My Father Always Finds Corpses by Lee Hollis: A Review by E. B. Davis

 

With a wryly witty and assured voice and a vastly entertaining cast of characters, Lee Hollis puts a modern slant on the classic murder mystery as a father-daughter sleuthing duo are drawn into a case close to home . . .

You never forget your first corpse. For former child star Jarrod Jarvis, that discovery was twenty-plus years ago, and a lot has happened since he solved a string of real-life Hollywood murders. Now Jarrod lives in Palm Springs where he writes and directs local theatre, while quietly grieving the loss of his partner, police detective Charlie.

Jarrod hasn’t disclosed much about his sleuthing past to his daughter, Liv, who just earned a degree in criminal justice. There’s been distance between them since Charlie’s death, and Jarrod’s unsure how to bridge the gap. Liv, meanwhile, has put her career on hold in order to help her filmmaker boyfriend, Zel. His new documentary idea is to track down the surrogate who gave birth to Liv. Skeptical and annoyed by Zel’s pressure tactics, Liv goes to confront him at his apartment. But there’s no need to break things off—because someone has bludgeoned Zel to death.

Jarrod rushes to Liv’s aid, surprising his daughter with his ease around a crime scene, firing off questions like a modern-day Columbo with better hair and wardrobe. Another shock is quite how many people had motive to finish Zel off—including a Russian film professor, a former First Lady, and a sexy Secret Service agent. Together, Liv and Jarrod comb for clues across the sun-drenched Coachella valley, growing close again. But while there’s nothing like murder to bring a family together, this father-daughter reunion may be short-lived as long as a killer is on the loose . . .                                                                                                                                              Amazon.com

 

Lee Hollis is a pseudonym for the brother and sister writing team of Rick Copp and Holly Simason. Rick started writing for TV in the 80s and has an extensive resume of shows that he wrote for, created, produced, and sometimes acted in, which I will not enumerate here since he started at age twenty-four fresh out of New York University. His sister, Holly, wrote a cooking column in their hometown paper, which won awards. Together, they compounded their wins. My Father Always Finds Corpses was released on May 27. It is their fourth mystery series.

 

Jarrod Jarvis, a former child star, is now near sixty. His late husband, Charlie, a LA homicide detective, died ten years ago. They had paid a surrogate to have a child. Their daughter, Liv, is now in her 20s, and both have relocated to Palm Springs, CA from LA. Jarrod is still in mourning for Charlie and hasn’t dated, a situation his friends want to change. He is also at a loss as to how to improve his relationship with Liv, who was closer with Charlie. The murder of Liv’s boyfriend provides this opportunity. His experience and professionalism make him shine in his daughter’s eyes. Some first books allude to the MC having solved murders in the past, giving them an instant reputation and precedent, which I find unnecessary and a bit annoying. In this book, it’s sort of like that as readers aren’t enlightened about this previous experience, but… 

 

There are caveats and clues in the book that glimpse back to a before, starting with the title. Jarrod can’t always find corpses if this is the first one. And in fact, it isn’t. After researching Rick, I found that he had delved into mystery writing before collaborating with his sister. In 2001, he wrote the first Jarrod Jarvis mystery, The Actor’s Guide to Murder, followed by, The Actor’s Guide to Adultery, and finally, The Actor’s Guide to Greed, the latter winning a LAMBDA Literary Award for Best Mystery. These early books are set before Jarrod and Charlie marry and have Liv, and are living together in LA. It is wonderful to find that the harkening back to previous murder solving is actually substantiated by these books. Unfortunately, the illustrious prequels haven’t been digitalized and are quite expensive to buy. So, although they would be interesting to read, I probably won’t unless someone reissues them. Hint! Hint!

 

As you can imagine, the writing is stellar. However, unlike the other series written by Lee Hollis, these books have no cooking component and are without recipes. That’s the only negative! The secondary characters are memorable and include a gay couple and a former First Lady of the US, now a widow living in Palm Springs and a friend of Jarrod’s. Seeing Jarrod and Liv’s relationship blossom while investigating murder shows that future books may turn this sequel into the start of a new series. We can only hope so.