“Boswell continues his genre-defying series in this ambitious adventure…” –PUBLISHER’S WEEKLYMurder rocks the seaside town of Crab Cove, but to solve the crime, Detective Simon Grave must first deal with the curious incident of the cat in the daytime. Murder has come yet again to the seaside town of Crab Cove, testing the mettle of Detective Simon Grave, his “almost invisible” partner, Sergeant … mettle of Detective Simon Grave, his “almost invisible” partner, Sergeant Barry Blunt, and his new assistant, Charlize, a simdroid (an android lookalike of a famous person) who fancies herself a match for Sherlock Holmes, in the simulated body of Charlize Theron.
When a body is discovered on a deserted beach, alongside a deactivated Betty White simdroid, the game is afoot. Grave must not only deal with the murder, but also come to grips with a deadly prognosis for his retired detective father. The murder and his father’s illness take them on a tour of local cemeteries, including a new graveyard that features multiscreen videos celebrating the lives of the deceased.
They soon discover that the only way to solve the murder is to first deal with the curious incident of the cat in the daytime.
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Like any respectable mystery, this one starts out with a expectantly stone-cold corpse…prone on a beach, lying next to a weirdly androidal doppelganger gizmo/creature, which immediately gives you an idea in which direction this entertaining tale is headed.
This book, written with wry gumshoe humor, spits on the traditional police procedural crime genre like a parched Phillip Marlow searching for phlegm at a seedy L.A. saloon.
I heartily recommend Boswell’s second in his series of tall tales set in the town of Crab Cove, not just because of its world-weary main character Simon Grave (great name) or his sidekick, the barely visible and metaphorically camouflaged Sergeant Blunt (an even better name), but because it gives you no page-by-page expectations in terms of action, plot or character development.
The rewarding surprises come in increments both small and large in this quirky and farcical who-done-it filled with delightful weirdos, not the least of which are the “simdroid” robot duplicates of famous celebrities.
This is a funny book about the possible future with an amazing mix of people who refuse to give up old things like gas powered cars rather than the newer version of what they have for cars. Robots who are funny and interesting and slightly puzzling. The characters are are very unusual and your left to guess at what they are doing because it just seems out of place and odd…….like the choice of music the guy plays in his car.
A futuristic, dizzy, wackly peek into the minds of detecting crime. A heartfelt tribute to generational mystery writers and readers!
My first time reading this author and I love him. Science fiction isn’t what I normally read, but this guy bowled me over and I want more!
It was an interesting look at the future of solving mysteries.
Very different. Liked the first one in this series also
I picked up an advance copy of Simon Grave and the Curious Incident of the Cat in the Daytime by Len Boswell from the publisher in exchange for a fair and honest review.
And honestly – while this is my first Simon Grave book – I loved it. A wonderful combination of mystery and crime novel, with more than a generous helping of dark humor. Detective Simon Grave is called away from the Crab Cove Conference on Crime (C4) to a possible murder just outside the conference center. The body belongs to a man recently diagnosed with an incurable brain cancer. Is this just a natural death, or is there something else going on? As Grave and his nearly invisible partner, Sergeant Blunt, begin their investigation they learn that deaths in Crab Cove have been on the increase. Is their case really a murder, or is there just a statistical blip in deaths in Crab Cove? When Grave’s father tells him he’s been diagnosed with an incurable cancer as well, and is planning out is final rest at the Crab Cove Cinema Cemetery (C4), Simon must balance his father’s insistence on preparing for his inevitable demise while trying to figure out who may or may not have killed the man on the beach.
Simon Grave and the Curious Incident of the Cat in the Daytime blends subtle humor, and a whimsical setting, with a good mystery. While I was able to deduce who the killer was, for me that wasn’t as important as being able to enjoy the world that Len Boswell has created and the colorful characters that inhabit it. I really enjoyed the idea of the Crab Cover Cinema Cemetery where the dead have looping video highlights of their life playing at their graveside, complete with paid ads, and the need to have their video lives approved of through likes – social media of the dead. The population of droids all made to look like famous people (mostly actors, but a few others like politicians) ads an interesting backdrop through which the humans interact.
I recommend the Curious Incident of the Cat in the Daytime for anybody who loves to blend they mystery with a good dose of humor (often dark).
farce, law-enforcement, murder-investigation, puntastic, sardonic, satire, laugh-out-loud, laugh-riot, imaginative*****
Mel Brooks and Peter Sellers got together with P G Wodehouse and…
This book is a positive laugh riot! I had to read it twice because I was laughing so hard I couldn’t assimilate the police work! The characters are a hoot and the slightest thing I can say about it is that is is a fantastic cure for the Covid doldrums!
Mark Milroy is the accomplished voice actor who manages not to laugh his sox off while doing the audio interpretation.
Fast read, light and silly
Weird story, not at all the cute cat story that I was expecting!
Different. I enjoyed it.