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Up Yours!
Ted Milo, until recently the Charles Dickens of obit writers, is dislodged from his carefree new life by a bizarre collision of homicides and hemorrhoids in the fancy Los Angeles suburb of Friendly Lake. Actually...not so friendly, Ted and his wife, Liv, soon discover. Ted has ditched his long newspaper career to embrace the gaudy noveau riche lifestyle he'd always ridiculed after inheriting a fortune from a distant relative. He is floating blissfully, contemplating the fruits of wealth, little on his fiftyish mind beyond bladder control, when a visit to a physician turns him into a sleuth with cold-blooded murders to solve. "You're doing this why, because the Navy SEALS aren't hiring?" chides Liv when learning she's now married to Sam Spade. "And your dream of playing center field for the Dodgers--dashed?" Every gumshoe requires a "tomato," though, and Liv is Ted's when bodies hit the slab in this twisty mystery that explores the warty underside of outwardly tranquil suburbia.
414 pages, Paperback
First published November 15, 2013
7 people want to read
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Displaying 1 - 4 of 4 reviews
February 9, 2014
Get ready to laugh out loud! Never has a murder mystery filled with so much mayhem been so funny! Up Yours! By Howard Rosenberg is proof that everyone needs a hobby when they retire, it makes life so much better! Ted is a recently retired Obituary Writer, thanks to a large inheritance from his deceased uncle. What to do with his life now? It came to Ted during a visit to his proctologist, as they chatted through the exam. Why not be a PI? Instantly he gets his first case as Brownie (his proctologist), asks Ted to look into the drowning death of Sam Fine, a pharmacist, who may have been depressed over the prospect of having Alzheimer’s. Is Sam’s death in Friendly Lake a suicide or is there something nefarious going on in their friendly suburban town? With his own “tomato,” Liv, by his side, they stumble through their own brand of private investigating that will bring tears of laughter to your eyes!
Howard Rosenberg’s sense of timing, placing the perfect banter and dialogue in some of the most unlikely places creates the mood for a fast-paced, light-hearted look at one couple’s life as super-sleuths extraordinaire!
I received a review copy from the author via CTC Tours in exchange for my honest review.
Publication Date: November 15, 2013
Publisher: Howard Rosenberg
ISBN-13: 978-1490550961
Genre: Adult Fiction/Mystery
Number of Pages: 414
Available from: Amazon | Barnes & Noble
Howard Rosenberg’s sense of timing, placing the perfect banter and dialogue in some of the most unlikely places creates the mood for a fast-paced, light-hearted look at one couple’s life as super-sleuths extraordinaire!
I received a review copy from the author via CTC Tours in exchange for my honest review.
Publication Date: November 15, 2013
Publisher: Howard Rosenberg
ISBN-13: 978-1490550961
Genre: Adult Fiction/Mystery
Number of Pages: 414
Available from: Amazon | Barnes & Noble
December 21, 2020
I won this self-published book, about a couple acting as amateur sleuths, in a giveaway several years ago. It ended up being a very strange, mixed bag. The plot was actually quite engaging. I didn't see the ending coming and always wanted to know what happened next. The voice of our narrator was strong, unique, and consistent. I mostly enjoyed his banter with his wife. Unfortunately, there were also a few major flaws, the most unforgivable of which was the inability of the main characters and the narrator to talk about trans people politely. Trans people were misgendered, weirdly sexualized, and in one case, even described as having misled people by not revealing their own private medical history. It was incredible how badly wrong the author got this. Descriptions of women and people of color were hit or miss as well, as was the humor. The humor around women in particular often became cruel or condescending, while in general, the humor could be too crude for my taste. The humor did sometimes work for me, managing to be both funny and insightful, but overall, this book had too many problems for me to enjoy it.This review was originally posted on Doing Dewey
December 7, 2013
When a man who's professed a fear of the water is found dead in Friendly Lake, recent retiree Ted Milo takes a stab at the case. With skills honed from reading lots of Raymond Chandler and watching plenty of film noir, Ted and his ‘tomato’, Liv, start digging into Sam Fine’s death. Before you can say ‘hot water,’ Ted and Liv are up to their eyeballs in suspects. This fast-paced ‘whodunit’ is the debut novel by Pulitzer Prize-winning journalist, Howard Rosenberg. Rosenberg brings the underbelly of suburban Friendly Lake to life, and his protagonists, Ted and Liv Milo, make a wonderful modern-day Nick and Nora Charles. Full of wit, a great cast of characters, and twists and turns galore, Rosenberg’s maiden voyage into the world of fiction is a resounding success. I'm already looking forward to Rosenberg's next mystery
January 2, 2015
Crime is Hilarious in 'Up Yours' - Click here for the review.
Displaying 1 - 4 of 4 reviews