Fran and Ken Stein, are private investigators. They also happen to be the children of renegade scientists (currently on the run), and as such are blessed with extraordinary height, strength, abilities, and a need to physically recharge every so often.

When a job to find a rare ukulele goes bad at the same time a lead to finding their own parents turns up dead, Fran and Ken find themselves at the centre of murky plots an kidnapping attempts.

This was a fun read. In the style of hard-boiled detective, but with more than a healthy dash of dry humour, the story is told from Fran's perspective (giving us plenty of digs at her sibling) as she breaks the fourth wall and narrates a week in her life, from the ukuleke research and the supposed dates with the local police detective, to the requirements to charge and casual acknowledgements of her difference from other people. Frankenstein's monster meets Dick Tracy. (And I just now realised the Frankenstein pun!)

I did find the very end a little plot-holey, and had to go back to fill in gaps, but overall it was a rollicking tale of non-stop intrigue and humour.

~Many thanks to NetGalley for a copy of this book in exchange for an honest review~

This is the story of siblings who are private investigators. Normally, I adore murders, mystery and suspense but this book absolutely grated on me. Saving grace is that it didn't take me very long to read.

I'm not sure if it was the sci-fi element which was eye rollingly bad, or the attempt of wit and humour which was irritating.

Repetition is annoying throughout the book. The constant 'Fran is tall and strong' I get it, she's genetically engineered, STOP BLEATING ON ABOUT IT.

I love a series, however I won't be reading the next in line.

Thank you Netgalley for allowing me to read this for an honest review.

Ukulele of Death is a highly quirky but entertaining read, amusingly combining parody-pastiche of classic American noir (think Raymond Chandler, Dashiel Hammett and Mickey Spillane) with a modern day NYC setting and light sci-fi plotline.

New York City private detective duo Fran and Ken Stein are siblings, whose mutual fondness, irritations and rivalries infiltrate their work lives on a daily basis. However, as observant readers might glean from their names, the Steins aren't quite like the rest of us. While they both have the appearance of "normal" - albeit somewhat Amazonian - human beings, they possess heightened abilities that aid in their investigations, the downside being their need to "plug in" via USB cord to the underarm every couple of days to recharge.

Fran and Ken are engaged by Evelyn Bannister to identify and locate the mysterious father she has never known, the only clue a rare Gibson "Poinsettia" ukulele that he may once have owned. What follows is a madcap adventure through the streets of New York, two suspicious deaths, an off-street abduction and various shady characters who seem to be attempting to prevent Fran and Ken getting to the bottom of the mystery. Who really is Evelyn Bannister, what is the significance of the ukulele, and why are Fran and Ken suddenly being targeted for so much unwanted attention?

While it took me a few chapters to get my head around what was going on with Fran and Ken's bizarre origins and crazy lives, I enjoyed the humour and (deliberately) overblown drama of the story. At times the threads of the underlying mystery seemed to become quite tangled, but all was clarified by the end. Fran and Ken make unusual but lovable protagonists, with a well-developed sibling relationship and plenty of great repartee. I look forward to reading further instalments in the series.

My thanks to the author, E.J. Copperman, publisher Severn House, and NetGalley for the opportunity to read and review this title.

I hadn’t read the blurb on this one, so didn’t appreciate that it was a new series until I opened it up. Not that I was initially all that concerned – after all, Copperman’s previous sure-footed writing style and deft handling of the humour alongside the action in the Sandy Moss series meant I was thoroughly looking forward to this one.

However, as the story wore on, I wasn’t bonding with the main protagonist, Fran. And that was something of a problem because the story is told in first-person viewpoint. While I really enjoyed Sandy’s asides and tendency to rush into things in the Jersey Girl Legal Series – Fran’s constant snark about her brother felt less like affectionate exasperation and more like an annoyed sister who wanted her brother out of her life. There was also a great deal of telling, rather than showing. The paranormal aspect of the story didn’t really convince me, either.

