Hot
Rocks
A
Nick Hoffman Mystery
Lev
Raphael
Perseverance
Press (Trade Paperback)
ISBN-10: 1-880284-83-9 (1880284839)
ISBN-13: 978-1-880284-83-4 (9781880284834)
Publication Date: April 2007
List Price: $14.95
Synopsis (from
the publisher): Fitness = Death, when Nick Hoffman heads back to the
gym after his Caribbean vacation, finding himself caught in a Desperate
Housewives-type mystery.
Just back from their Caribbean vacation, professor Nick Hoffman and his
partner, Stefan Borowski, need to get back in shape. Michigan Muscle is
a luxurious health club near the State University of Michigan. With the
latest equipment and top-notch personal trainers, it‘s a
palatial complex for fitness. But every palace has its intrigue, and
when Nick finds a dead trainer in the steam room, he‘s drawn
into a web of passion and privilege unlike anything he‘s
experienced before. The prime suspect because he discovered the body,
Nick has to work out this mystery to its bitter end.
Review:
Hot
Rocks is the 7th mystery by
Lev Raphael in the Nick Hoffman series set in a major metropolis in
Michigan.
The opening chapter of Hot Rocks sets the stage for a interesting
locked room-type murder mystery: Nick Hoffman, relaxing in the steam
room at a popular health club, tries to engage the room's only other
occupant, Vlado, a trainer at the club, in conversation. When he
realizes that Vlado reminds him of the young poet depicted in the
painting The
Death of Chatterton, he
begins to suspect that Vlado may be dead. And indeed he is, murdered by
a blunt object struck to the head. With all the people coming and going
at the club, how could someone have killed Vlado without being seen?
Unfortunately, the who, how, and why aspects of the murder are largely
set aside until the very end. Both how the crime was committed and how
Nick puts the pieces together to solve it are very clever indeed. But
what transpires between the beginning and the end borders on the
tedious.
Part of the problem is in the description of Nick's friend Juno
Dromgoole. She's intended to be a larger-than-life character with
exaggerated features. But she dominates whatever scene she is in to the
point of distraction. And her presence is pervasive, overpowering that
of Nick Hoffman. Less, much less, of Juno would truly equate to a more,
far more, readable and enjoyable book.
A more subtle problem lays in Raphael's constant use of literary and
artistic references. Comparing Vlado to Chatterton in the first chapter
is inspired; even if the reader had never seen the painting, they could
imagine what might be depicted and construct a mental picture of the
dead trainer in the steam room. But scarcely a page goes by without
some simile being presented. Some of these work well; consider this
eloquent passage: "I couldn't figure out what was underneath her
languor, but it felt insidious, maybe even corrupt. Though not as
strange, she reminded me of Carmen Sternwood in The Big Sleep."
But most references are either just contextually odd ("I don't see how
you ended up studying Wharton. Your period is really the Picaresque,
and Juno is right out of Fielding.") or nonsensical ("My new [chairman]
had recently risen to the top through politicking as arcane as some of
the references in The Da Vinci Code.").
Some might find Raphael's writing in this manner witty, but it's mostly
arduous and tiresome.
Finally, Raphael tends to use unusual names for his characters, so a
Who's Who at the beginning is a very helpful addition for keeping track
of them.
Hot
Rocks is a near miss: a
terrific mystery overwhelmed by verbiage.
Special thanks to Perseverance Press for providing a copy of Hot Rocks for this review.
Review Copyright © 2007 — Hidden Staircase Mystery Books — All Rights Reserved
Have you read Hot Rocks? How would you rate it?
Mysteries in this series ...
Let's
Get Criminal
St. Martin's Press (Hardcover), March 1996
ISBN-10: 0-312-13999-3 (0312139993)
ISBN-13: 978-0-312-13999-5 (9780312139995)
The
Edith Wharton Murders
St. Martin's Press (Hardcover), September 1997
ISBN-10: 0-312-15519-0 (0312155190)
ISBN-13: 978-0-312-15519-3 (9780312155193)
The
Death of a Constant Lover
Walker and Co. (Hardcover), April 1999
ISBN-10: 0-8027-3326-3 (0802733263)
ISBN-13: 978-0-8027-3326-9 (9780802733269)
Little
Miss Evil
Walker and Co. (Hardcover), May 2000
ISBN-10: 0-8027-3342-5 (0802733425)
ISBN-13: 978-0-8027-3342-9 (9780802733429)
Burning
Down the House
Walker and Co. (Hardcover), October 2001
ISBN-10: 0-8027-3365-4 (0802733654)
ISBN-13: 978-0-8027-3365-8 (9780802733658)
Tropic
of Murder
Perseverance Press (Hardcover), September 2004
ISBN-10: 1-880284-68-5 (1880284685)
ISBN-13: 978-1-880284-68-1 (9781880284681)
Hot Rocks
Perseverance Press (Trade Paperback), April 2007
ISBN-10: 1-880284-83-9 (1880284839)
ISBN-13: 978-1-880284-83-4 (9781880284834)
Omnimystery
keywords for Hot Rocks
...
Location(s) referenced: Michigan.
