Looking For a Good Book

Jarrod Jarvis is a former child television star in Hollywood. Now he lives in Palm Springs where he writes and directs for the local community theatre. Every day Jarrod quietly mourns the loss of his partner, a former police detective, Charlie.

Jarrod tries to maintain a positive outlook, especially for his adult daughter, Liv. Liv is working toward a criminal justice degree. Her relationship with Jarrod has been rough, especially since Charlie’s death. Liv is currently Zel, a young, ambitious documentary filmmaker. Zel’s current project is to track down the surrogate mother who gave birth to Liv. Liv is getting cold feet on the project but Zel is ignoring her.

 Liv’s life is turned upside when Zel is murdered. Jarrod is at Liv’s side as soon as humanly possible to support his daughter. Using her criminal justice skills, Liv begins to investigate Zel’s death. She is surprised at her father’s history of solving murders in Hollywood some twenty years ago. Together, the father/daughter duo look to solve the mystery of Zel’s murder.

There’s a lot to like about this Queer cozy. Give me a setting in a theatre or a character who has a theatre career or background, and I’m immediately interested. This isn’t the main focus of the story, but this aspect of Jarrod’s character is written well and gives some depth to his character rather than rely on a child-star stereotype.

The father/daughter duo as unlikely amateur detectives is nicely handled. There’s a sweetness about them working together that is right on target for a cozy mystery. The balance in their skills works well.

Having a gay main character is not something I look for, but it doesn’t bother me either. There’s nothing here that works or doesn’t work because of Jarrod’s sexual orientation, with the possible exception of Liv having a surrogate mother (but that could have been with a cis couple who couldn’t conceive). It’s simply a facet of his character.

There is something interesting about the history of this book. Because of Jarrod’s history solving murders, I got the sense there was more to it. This is marked as the first book in a new series, BUT … I did a little digging and discovered that there is a three book Jerrod Jarvis Mystery series (also published by Kensington) by Rick Copp. Looking at the author page on Goodreads for Lee Hollis, the author of this book, I see that “Lee Hollis” is a pen name used by both Rick Copp and his sister, Holly Simason. Suddenly it makes sense to me – there IS a history to Jarrod Jarvis’s murder solving. Clever Hollis/Copp, clever.

Looking for a good book? My Father Always Finds Corpses by Lee Hollis is the first book in a clever, cute, father/daughter amateur detective cozy mystery series.

I received a digital copy of this book from the publisher, through Netgalley, in exchange for an honest review.

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My Father Always Finds Corpses

author: Lee Hollis

publisher: Kensington Cozies

ISBN: 9781496738929

hardcover, 288 pages