The murder mystery was initially well set up, but I felt the pace did drop somewhat two-thirds through the story, when random figures show up to attack the siblings. What should have nocked the pace and tension up several notches rather fell flat. I wasn’t sure about the romantic element, as I found Fran’s dithering about whether to go on a date or not with the long-suffering Mank annoying. She’s not a teenager and I wanted her to stop behaving like one. That said, Copperman’s experience and skill shows in the smooth prose, succession of likely suspects and the steady accretion of clues such that I wasn’t ever tempted to abandon this one. For starters, I was sufficiently hooked that I really wanted to know whodunit.

The final denouement did work well – and for the first time in the story I truly believed that Fran was in real danger. I will certainly get hold of the next book – it sometimes takes a couple of books for a series to hit its stride and I know Copperman is a talented, able author. While I obtained an arc of Ukulele of Death from the publishers via Netgalley, the opinions I have expressed are unbiased and my own.
7/10

Ukulele of Death: A Fran and Ken Stein Mystery
By E.J. Copperman
Severn House
May 2023

Review by Cynthia Chow

K&F Stein Investigations are not your usual private detective agency. After having gotten her Master’s degree in criminal justice, Fran Stein convinced her slightly older brother to invest and join her in creating a business specializing in finding the birth parents of their clients. They are themselves orphans who barely remember the parents who were killed in a car accident, leaving them to be raised by their “aunt” Margie in New Jersey. Ken is also unusually strong – like really strong - while Fran herself towers at over six feet and is an expert in at least three forms of martial arts. Oh, and they also have USB ports in their sides that require charging every few days or they become exhausted.

That is the first hint that this is anything but your usual private detective mystery, even though it otherwise has Fran and Ken Stein (yes, sound it out) following a path to track down a rather unorthodox Maltese Falcon. Evelyn Bannister has come to them asking for help in tracking down a Gibson Poinsettia ukulele, one that she believes was once owned by her birth father. She hopes that the ukulele will lead them to clues about her father, and it’s a puzzle that Fran and Ken are unable to resist solving. That was even before learning about the auction that has the ukulele being sold for $1.2 million dollars, an absurdly overpriced amount that stirs up even more questions about Evelyn and her quest. When Fran and Ken find Evelyn done in by a candlestick and lying next to an empty ukulele case, this twisted game of Clue veers again and takes the Steins into an unexpected direction. Soon Fran finds herself kidnapped, nearly dissected, and harassed by the police, not to mention making discoveries that dismantles everything she thought she knew about her parents.

Despite the sci-fi elements, this first in the series is more detective noir in nature as the investigating duo encounter henchmen, false identities, and mysterious billionaires. Their business card being found on a doctor implicates Fran another death, an unfortunate situation that gives readers the pleasure of having her interact with an assortment of New Jersey police detectives. While one misogynistic cop definitely pushes the boundaries with his nicknaming Fran as “Gargantua,” the height-challenged Detective Richard “Mank” Mankiewicz isn’t put off by her PI status nor that she towers over him as he asks her out on dates. Their blossoming relationship is a charming surprise and adds yet another entraining element to this unique and well-crafted mystery. Expect the unexpected in this new series by a very prolific and experienced writer, who having mastered the cozy, paranormal, and amateur detective genres dips his toe into the realm of science fiction. The mystery and detective elements still dominate the novel, and readers will enjoy this reliable author’s use of witty banter, sharp pop culture observations, and twists on classic mystery tropes. The mythology about Fran and Ken’s origin is gradually introduced in such a realistic manner that readers will be looking forward to joining them as they learn more about their extraordinary and compelling creation.

I am a huge E.J. Copperman fan so when this book came out, I jumped on the chance to read it. Sure, his books tend to be different but that’s what I appreciate and what sets them apart in the cozy mystery genre. This one, however, did not work for me. It has the same trademark humor and quirky characters but the story didn’t draw me in and I found myself not reaching for the book to see what happened next. This was a DNF for me, for now. I may go back to it later and try again but this was not for me.

