King of the Holly Hop: A Milan Jacovich Mystery (Milan Jacovich Mysteries) | Les Roberts

King of the Holly Hop: A Milan Jacovich Mystery (Milan Jacovich Mysteries) | Les Roberts | enjoyable whodunit

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King of the Holly ...

	King of the Holly Hop: A Milan Jacovich Mystery (Milan Jacovich Mysteries) Les Roberts Gray & Co., Publishers, 2008 - 272 pages average customer review:based on 3 reviews view larger image
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#14 in the Milan Jacovich mystery series . . .
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.
The suspect, successful playwright Tommy Wiggins, draws Milan into the case--and puts him in a very awkward position. 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.
It's a tough investigation in which Milan could lose many friends--and, if he's not careful, his life.
In the fourteenth book of his Milan Jacovich series, Les Roberts once again delivers a dose of real Cleveland characters and settings that bring the city to life on the page.

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Good murder mystery set in Cleveland

This latest episode of hunky Milan Jacovich, the Slovenian P.I. is a great addition to the series. This time Milan is hired to investigate a murder at his own High School reunion. The dead guy turns out to be a nasty, tomcat malpracticing doctor who also abuses drugs, women (and animals) and pretty much needed killing anyway. Lots of Cleveland neighborhood color and great characters continue to make this series a must read. Unlike other popular series writers who turn out thin and bad installments to cash in on prior popularity, Les Roberts has maintained the richness of this gumshoe character. Good read!

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enjoyable whodunit

Cleveland based private investigator Milan Jacovich wonders where the time went since he graduated from St. Clair High School; as he attends the fortieth reunion gala. As he muses over who attended that he never would have bet on coming and who did not that he would have considered a sure shot to attend, a heated loud argument breaks out between cardiologist Dr. Phil Kohn and playwright Tommy Wiggins ending with the latter tossing his drink into the former's face.

Not long after that Kohn is found murdered; shot in the parking lot. For obvious reasons, police Sergeant Matusen assumes Wiggins to be a person of interest. Wiggins hires attorney Ben Magruder, wife of classmate Danielle, to defend him; both attended the reunion, but left before the brawl. Magruder hires Jacovich to investigate though he understands the sleuth like anyone at the gala including the lawyer is also a suspect. Milan begins interviewing his classmates with many attendees having strong motives to kill Kohn, still universally considered a "snotnose" four decades since they graduated.

Though lacking the twists and spins that the Jacovich's mysteries contain, KING OF THE HOLLY HOP is an enjoyable whodunit with a deep realistic look at Cleveland now and a nostalgic surreal look at the city in the 1960s though the distorted lens of memories. There are obviously a lot of suspects as Magruder points out when he hires Jacovich that anyone at the gala could be the killer. Although the investigation is not the strongest, fans of the series will enjoy this entry as the audience meets people from the sleuth's teen years and through their recollections see another side of the hero.

Harriet Klausner

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Les Roberts still has the touch

In this, the 14th in the Milan Jacovich series, Les Roberts still shows his mastery of the mystery genre. The plotting, characters, sense of place and suspense remain taut. Fans will forbear as there is a lot of repetition of former books and characters. The background only adds richness to the series in my opinion.

As usual, there is much more to this book than "who done it". Milan's musings about making peace with the past, growing older, the nature of friendship, social class and race relations are deep. He also has a nice way with a phrase that makes the reading smooth as butter.

King of the Holly Hop is Les Roperts most topical book, touching on some of the ethnical breaches at the world renown Cleveland Clinic that have made the news in recent years.

Most of all, King of the Holly Hop makes for pleasurable summer reading. I sincerely hope there will be a 15th Milan Jacovich mystery in the future.

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