Coffin's Got the Dead Guy on the Inside

Rating:
Summary: Fun Characters, Solid Story
Review: ...The concept seemed amusing and the idea of musician who solves mysteries was something different then your average mystery novel. The story flows well and Keith Snyder snappy dialogue set a great pace for the novel.

The story is centered on Jason Kelptner a musician who on the side does some investigating for extra cash. Jason accepts a job to watch an old friend, Paul who is up to no good. Jason invites Paul to move in with him so he can keep closer tabs on him. Soon Jason and his other rommies Martin and Robert (a writer and actor) become intangles in a tecno-scam in which Paul is playing both sides of the fence. Soon bad guys with guns are showing up on Jason's doorstep demanding a computer gizmo called a "dongle". Jason and pals must find the "dongle" and figure out what it does to figure out the scam and the rest of the mystery.

The book does jump around a little and has a few too many characters. At the end you may end up wonderering who is on what side, but in total this is a very solid funny mystery. The banter between Jason, Robert and Martin is a true treat and very funny. One minor poor note is the number of spelling errors that appear in the book. Snyder should have a better editor for his caliber.

Rating:
Summary: Coffin's Got the Dead Guy on the Inside
Review: A very entertaining read. Well paced plot, interesting characters, wonderful dialog.

Rating:
Summary: Hilarious Mystery. Couldn't stop laughing.
Review: All Jason Keltner wants to do is get out of Pasadena by himself and work on composing some music, especially Untitled #23. But, with rent overdue, he agrees to watch his ex-friend Paul Reno to see what he's up to. After all, the money's not bad.

Paul is up to no good, as always. When Jason and Paul go to a party, their host falls down dead. Soon, goons are chasing the two of them; which isn't a good thing, considering Jason's beat up, almost classic car. Paul is obviously hiding something, and Jason just doesn't know who to trust. So, he enlists the help of his friends Robert and Martin. But are they in over their heads? And, if so, can they stay one step ahead of everyone who's after them?

First, the bad. This book just jumps in and never fully explains the relationships between some of the characters. I was confused for the first 30 pages or so as to who was who and why some characters were treating each other the way they were. Part of that is probably because this is the second in the series, but a little more background would have been nice.

However, once I got beyond those first 30 pages, I fell under the book's unique spell. The book was written exactly for my sarcastic, punny sense of humor, and I found myself laughing out loud at the banter between Jason, Mitch, and Robert. And the chicken wing/celery/ranch dressing debate is not to be missed. The plot starts a little slowly, but quickly picks up speed as the story progresses. While sometimes the characters seem to come too quickly, if you work at it, you can keep track of everyone and whose side they're really on.

This book requires a little extra concentration then many I normally read to keep everything straight, but it's completely worth it. Keith Snyder has earned himself a new fan, and I can't wait to catch up on Jason, Robert, and Mitch's other adventures.

Rating:
Summary: Why did the Vampire give lozenges to his bed?
Review: Because it was coffin!

Did you enjoy that joke? Because if you did, this book is right up your alley! There are plenty of puns and language gags all through this book. I read this book casually over the course of a week, and when I wasn't reading I found myself wanting to go back to the book.

The story follows our hero, Jason, as he agrees to baby-sit a not-so-nice guy he used to be friends with named Paul. I hadn't read the first book, so I had to read between the lines for a while to figure out that: The friend who hired him was a private-eye, who he had worked with once before (I assume in the previous book). He asks Jason to take Paul to a party. Hilarity ensues as Jason attempts (and somewhat fails) to keep an eye on Paul.

They go to the party and the host falls down dead. Not too long later Jason ends up a target in a chase for the mysterious dongle.

All of this takes place while Jason is trying with much difficulty to get inspired on Untitled #23 and playing gigs at the local clubs.

***Final Thoughts***
This was definately a worthwhile read. I don't know if I'll move on to other books in the series, but I was glad I read this one.

Rating:
Summary: Why did the Vampire give lozenges to his bed?
Review: Because it was coffin!

Did you enjoy that joke? Because if you did, this book is right up your alley! There are plenty of puns and language gags all through this book. I read this book casually over the course of a week, and when I wasn't reading I found myself wanting to go back to the book.

The story follows our hero, Jason, as he agrees to baby-sit a not-so-nice guy he used to be friends with named Paul. I hadn't read the first book, so I had to read between the lines for a while to figure out that: The friend who hired him was a private-eye, who he had worked with once before (I assume in the previous book). He asks Jason to take Paul to a party. Hilarity ensues as Jason attempts (and somewhat fails) to keep an eye on Paul.