E. J. Copperman’s mysteries are never banal or predictable. When you start reading you know that the characters will be well developed and the mystery solid.
And the plot will feature something very original that will make you love the story.
This is the weirdest of all and one of the funniest I read this year. There’s a lot of humour and it could be called a cozy speculative mystery or a sci-fi cozy mystery.
The definition it’s up to you, I thoroughly enjoyed the story and there were some details that made me laugh loud.
There’s always a more serious side about the origin of Fran and Ken even if it’s packed in humour.
A solid mystery with some weird twists and a lot of surprises. I loved the solution and hope to read soon other stories featuring these characters.
Highly recommended.
Many thanks to Severn House for this arc, all opinions are mine.

Ukulele of Death is the first book in a new SF(ish) mystery series by pseudonymous author E.J. Copperman. Released 2nd May 2023 by Severn House, it's 284 pages and is available in hardcover and ebook formats. It's worth noting that the ebook format has a handy interactive table of contents as well as interactive links. I've really become enamored of ebooks with interactive formats lately.

This is a tongue in cheek lightly humorous mystery opener with a brother/sister pair of private investigators who aren't entirely human, but not entirely robot either. There are quirky aspects which are never really explored, such as them having to plug in to recharge occasionally (but not consistently). There's also endless repartee around their physical appearance, Fran is remarkably tall, and the author never lets an opportunity pass to comment on it.

The plot and investigative puzzles are pretty well constructed and the writing is entertaining and lighthearted. The humor will be hit or miss for most readers. I found it repetitive and trying in places. I did love the premise of semi-human super intelligent created protagonists and thought the background and world building for the overarching evil-shadow-corporation back-story was intriguingly done.

Four stars. Odd but eminently readable; tries too hard to be funny in some places. Credible plot and well executed.

Disclosure: I received an ARC at no cost from the author/publisher for review purposes

2.5 stars
2.5 stars

Pro:
* Combines elements of cozy mystery and private eye genres
* Humor

Con:
* Strange sci-fi angle instead of the paranormal in some of Copperman’s other works
* So very slow, hard to stay with it

Thank you to E.J. Copperman, Severn House, and NetGalley for an advance reader copy in exchange for an honest review.

E.J. Copperman has developed several entertaining and popular series. You can always depend on him to create some interesting and off-beat characters, which only adds to the enjoyment of his books. But, his latest book Ukulele of Death is one of the most unusual of all.

Fran and Ken are siblings and colleagues. Fran owns a detective agency and her brother is her investigative arm. For very personal reasons they specialize in finding parents of their clients. Most of the time their investigations are fairly straight-forward but with their latest case they become embroiled in the possible theft of a rare ukulele, hidden identities, murder, kidnapping, and the list goes on.

This book is intriguing in that the secrets that Fran and Ken have are just as interesting and…shall we say unusual…as the case they are trying to resolve. Their sibling relationship and their relationship with the aunt who raised them is so much part of the story and makes it all that more enjoyable. There’s a lot going on in this first book and I liked the fact that it not only kept my attention but it also made me keep track of all the moving parts. Mr Copperman’s humor is subtle (I like it!), the plot is well-conceived, and the dialogue is enjoyable. All the parts in this book work to create a story that I thoroughly enjoyed. I’m looking forward to more of Fran and Ken.

Many thanks to NetGalley and the publisher for providing a copy of this book for review.

Fran and Ken aren't your typical PIs. For one thing, they're both on the larger size and need to plug in every few days. The siblings specialize in finding parents for adoptees but end up embroiled in looking for an over-priced ukelele as they try to track down who murdered a client (after all, her retainer check had cleared before she was killed). This was fun to read and I hope that there's more to come in the Fran and Ken Stein series.!

Thanks to Severn House for access to a digital ARC on NetGalley.

I loved this! A fun noir style book with several twists. I didn't really know what to expect but if you pick up this book you will be charmed.

