{"id":3838,"date":"2020-10-22T06:52:41","date_gmt":"2020-10-22T13:52:41","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/auntagathas.com\/aa\/?p=3838"},"modified":"2020-10-22T06:52:41","modified_gmt":"2020-10-22T13:52:41","slug":"susan-cox-the-man-in-the-microwave-oven","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/auntagathas.com\/aa\/susan-cox-the-man-in-the-microwave-oven\/","title":{"rendered":"Susan Cox: The Man in the Microwave Oven"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"\"<\/a>This book will be published November 3.<\/em><\/p>\n

My husband hates the word \u201cplopped.\u201d\u00a0 I feel the same about \u201cquirky\u201d a ubiquitous word used in describing many, many cozies.\u00a0 But sometimes \u201cquirky\u201d (just like \u201cplopped\u201d) actually applies.\u00a0 In the case of Susan Cox\u2019s Theo Bogart mysteries, <\/span>I was surprised at almost every turn, and delightfully so, by the array of characters and situations presented by this obviously talented new writer<\/span>.<\/span>\u00a0<\/span>Q<\/span>uirky does apply.\u00a0\u00a0<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

This is book two in this series, the first one winning the Minotaur\/Mystery Writers of America First Crime novel award,\u00a0<\/span>and it\u2019s\u00a0<\/span>been a long time coming. The first novel,\u00a0<\/span>The Man on the Washing Machine,\u00a0<\/span><\/i>was published in 2015. Theophania Bogart is a poor little rich girl.\u00a0 She\u2019s fled a terrible family tragedy back home in England and landed in San Francisco, where she\u2019s established a comfortable new life for herself.<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

She\u2019s part of a small neighborhood within the city, and she\u2019s a small business owner.\u00a0 Her store, \u201cAromas\u201d sells high class soaps and lotions<\/span>, and her best buddy, Nat, owns a coffee shop \u201cThe Coffee\u201d down the street.\u00a0 The neighborhood is in a battle with a woman who wants to destroy their \u2013 yes, quirky \u2013 neighborhood with a tower of fancy condos.\u00a0 No one likes her.\u00a0 When\u00a0<\/span>T<\/span>heo discovers her dead in her car one morning, she\u2019s drawn into the investigation, as the woman\u2019s death seems to touch many elements of her own life.<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

This sounds like a\u00a0pretty standard\u00a0cozy set-up, really, down to the adorable, classy English grandfather who has followed Theo to San Francisco.\u00a0 When a man who appears to be a Russian priest shows up in Theo\u2019s shop looking for her grandfather shortly after the murder, and Theo reaches out to her grandfather, only to be told they must meet in person and not discuss this over the phone, the plot really becomes tricky.<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

Cox ties together\u00a0a number of\u00a0elements in this original and surprising narrative.\u00a0 She creates a cozy universe for her character \u2013 but it\u2019s San Francisco, so her universe includes a homeless man, a priest running a day shelter, her gay coffee shop owning sidekick, and an assortment of neighbors as well as her employees.\u00a0 One of them is a computer whiz (and hacker) and one is getting through high school on his own despite the best efforts of his negligent father.<\/span>\u00a0\u00a0<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

Then there\u2019s Theo\u2019s boyfriend, who is off at law school but who appears halfway through the book, stirring up all kinds of conflicting emotions<\/span>\u00a0for her.<\/span>\u00a0 Her new friends don\u2019t know about the notorious tragedy she\u2019s fled from (spelled out, again, about halfway through) and she\u2019s reluctant to expose her past and be tracked down by the world\u2019s paparazzi.\u00a0\u00a0<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

Her grandfather turns out to have a surprising past of his own which reveals itself throughout the novel, and which ties into the mystery.\u00a0 The mystery includes some body parts found in the microwave at the coffee shop, a disappearing homeless man, spies, Russian priests<\/span>, an orphanage,<\/span> and a main character who is finding herself through solving crimes.\u00a0 That last is the only actual traditional cozy element.\u00a0 Cox has more in common with, again, quirky writers like David Handler, Lawrence Block (in Bernie Rhodenbarr mode) or E.J. Copperman than she does with the more traditional cozy universe. As a twist, her dog is cranky and there\u2019s no cat to be seen<\/span>\u00a0anywhere<\/span>\u00a0(except for feral city cats).<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

As I\u00a0read\u00a0I was captivated, surprised, puzzled, delighted and all around beguiled by this book. I loved the characters, I loved the setting, I loved Theo and wanted to know more about her.\u00a0 I was impressed with the plotting which seems like a mish mash of elements until the talented Cox at last draws the threads together at the end.\u00a0 Clues were provided for the astute reader throughout, and I caught some, but not all, of them.\u00a0 What a great reading experience, one I hope will be repeated with another book sooner rather than later.<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

This book will be published November 3. My husband hates the word \u201cplopped.\u201d\u00a0 I feel the same about \u201cquirky\u201d a ubiquitous word used in describing many, many cozies.\u00a0 But sometimes \u201cquirky\u201d (just like \u201cplopped\u201d) actually applies.\u00a0 In the case of Susan Cox\u2019s Theo Bogart mysteries, I was surprised at almost every turn, and delightfully so, … Read more<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[4],"tags":[5,100,444,431,443],"class_list":["post-3838","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-reviews","tag-americancozy","tag-minotaur-books","tag-san-francisco","tag-susan-cox","tag-the-man-in-the-microwave-oven"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/auntagathas.com\/aa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3838","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/auntagathas.com\/aa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/auntagathas.com\/aa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/auntagathas.com\/aa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/auntagathas.com\/aa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=3838"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/auntagathas.com\/aa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3838\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":3839,"href":"https:\/\/auntagathas.com\/aa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3838\/revisions\/3839"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/auntagathas.com\/aa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=3838"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/auntagathas.com\/aa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=3838"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/auntagathas.com\/aa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=3838"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}