Eliot has high hopes and has even agreed to host a showing of his college aged projectionist Anthony’s very gory western. Anthony’s film is greeted with mixed reviews, though Elliot’s distributor Vic loves the film and offers to try and hook Anthony up with some independent distributors. Just as Anthony is getting even more excited, his movie mysteriously vanishes in front of the opening night crowd.   

When Eliot discovers that Harry Lillis, half of Eliot’s favorite comedy team from the heyday of comedy teams, lives in Englewood, he has him father drive him (Elliot refuses to own a car and add to the New Jersey pollution) to meet Harry. Elliot is thrilled when Harry agrees to come to Comedy Tonight on the night Elliot is going to show Lillis and Townes’s classic movie Cracked Ice.

Harry arrives in grand style, (an ambulance), but Elliot is surprised to see Harry, who was very able-bodied a week ago, in a wheel chair. Harry brushes it off as a nuisance and wows the crowd as usual. As he is leaving, he leans and whispers to Elliot that Les Townes killed Les’s wife Viv over fifty years ago. Elliot is shocked to hear such allegations and begins to read things about the young starlet’s death. His search takes him to Townes’s home in Queens where he is shot at by Townes’s son and back to Englewood where Harry is killed in a fire as Viv was. 

A goofy alarm clock sent to the theater is not enough to deter Elliot whose final curtain may be sooner than expected.

Elliot is a fabulous character who is funny without being obnoxious about it. He makes very wry observations about his world and its inhabitants. Ex-wife Sharon has left her current husband and she and Elliot are once again “dating,” something Elliot is not sure how to handle, especially since he suspects Sharon of stashing Anthony’s movie. 

Elliot also must deal with once charming, now feminist and surly teenage Sophie, his refreshment counter worker.  Movie lovers will be thrilled with all the little insider jokes (beginning with Lillis’s and Townes’s names). Real movie buffs will understand all the references, others will just laugh until they reach the glossary in the back at which time they will laugh even harder at Cohen’s sense of humor.   

The mystery is well-paced and plotted with plenty of suspects for both the purloined film and the murders, but savvy readers may catch on early. It Happened One Knife is another fun entry into the Double Feature mysteries.                                             

--Jennifer Monahan Winberry