Ukulele of Death by E. J. Copperman is a contemporary mystery. After losing their parents when they were just babies, private investigators Fran and Ken Stein now specialize in helping adoptees find their birth parents. So when a client asks them for help finding her father, with her only clue a rare ukulele, the case is a little weird, sure, but it's nothing they can't handle. But soon Fran and her brother are plunged into a world where nothing makes sense - and not just the fact that a very short (but very cute) NYPD detective keeps trying to take eternal singleton Fran out on dates. All Fran wants to do is find the ukulele and collect their fee, but it's hard to keep your focus when you're stumbling over corpses and receiving messages that suggest your (dead) parents are very much alive. Ukuleles aside, it's becoming clear that someone knows something they shouldn't - that Fran and Ken Stein weren't so much born, as built.

Ukulele of Death is a mystery that is full of surprises and twists. I loved the tongue in cheek commentary by Fran through the entire book, and that even that characters I thought I had a handle on surprised me more than once. I liked the set up and slow reveal about what makes Fran and Ken so special, and found their relationship with each other and those around them to be well done and engaging. There were some great clues, and some red herrings, that kept me guessing through out the read. There was also a sense of humor and fun to the read, so that even when I was worried about Fran and what twist might be on the next page I never dreaded the danger involved in the reveal. I really enjoyed the read and will be looking for more from the author.

Ukulele of Death is an entertaining and well written mystery. I am hoping to read more about these characters.

What a fun read! Humor, mystery, and a dash of sci-fi combine to make a sure-fire hit.

In Ukelele of Death , author E. J. Copperman introduces us to a new crime-solving duo -- brother and sister Fran and Ken Stein.

The characters play out the true love and drive-you-crazy aspect of any sibling relationship but with a secret bond and I'm not talking about their Private Investigation business helping people find birth parents. Their names are your first clue.

I imagined Fran, as the hilarious British actress Miranda Hart, whose self-titled series forever broke the fourth wall, telling viewers how she really felt. Ken, I see as a cross between Arnold Schwarzenegger and Steve Howey, who started out as the goofy football player son-in-law on Reba and now, almost 20 years later, playing Schwarzenegger's role in the TV version of True Lies.

This is my first time reading Copperman, known for both his Haunted Guesthouse and Jersey Girl Legal Mystery series.

He hooked me with the very first line. Not only was I intrigued with Fran and the mystery from the onset, he introduced the rich supporting characters as the plot twisted and turned, offering satisfying chuckles all along the way.

I highly recommend Ukelele of Death to anyone looking for a new cozy series and an enjoyable, light beach read.

I received this advance reader copy from Simon & Schuster, courtesy of NetGalley. This review is fair and impartial.

Thank you Netgalley and Severn House for access to this arc.

I was in the mood to read another murder mystery and saw this cover. Well … it’s kind of hard to miss it. The bizarre set up made me think it could be fun and why not try something new. I liked parts of it but mainly stuck with it just to see how much more convoluted it could get and why someone would pay $1.2 million for a ukulele.

Honestly this plot has more moving parts than a Rube Goldberg invention and at times makes even less sense. Fran and Ken Stein (get it, Frankenstein?) were “made” decades ago by two brilliant people – a scientist and a surgeon. Their “parents” were supposed to have died when the two were children, leaving them to the care of “Aunt Marge.” Now all grown up they are tall, strong, have hearing ability that cats would envy, and senses of humor that apparently haven’t changed since they were six and eight.

Fran has badgered Ken into joining with her to start a private investigative agency focusing on finding the real parents of adopted children. A woman comes to the office requesting that they help her find her real father and telling them the easiest way might be to locate a rare ukulele that he might have once owned and then trace the ownership back since now. After that, the plot goes haywire as, simultaneously, Fran and Ken start to believe that their “parents” are trying to get in touch with them but every lead is either a dead end or ties in with something or someone else that/who then needs to be tracked down. After a while, I gave up trying to figure things out and focused on what was being said or done.

