The Hearse Case Scenario
This third novel starring hapless Baltimore undertaker Hitchcock Sewell  puts Hitch in the middle of a puzzle that gets weirder by the minute. His old  friend Lucy has shot her lover, sleazy nightclub owner Shrimp Martin, and  disappeared. Shrimp's gunshot wound isn't fatal, but a mysterious hospital  visitor delivers the coup de grâce, a direct stab to the heart. Naturally the  police think the loopy Lucy must be the killer. Hitch tracks Lucy to a beach  house where she's hiding out in the company of Hitch's ex-wife Julia, and a  private detective tracks Shrimp's missing stepbrother to some pungent  underbrush, where his body's been since before Lucy shot Shrimp. Meanwhile,  Hitch has found an informant, a sexy but oddly hostile waitress from Shrimp's  club, who drops dark hints of illegal gambling and hidden bags of cash.Add to the mix a sultry nightclub singer, a cocky trumpet player, a bad-boy  basketball pro with a mean punch, and assorted other oddballs and suspicious  characters, and you might almost think you've fallen into the Baltimore version  of aJanet  Evanovichnovel. But hold your hearses--Hitch's wisecracking style is  entirely his own, and it's a pleasure to read.--Barrie Trinkle