Book Review: A Night at the Operation by Jeffrey Cohen (Comedy Tonight Mysteries #3)

Stars: 5 out of 5
Pros: Funny with a suspensful mystery

Cons: Some of the characters are weak

The Bottom Line:

Well done mystery

With plenty of comedy

A sure fire winner

Operation Funny Mystery is a Huge Success

Comedy Tonight sounds like my kind of place.  It's a movie theater located in New Jersey devoted to nothing but comedies.  Unfortunately, it's fictional.  But I get to visit it and owner Elliot Freed every time a Double Feature mystery comes out.  A Night at the Operation is the third book in the series, and it was wonderful.

Elliot has no use for Gregory, his ex-wife Sharon's soon to be ex-husband.  So he hardly takes Gregory seriously when he arrives at Comedy Tonight and announces that Sharon is missing.  In fact, the only reason Elliot even begins to worry is that the police want to question her in connection with a dead man.

See, Sharon is a doctor, and one of her patients committed suicide after a faulty diagnosis.  Was she really trying to kill him?  Is she hiding out?  Or did something more sinister happen to her?

The unique relationship between Elliot and Sharon has been a constant in the books, so it was completely believable to me how worried Elliot became when he realized things were serious.  In fact, I got quite caught up in the story right from the start and had a hard time putting the book down.  The pace never lagged until the end.  While the climax was a bit abrupt for my taste, it was funny and effective.

There are usually some sub-plots involving the theater and its staff.  That's the case again here as plumbing and electrical problems shut down the heat in the beginnings of winter and one of him employees may be forced to quit.  Both of these were kept in the background yet helped keep the pace of the story going full tilt.

The book is laced with humor.  Occasionally witty, it normally relies on sarcasm.  All the characters can be a tad on the sarcastic side, but Elliot is the master.  Fortunately, he narrates these books in the first person, so we get treated to his take on events all the way along.  Yes, I laughed at dialogue at times, but I often found the narration funnier.

In something that is a bit unusual for a mystery, the series regulars populate the book more than suspect characters.  That's a very good thing, however.  The series regulars are fully developed, and I love spending time with most of them.  Elliot's mom even makes a bigger appearance in this book.  And I must say I am thrilled his parents are mine.  Elliot's relationship with Sharon hits a snag as well.  I am quite interested in seeing where it goes from here.

As I mentioned, the characters introduced in this book as the suspects aren't that developed.  It's fine, however, since they really only flit through the pages.  They have enough personality to be memorable, but they fall more into types than true characters.  Given more page time, I'm sure they would have been better fleshed out.

A Night at the Operation is serious enough to be a good mystery but funny enough to keep me chuckling and laughing along the way.  If you enjoy either, don't miss this book.