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Murder... Suicide... Whatever...
by Gwen Freeman
Product Group: Book
Publisher: Capital Crime Press (2007-03-15)
ISBN: 0977627616
EAN: 9780977627615
Dewy Decimal #: 813.6
Paperback: 270 pages
SKU: 07120296
Condition: Very Good As issued
Comments: Trade Paperback. Advance Reading Copy in very good plus condition. No marks and two small diagonal creases in front cover.Very nice book
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Editorial Reviews
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Product Description
Fifi Cutter is an acerbic, bi-racial twenty-something, with family issues and a delightfully cynical world view. Just fired from her boring, but steady job at Colchester Casualty, she is barely making it as an independent insurance adjustor when her freeloading half-brother, Bosco Dorff, shows up with the news that their Uncle Ted has been murdered. Fifi is hired to investigate. Ted was an insurance broker to the starsporn stars. Posing as grief counselors, Fifi and Bosco interrogate a colorful array of suspects, including Teds smoking hot mistress, his portly assistant, and his deadly competition, Corazon Villareal. Fifi zips around LA to check out the various and vaguely guilty suspects -- all classic LA characters. When Bosco disappears, however, Fifi is catalysed into immediate action, finding the unlikely killer and gaining an unlikely accomplice.
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Customer Reviews
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A genuine mystery.
Rating  (5)
Date: 2008-07-06
1 out of 1 customers found this reveiw helpful
Fifi Cutter, a freelance insurance adjuster overwhelmed with bills and unappetizing relatives, finds her no-good half brother, Bosco, at the door one day. Bosco brings news of Uncle Ted's death and insists that it was murder.
Fifi doesn't believe it. Uncle Ted died inside his office, "locked" with birthday decorations taped across the door by coworkers. The fragile tissue paper was neither ripped nor re-taped, and the coroner said that Uncle Ted had a heart attack.
But Bosco insists it was murder, and so does Eddie, Uncle Ted's colleague. Eddie is a bit smarmy, but he hires Fifi and Bosco to find the killer. Fifi doesn't quite believe there is a killer to be found, but she really believes in the money Eddie offered.
Thus ensues a true, classic, old-fashioned (although the context is modern) locked room murder mystery. There are suspects aplenty, clues gradually unfold throughout the story, and the identity of the murderer is unknown until the final chapter.
This is why I gave the story 5 stars. Most modern authors do a poor job with mysteries - either we know throughout the story the identity of the murderer, or there is a murder at the beginning of the book, the identity revealed at the end of the book, and god awful filler about "relationships" and "character development" in between. When I read a mystery, I want it to be a mystery.
In addition to the mystery, there is some good humor along the way. Some of it is trying too hard, but the author comes up with a number of trenchant one-liners.
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A Fun Mystery Full of Eccentric Characters
Rating (5)
Date: 2008-05-27
1 out of 1 customers found this reveiw helpful
Being my first Fifi Cutter Mystery, I was thrilled to discover that this is a book in a series written by Gwen Freeman. Fifi presents a very engaging character. She tries to do what it is right, however, she lets her estranged half brother, Bosco, suck her into pretending to be an investigator to help solve the mystery of who might have killed their "Uncle Ted." They really don't have an Uncle Ted, however, Bosco manages to get Fifi to work with him because she desperately needs the money. Pretending to be an investigator is one thing, however, when Fifi gets sucked into pretending to be a grief counselor, it gets pretty funny. What better way to solve a potential murder mystery, assuming of course that Uncle Ted was actually murdered?
The pot really gets stirred up when other murders occur and Fifi's own life becomes endangered. Having to deal with the low life's that Uncle Ted dealt with from the porn industry, is dangerous, yet strangely entertaining.
I totally enjoyed reading this novel by Gwen Freeman. She has a talent for quickly capturing your interest and taking you along for the ride. This novel will make you laugh out loud. I am so happy that I found a great new author.
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Waiting for next Fifi adventure
Rating (5)
Date: 2008-02-26
1 out of 1 customers found this reveiw helpful
Enjoyed every page. Fifi Cutter is not your typical heroine, but her personality is very well written and her sense of humor and sarcasm likable, rather than not. I also felt her family relationships have so much potential for future adventures. I can't wait to visit Fifi again. Thank you Gwen Freeman.
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Competition for Stephanie
Rating  (4)
Date: 2007-10-20
1 out of 1 customers found this reveiw helpful
If you like Stephanie Plum, you will like Fifi Cutter. There is even a vehicle blown up, and a collection of relatives.
Fifi Cutter is an independent insurance investigator after being fired by the company where she worked. She lives in a house she inherited from her father, but has no furniture. She is driving an ugly orange pickup that she borrowed from a man who is working overseas. She stuggles to survive in Los Angeles. Her half-brother Bosco Dorff shows up on her doorstep and forces his way in. He is an unemployed mooch, and needs a place to stay. Bosco gets her involved in an investigation of the death of "Uncle Ted" - not really an uncle, but more like a godparent of Bosco.
Ted worked for an insurance broker, and the case is complicated as Fifi and Bosco become involved in the activities of the firm, and the love lives of various people. Bosco looks at a memorial service as a place to get free food, but he is inventive about finding ways to get money, get food, or even get an automobile.
Additional people are killed as the investigation proceeds. It would be hard to make a case against the killer, but there is more than one way to skin a cat.
Fifi and the author live in the same neighborhood, so the locality for the novel is well researched. It is good light reading for a rainy evening. It is divided into 46 chapters, so it is a good book for commuters.
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A Very Funny Chicklit Mystery
Rating (5)
Date: 2007-07-20
1 out of 1 customers found this reveiw helpful
Gwen Freeman debuts one of the funniest, original, mysteries in recent years with the uniquely titled Murder... Suicide...Whatever... Fifi Cutter is a mixed raced, recently unemployed, twenty-something who doesn't speak to any of her family members. This is mainly because the house she inherited from her beloved and deceased father was gutted of its furniture by her calculating social climbing mother, her policeman half-brother accuses her of stealing his share of the inheritance, and her other mooching half-brother has just shown up on her doorstep asking for shelter and help investigating the murder of their uncle, Ted Hefferman. The fact that Uncle Ted wasn't really their uncle and that they aren't investigators doesn't bother Bosco a bit, and his ever-present charm and Fifi's need for an income has them impersonating grief counselors as they navigate through the extremely murky relationships of the Obermeyer & Schlefly insurance firm. While Bosco cages free meals and tries to figure out a way to get a television, Fifi has her Truck L'Orange attacked by homeless people, her home is broken into, and someone leaves her a dismembered rat.
Fifi proves to be a vastly entertaining and likable character despite the fact that she is virtually friendless and estranged from her family. Freeman writes with a breezy style that carries the reader along with a fast-moving plot that leads to an unpredictable, yet completely appropriate, ending. Fifi's amusingly frank assessment of herself (overly frizzy hair that protects her from breaking glass, a big nose, curveless body) hides a vulnerability that peeks out despite her best attempts to hide it. Fans of Janet Evanovich will appreciate Freeman's light and fun style. Here's to hoping that the Fifi Cutter Mystery becomes a long running series the sequel soon to follow.
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