Review by Booklist Review
Veteran mystery writer Copperman, who has also written nonfiction about Asperger's syndrome, introduces Samuel Hoenig, who feels that his Asperger's makes him particularly qualified for his chosen profession answering questions for a living. Samuel sees Asperger's as a personality trait and uses his observational skills and direct-questioning approach to great advantage to discover what happened to both a murdered doctor and a missing frozen head at a cryonics institute. The detective assigned to the case, unfamiliar with murder cases, goes to Samuel for advice. The pressure to find the missing head in its preserved state generates suspense, as does the locked-room aspect of the plot. Samuel's investigation hooks readers early on, even allowing for breaks in the action when he enjoys exercise and meals with his mother. In this well-crafted story, the Asperger's element, rather than becoming a distraction, provides a unique point of view on crime-solving, as well as offering a sensitive look at a too-often-misunderstood condition.--Alessio, Amy Copyright 2014 Booklist
From Booklist, Copyright (c) American Library Association. Used with permission.
Review by Publisher's Weekly Review
This delightful and clever mystery from Copperman (The Thrill of the Haunt) introduces an unusual protagonist: Samuel Hoenig, who has learned to cope with his Asperger's syndrome sufficiently enough to open New Jersey-based firm Questions Answered. Assisted by photographer and potential client Janet Washburn, Samuel takes on a bizarre case on behalf of Dr. Marshall Ackerman: determining who stole a frozen head from the Garden State Cryonics Institute. Not helping matters, the lab's security head, "Commander" Johnson, worries more about protecting his reputation than solving the crime. The robbery is overshadowed when Dr. Rebecca Springer, one of the facility's scientists, is found murdered. Copperman (the pseudonym of Jeff Cohen) overemphasizes investigating officer Det. Glendon Lapides's ineptitude, presumably to make Samuel's peculiar genius shine through all the more. What works best, though, is that the book doesn't shrink from depicting Samuel's idiosyncrasies-they are simply part of who he is. (Oct.) (c) Copyright PWxyz, LLC. All rights reserved.
(c) Copyright PWxyz, LLC. All rights reserved
Review by Kirkus Book Review
Copperman/Cohen introduce a detective who brings something extra to his investigations: Asperger's syndrome. Before it was dropped from the fifth edition of the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders, Asperger's was an increasingly popular diagnosis given to people displaying a constellation of behaviors often associated with autisminflexible thinking, reduced ability to read social cues, constricted range of interestbut whose cognitive and linguistic functioning are generally better than those of autistic folks. So it's hardly surprising to see a new series whose investigator has Asperger'sthough Samuel Hoenig would be first to insist that his condition is not an affliction; it's a difference rather than a defect. Samuel was diagnosed at 16 under the old DSM IV, and he wears his Asperger's as a badge of honor. He constantly marvels at his ability to understand others while maintaining his own idiosyncratic take on the world. And the person he understands the best, other than his beloved mother, is Janet Washburn, a would-be client of Samuel's question-answering service in Piscataway, New Jersey, called, with typical Asperger logic, Questions Answered. Ms. Washburn, as Samuel prefers to call her, soon proves herself invaluable, smoothing Samuel's path with other clients, including Marshall Ackerman, chief administrator at Garden State Cryonics Institute. Ackerman wants Samuel to find a misplaced, cryogenically preserved body part, which Samuel agrees to do as soon as Ackerman rephrases his request as a question: "Who stole one of our heads?" The discovery of a body in the cryonic storage chambernot one of GSCI's clients, but a staff memberups the ante, posing a question Samuel may not be equipped to answer. Copperman, who as Jeff Cohen has written nonfiction (The Asperger Parent, 2002, etc.), tackles a challenging task: presenting the inner life of someone whose inner life is by nature opaque to others. His focus seriously limits Samuel's power as an effective sleuth rather than a poster-boy for early intervention. Copyright Kirkus Reviews, used with permission.
Copyright (c) Kirkus Reviews, used with permission.