They go to the party and the host falls down dead. Not too long later Jason ends up a target in a chase for the mysterious dongle.

All of this takes place while Jason is trying with much difficulty to get inspired on Untitled #23 and playing gigs at the local clubs.

***Final Thoughts***
This was definately a worthwhile read. I don't know if I'll move on to other books in the series, but I was glad I read this one.

Rating:
Summary: An absolutely perfect book, with no room for improvement
Review: I think this is just about the best thing I've ever read. Even the typeface is genius. Brilliant, brilliant, brilliant. You should buy two, because then not only can you make sure that neither eyeball feels left out while you're reading, but when you're done, you can make a stereopticon with the dustjackets.

Seriously. It's just fantastic. Superlatives cannot express how [do not insert superlative here] this book really is.

Rating:
Summary: Coffin's Got a Dead Guy...
Review: I was thoroughly entertained reading this book. I couldn't put it down, reading parts aloud to others, bursting into laughter at random intervals, and staying up late to finish.

The dynamics between Jason, Robert, and Martin just cracked me up. They've known each other long enough that they can talk in obscure code and make odd references to give each other hints on how get out of a jam, handy when you think your phone is bugged. Jason says, "You know your clock? The other way around." meaning not the 12 noon that it always flashes, but midnight. And Robert gets it. One of the characters tries a similar strategy later on, leaving a phone number that's totally wrong, but using the right clues allows the others to figure out the real number anyway.

At one point, while trying to finish a piece of music, Jason refers to the three of them naming their own stars, which are "superior to conventional constellations in that they didn't require specific stars, so no actual understanding of the night sky was necessary." Jason goes on to look for two stars, "one brighter, one dimmer, to be The Little Sister Who Does Everything You Do."

The characters us intelligent humor and $10 words that they actually know the meaning of. Their conversations are witty and hilarious, and they are smart-alecks to the extreme. Jason Keltner is my hero, and I can't wait to read more by Keith Snyder.

Rating:
Summary: Great title, but disappointing story
Review: Keith Snyder's books were recommended to me by my bookseller, so I was eager to try them out. I picked this one because I thought the title was catchy. Turns out, the title is by far the best thing about this book. What a disappointment!

COFFIN'S GOT THE DEAD GUY is the kind of book a person might write if everything they knew about life came from watching TV. In other words, it has none of the realism or aura of truth that a story needs to make it believable. You can't just rip an old plot off the "Late, Late Show," throw in a couple of computers, and call that a book.

The story is overrun with so many characters, who hardly seem any different from each other, that its tough to keep track of who is who! Their dialog, though, is even worse. The author puts sentences into his chracters mouths that real people never say. It's almost as if he was more interested in showing us he owned a dictionary than in writing real characters.

Snyder's writing is not bad on a sentence by sentence level. It's as good as you'd see in any high school creative writing class. But when its taken alltogether, it falls under its own weight.

Rating:
Summary: Present Laughter
Review: Still and again not getting his music composed, Jason rounds up the gang and pursues the solution to a more overtly life-threatening mystery. I suppose one might read this for the mystery but the musketeers' loyalty and love for each other, Jason's occasional observations on the making of art, and the narrator's sense of humor are the rewards.

Rating:
Summary: Mysteries like this are few and far between-unfortunately
Review: When you are down to chump change while living in the Pasadena area, you take any job offer that comes your way. That is why occasionally employed electronic music composer Jason Keltner reluctantly agrees to "adult-sit" Paul Reno for an old friend Norman Platt. Jason arranges for Paul, whose girlfriend just kicked him out of their place, to move into the Marengo Manor apartments.

Following his client's instructions, Jason escorts his charge to a party where he has been told by Norman to primarily observe multimedia superstar Huey Benton and any contact he has with Paul. However, the jig takes a strange twist when a drunk Huey dies in front of Jason, who wonders if this was premeditated murder that somehow involves Paul. The case turns crazier as Jason is forced to flee for his life as he suddenly gets his hands on a computer device that no one knows how to use, leaving the adult sitter to wonder if being a homeless person might be a better option than taking jobs from friends.

COFFIN'S GOT THE DEAD GUY ON THE INSIDE is a weird, quirky, but fun look at the bottom side of Pasadena and the Silicon Valley crowd. Though the story line is frothing with irony and irreverence, Keith Snyder's plot percolates with a suspenseful mystery. Jason and his two buddies (Martin and Robert) are a terrific trio, who will leave readers showing no control while remonstrating for more Keltner novels.

Harriet Klausner