King of the Holly Hop
A
Milan Jacovich Mystery
Les
Roberts
Gray and Co. (Hardcover)
ISBN-10: 1-59851-038-X (159851038X)
ISBN-13: 978-1-59851-038-6 (9781598510386)
Publication Date: June 2008
List Price: $24.95
Synopsis (from
the publisher): Going to your high school reunion is never fun. But
this time, it's murder.
When Cleveland private eye Milan Jacovich reluctantly attends the
fortieth reunion of his St. Clair High School graduating class, he gets
a rude surprise. One of his classmates is found shot dead and another
quickly becomes the main suspect.
Investigating his former schoolmates is an uncomfortable task for
Milan, as he soon discovers the dark secrets of people he only thought
he knew.
The deceased Dr. Phil Kohn, it turns out, was a cad who managed to make
more than a few enemies during his abbreviated life. But did a
forty-year-old grudge really lead to his death? Or was it something
more recent—a jealous spouse, a shady business partner?
Milan's hunt for the real killer leads him through the oddly
intertwined worlds of Cleveland's medical community, organized crime,
polite suburban society, and hard-core drug dealers.
Review:
After an absence of almost six years, Cleveland private investigator
Milan Jacovich returns to look into the murder of an old classmate in King of the Holly Hop,
the fourteenth mystery in this series by Les Roberts.
Milan attending his 40th high school reunion probably wouldn't have
been his first choice as a fun evening. But he's there and making the
best of it. It promises to get more interesting, however, when Tommy
Wiggins, a multiple award-winning writer and probably the most
famous of his former classmates, says to Milan, "Machiavelli said you
must never wound a prince. Make sure you kill him." The "prince" turns
out to be Dr. Phil Kohn with his too-good-for-the-rest-of-you attitude.
When Tommy and Phil have a public falling out in the middle of the
reunion festivities, and Phil is later found dead in his car, Tommy is
the prime suspect. Milan doesn't think Tommy did it as there were way
too many other people who hated Phil and wouldn't have hesitated to put
a bullet in his head.
In a way, it's unfortunate that Roberts chooses to introduce all the
characters, including their background information, in the first
chapter of King of the
Holly Hop. Veteran mystery readers will no doubt
immediately identify not only who is going to be killed but also who is
doing the killing. By the end of the second chapter they'll be proved
right about the murder victim, and, red herrings aside, by the end of
the book they'll be proved right about the murderer. With the whodunit
aspect not a factor here, is there a reason to read this book?
Absolutely.
Roberts has a real talent for character development giving Milan an
interesting cast to work with and play off of. That Milan is aging,
sort of gracefully, sort of not, is all the more appealing. He must
rely more on his wits and intellect than on mere physical prowess, not
that he was ever short on the former, and build bridges instead of
burning them. But if one phrase could be used
to sum of Milan's investigative process, it might be this, aptly stated
by the murderer when confronted by Milan: "To put it
simply—you get in my way."
King of the Holly
Hop is a real treat, whether this is the reader's first
introduction to the Cleveland PI or one merely catching up with an old
friend. The first thirteen books in the series, long out of print, have recently been reissued.
Special thanks to Gray and Co. for providing a copy of King of the Holly Hop for this review.
Review Copyright © 2008 — Hidden Staircase Mystery Books — All Rights Reserved.
Mysteries in this series ...
Pepper Pike
St. Martin's Press (Hardcover), September 1988
ISBN-10: 0-312-02266-2 (0312022662)
ISBN-13: 978-0-312-02266-2 (9780312022662)
Full Cleveland
St. Martin's Press (Hardcover), November 1989
ISBN-10: 0-312-03349-4 (0312033494)
ISBN-13: 978-0-312-03349-1 (9780312033491)
Deep Shaker
St. Martin's Press (Hardcover), May 1991
ISBN-10: 0-312-05855-1 (0312058551)
ISBN-13: 978-0-312-05855-5 (9780312058555)
The Cleveland
Connection
St. Martin's Press (Hardcover), February 1993
ISBN-10: 0-312-08746-2 (0312087462)
ISBN-13: 978-0-312-08746-3 (9780312087463)
The Lake Effect
St. Martin's Press (Hardcover), December 1994
ISBN-10: 0-312-11537-7 (0312115377)
ISBN-13: 978-0-312-11537-1 (9780312115371)
The Duke of
Cleveland
St. Martin's Press (Hardcover), October 1995
ISBN-10: 0-312-13473-8 (0312134738)
ISBN-13: 978-0-312-13473-0 (9780312134730)
Collision Bend
St. Martin's Press (Hardcover), September 1996
ISBN-10: 0-312-14570-5 (0312145705)
ISBN-13: 978-0-312-14570-5 (9780312145705)
The Cleveland
Local
St. Martin's Press (Hardcover), November 1997
ISBN-10: 0-312-16801-2 (0312168012)
ISBN-13: 978-0-312-16801-8 (9780312168018)
A Shoot in
Cleveland
St. Martin's Press (Hardcover), May 1998
ISBN-10: 0-312-18663-0 (0312186630)
ISBN-13: 978-0-312-18663-0 (9780312186630)
The Best Kept
Secret
St. Martin's Press (Hardcover), August 1999
ISBN-10: 0-312-20499-X (031220499X)
ISBN-13: 978-0-312-20499-0 (9780312204990)
The Indian Sign
St. Martin's Press (Hardcover), August 2000
ISBN-10: 0-312-25217-X (031225217X)
ISBN-13: 978-0-312-25217-5 (9780312252175)
The Dutch
St. Martin's Minotaur (Hardcover), July 2001
ISBN-10: 0-312-26579-4 (0312265794)
ISBN-13: 978-0-312-26579-3 (9780312265793)
The Irish Sports
Pages
St. Martin's Minotaur (Hardcover), August 2002
ISBN-10: 0-312-28661-9 (0312286619)
ISBN-13: 978-0-312-28661-3 (9780312286613)
King of the
Holly Hop
Gray and Co. (Hardcover), June 2008
ISBN-10: 1-59851-038-X (159851038X)
ISBN-13: 978-1-59851-038-6 (9781598510386)
Omnimystery keywords for King of the Holly Hop
...
Location(s) referenced: Cleveland, Ohio.