The Question of the Missing Head: An Asperger's Mystery

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%E2%80%93based 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%E2%80%94they are simply part of who he is. (Oct.)