There’s a reason why I was focusing on dialog or actions and that’s because Fran tells the story from her first person POV and Fran describes Everything. Whether or not we need to know, Fran will tell us. Often one sentence would be spoken per paragraph and the rest would be Fran describing something or snarking about something. By the time the next paragraph arrived with another one sentence in response, I would have forgotten what the previous paragraph sentence was and would have to look back up the page. This got old.

Fran speaks mainly in Sarcasm. When she’s not, she employs snark. She often opens her mouth and mouths off about something only to be wrong and need to back up or try and wheedle information from someone with intimidation or, when that also fails, occasionally she tries lies or as a last resort finally telling a smidgeon of the truth. This got old, too. Her brother Ken is amazingly obtuse, sometimes intelligent, and often annoying. Make that mainly annoying.

The plot was convoluted and often made no sense. How does A fit with B? Huh, for the longest time, it doesn’t. Just when something would happen with the ukulele stuff, the action would switch to the “parents.” Ken and Fran would need to discover something with almost no information but amazingly would be able to do this in a short amount of time. As I said earlier, the main reason I kept reading was just to see how it was finally going to be tied together. It finally did but then needed a sort of deus ex machina exposition to end it. There’s also a budding romance between Fran and a NYPD detective though why he puts up with her, I don’t know.

I can see this book working well for readers who want a more lighthearted and “frothy” story with a unique background but should the series be continued, I have my doubts that I’ll read any further. C-

Not my cup of tea. Forced silliness and goofy story. Not a very interesting case or true ending/explanations. ARC provided by NetGalley in exchange for a fair review.

new-series, first-in-series, siblings, urban-fantasy, snark-fest, situational-humor, verbal-humor, private-investigators, law-enforcement, romantic, poisons, NYC, NYPD, cozy-mystery

The convoluted mysteries are being worked by siblings who are very human but plug in to a USB port every few days. Say what? Yup. The mysteries are twisty wonders of diabolical imagination, but the humor is beyond everything! Laughed my sox off!
I requested and received an EARC from Severn House via NetGalley. THANK YOU.

3.5 stars

I chose this book because E.J. Copperman writes fun cozy mysteries and I was curious about the debut of this new series. I wasn't disappointed because the story is a hoot.

*****

New York City residents Fran and Ken Stein, siblings who own K&F Stein Investigations, aren't your average private detectives. Fran - who's unusually tall and strong - can easily lift two tattooed wise guys by the front of their T-shirts, one on each arm, and keep them dangling a foot off the ground. And Ken is even bigger and tougher. In addition, both siblings have heightened senses that can detect much more than other people.

That's because Fran and Ken aren't your average humans. They were put together - Frankenstein-like - from body parts and tissues grown in the lab. The siblings' parents - Brandon Wilder, a skilled surgeon; and Olivia Grey, a brilliant scientist - had wanted children but couldn't conceive. So the doctor and researcher made their own babies, who grew up just like other humans. The one big difference: Fran and Ken have to plug themselves into an electric outlet every few days to keep their systems active.

Unfortunately, Brandon Wilder and Olivia Grey had to go on the run after creating the children, to keep certain persons from finding the kids and grabbing them for study. So Fran and Ken were raised by a woman called Aunt Margie, and the fiction was spread that their parents had died in a car accident.

The siblings believed they were orphans until their pre-teens, when they learned their parents were alive somewhere in the world. Fran and Ken made it their mission to find their mom and dad, and as young adults they opened K&F Stein Investigations, which specializes in finding birth parents for adopted children.

One day a client named Evelyn Bannister .hires the K&F Stein agency to find a ukulele, a relatively rare Gibson Poinsettia with hand-painted flowers and fret markers. Evelyn explains that the ukulele could lead to her birth father, who (she learned) collects rare stringed instruments. Fran and Ken accept the job, and oddly enough, the ukulele turns out to have a connection with the siblings' own birth parents. So the task appears to be something of a twofer.

The search for the Gibson leads to all manner of trouble, including threats, murders, abductions, mysterious phone messages, and bodily harm - mostly inflicted on other people....like the time Fran throws a roller skater into a would-be kidnapper and knocks his teeth out.

