tale; this mystery better than the last, I think.
July 3, 2008
If you can get past the pun and a main character (an undertaker, ergo the silly puns in this series) with the sexual morals of a house fly, this is a fast, funny mystery set in a Baltimore funeral establishment. Cockey pulls in local television news reporting, pro basketball, and the tricky world of financing restaurants.
July 8, 2008
so i really like these books! the narrator/main character is such a smart aleck that it keeps you laughing. of course i love crime dramas so the plot keeps up your interest throughout. bonus is that it's set in baltimore and i am relating with each location/bit of information in his descriptions. perfect fast beach/airplane read!
October 5, 2012
"Apparently I was the first person Shrimp Martin called after Lucy Taylor shot him."
I love a good first line and this one had me giggling. But then you have to know that Hitchcock Sewell, the narrator, is an undertaker.
Read the rest of my review here:
http://mostlyfiction.com/sleuths/cock...
I love a good first line and this one had me giggling. But then you have to know that Hitchcock Sewell, the narrator, is an undertaker.
Read the rest of my review here:
http://mostlyfiction.com/sleuths/cock...
July 9, 2015
This is the third one that I've read. I like the unusual occupation of the main character — undertaker — and his personality in general. This was an interesting story and kept my attention. I think that the characters are well drawn and the book flows. I'm certain this will not be the last one in this series that I'll read.
February 21, 2016
Another great mystery in the Sewell case. So many twists and turns and side plots that I really had no clue whodunit until the last few pages. Really enjoyed the introduction of the Pete Munger character and the relationship/mentorship/teamwork with him and Hitch. Hope to see the character again in the next mystery in the series.
August 5, 2007
Enjoyable mystery series. Protaganist is an undertaker. Not an intellectual read by any means, but if you're looking for something soft that will keep the pages turning, good books (anything by Tim Cockey).
August 30, 2011
His books seems to be just a bit too long. They are funny and we did meet a new character called Pete Munger. One of Hitch's friends is accused of murder and he is out to prove they are innocent. Just a bit too long.
June 13, 2012
If your like me, and need a read once in awhile to put a smile on your face, this "punny" series will do the trick. Hitch, his ex-wife and the colorful characters/the hot spots/low spots of his hometown Baltimore, then pull up a stool at the Screaming Oyster Saloon.
January 10, 2017
This book is so much fun! The best part is the zesty, snappy, smart dialogue. The main character is Hitchcock Sewell, a mystery-solving undertaker. The story never lags, and was both humorous and suspenseful. I am hooked now, and plan to enjoy the full series.
July 24, 2008
Very funny, in a morbid sort of way.
February 16, 2016
Hitchcock Sewell is up to his ears in murder, and has to deal with a group of very colorful characters to solve this one. Delightful, light mystery series.
October 28, 2009
Lefty Award winner 2003
Read
March 7, 2018Fun
September 28, 2013
This book was really dull. It picked up slightly through some parts but for the most of it I had a lot of trouble paying attention.
January 14, 2011
like the totally grumpy P.I. and the sexy singer, although I know I shouldn't be rooting for the breakup of the P.I.'s marriage.
Displaying 1 - 30 of 39 reviews