Steve Demaree

When homicide detectives, Lt. Cy Dekker and Lou Murdock, are called to the home of the late Mrs. Nelson. All the houses on the street are high class, off the road, with 52 steps each to climb. They find that someone has poisoned her. With about a dozen kooky suspects - the detectives start their investigation. We have the loving granddaughter, the grocery delivery boy, the mailman, the lawyer, the neighborhood snoop times 2, the war veteran with ptsd and his mother; among a few others.
I show more found the characters and story funny, entertaining and a bit surprising. I enjoyed the word play between the two detectives. Also Cy and his neighbor, who seems to be a little bit of a stalker. I (unlike some reviewers) didn't find anything wrong with the detectives teasing each other and themselves about their age, weight, and fitness level. I can actually see myself climbing those steps, stopping to breathe, and making a comment like " Wow, do I need to get in shape." or " I'm too old for this." So I don't see the problem other reviewers have with this.
I think Mr. Demaree did a great job. I found no typos (great use of the English language and punctuation). great plot, excellent characters, nice flow throughout, and keeps you guessing (and changing your mind) until the end.
I recommend this book to anyone who likes a good murder mystery with a touch of humor. show less

Murder at the art and craft fair, by Steve Demaree, is told with great voice and pitch perfect dialog. It’s a fun ramble combined with cool mystery, as a close-to-retirement cop, of a certain age and weight, embarks on dating, dieting, and solving heinous crime. The nonsense chatter between him and his colleague doesn’t make for fast reading, but it’s certainly fun and intriguing. Soon though, these two cops are down at their wits end with no resolution in sight. Luckily they’ve got show more their trusty girlfriends to help, and some nighttime premonitions – not that dreams really offer much in the way of aid. And not that unplanned bakery stops aid in cutting crime or calories.

It’s a fun tale, relaxed, and filled with one-liners, two-liners and more; a great way to read your way through some donuts and coffee too.

Disclosure: It was free and I couldn’t resist. show less

Lt. Cy Dekker, the head of homicide for the Hilldale Police Department and his partner and friend, Sgt. Lou Murdock, have a murder to solve on Hilltop Place and at one point it seemed possible that there could be as many victims as suspects. In describing the pair, I can only comment that they are not the usual pair of homicide detectives I've encountered in my reading prior to this novel.

I enjoyed their recollections of television commercials in particular but readers in a different age show more group may not see the humor that Cy and Lou bring to their daily conversations and coping mechanisms for off-duty pleasures to unwind and refresh for a new day of murder investigation.

Overall, I felt it's a slow paced reading experience. In many mysteries, law enforcement doesn't even seem to eat let alone take a few minutes to stop at home, shower and change, and be back on the job. Cy and Lou definitely march to the beat of their matched set of drums.

I don't give spoilers but I will say that I still have many outstanding questions at the end of the novel as multiple suspects were missing in action about 3/4 of the way through the novel and at the end those loose ends are not tied off but sadly simply ignored.

I can't say that I'll continue reading the series but when I first began joining various Facebook groups related to reading, Steve Demaree was an author that frequently posted and commented so I wanted to read at least one of the books he authored. Goal achieved. show less

An elderly woman is found poisoned in the upstairs bedroom of her home. The door stands 52 steps above the street which shows how out of shape the detectives in this old-fashioned whodunit are. It is a cozy mystery that blends clues, red herrings, suspects, and humor.

The humor involved with the two out of shape and passing out of the times detectives is hilarious. The investigation is Holmes vs CSI, resolved by logic and reasoning with help from "scene of the crime" unit, but it is people show more driven not science driven in this murder mystery. show less