While all this is going on, Fran is being romantically pursued by a nice-looking (but shortish) Police Detective called Rich Mankiewicz, and Ken has an unrequited passion for the receptionist he hired, a Romanian woman called Igavda who's 'built like a brick gulag' and speaks only broken English.

As you might imagine, the story is chock full of humor and snide comments, mostly made by Fran about her brother. For instance, when Ken wants to attend a funeral he has no business at, Fran tries to dissuade him because 'the family needs anything but the Incredible Hulk hanging out at the funeral and asking them questions'; and Fran observes that 'Ken eats Kit Kats by just biting into them. Everyone else on planet Earth breaks each row off and eats it separately. My brother just chomps away at it. Truly, there are days when I despair for him.'

The book isn't high drama, but it's a fun mystery with unique protagonists and an interesting array of characters. Highly recommended to fans of humorous cozies.

Thanks to Netgalley, E.J. Copperman, and Severn House for a copy of the manuscript.

What a strange and extraordinary mystery novel!

(to take a quote- sort of- from Little Shop of Horrors)

When the premise of the “creation” of the brother and sister in this novel was revealed early on, I was sure this wasn’t going to be the book for me. But I was wrong. Copperman has top notch story telling skills, and an amazing flair for character development. The more I read, the more intrigued I became. And what a delightful trip of twists and turns!

I think Copperman’s flair for the humor and self deprecation of the narrator was what kept me hooked. As a native New Yorker who’s spent my fair share of heat waves in the city, I felt the narrator’s voice not only enjoyable, but honest.

If you aren’t sure about the premise, I assure you it’s worth the read. Enjoy!

Ukulele Of Death is A Fran & Ken Stein Mystery by E.J. Copperman. While brother and sister, Frannie and Ken Stein will take on almost any investigation, their specialty at F&K Stein Investigation is finding birth parents. They’re still seeking their own parents, having learned as pre-teens that they didn’t die in a car accident when they were little, so they have experience in searching.

Evelyn Bannerman wants them to find a rare ukulele, an apparently collectible Gibson Poinsettia with hand-painted artwork on the body, because she believes it will help her locate her father, a collector of rare string instruments. But before they get beyond noting that one such uke recently sold for a very large sum at Sotheby’s, their client is murdered. And it turns out that almost everything she has told them is untrue. But they’ve got her retainer in their account, and they’re intrigued.

Also intriguing is a missed call from a man who apparently knew their parents: Dr Aziz Mansoor wanted to contact them urgently but then died in a car accident. Just what he had to say will be buried with him, but if there’s any way they can learn what it was, anything to do with their parents, they will grab it with both hands.

As unusual as Ken and Frannie are (quite big, abnormally fast and strong, endowed with exceptional sensory perception, and sporting a charging port just below the left armpit), the mom and dad they are trying to track down are also far from conventional. A research scientist and a surgeon, they used their expertise to assemble first Ken and then Frannie, then left their children in the care of Aunt Margie at a young age for their safety from unscrupulous agencies.

Distracting Frannie from these matters is Detective Rich Mankiewicz who, despite their height difference and her continued resistance to the whole idea, becomes a very persistent beau. His insistence wears her down, and he turns out to be a very good kisser, but she’s not falling into his arms just yet…

Frannie tries to track down this special uke, and collectors of rare string instruments, but can’t resist searching for more clues about their parents through official adoption records. Ken’s online skills bring them a step closer, but before they learn the truth on either matter, there are abduction attempts, a narrow escape, and a dramatic rooftop climax.

Copperman gives the reader a plot with a good number of twists, red herrings, aliases and misdirection, lots of humour and quite a bit of action. His characters are appealing and there’s enough intrigue to keep the pages turning. There’s enough unresolved to allow for further instalments, and more of this cast is most definitely welcome! A very entertaining cosy mystery.
This unbiased review is from an uncorrected proof copy provided by NetGalley and Severn House.