In the 1980s, Jarrod Jarvis was a child sitcom star; now he's playing detective in My Father Always Finds Corpses, credited to Lee Hollis (sibling writing team Rick Copp and Holly Simason). The novel is a spoofy comedy-mystery hybrid that makes fine use of three sitcom mainstays: the generation gap, droll misunderstandings, and the pulling of heartstrings.
The middle-aged Jarrod is living in Palm Springs and still grieving his 10-years-dead husband. Meanwhile, Jarrod's adult daughter, Liv, who shares the novel's point of view, is dating a filmmaker, Zel, who wants to make a documentary in which Liv reconnects with her surrogate mother. Although Liv is ambivalent, Zel forces a meeting between the two women. Zel's manipulation angers Liv, but before she can break up with him, she finds him in his studio with his head bashed in. Who better to investigate the murder than Liv, who has some criminal justice classes under her belt, and Jarrod, who has guest-starred on TV crime dramas (and, for that matter, has starred in three other Jarrod Jarvis mysteries, all by Copp)?
With its telegenic handful of suspects propelling a tidy mystery, My Father Always Finds Corpses favorably recalls a lighthearted TV detective show. The novel's humor often comes at Jarrod's expense, as when his cluelessness sabotages a potential new romance. Then there's his fixation on the past--not just the glory days of his acting career but the TV shows of that era, which he references with occasionally conversation-stopping regularity (Liv: "You're such a dork, Dad"). --Nell Beram, author and freelance writer