# Dating Dead Men

By Harley Jane Kozak · Wollie Shelley, book 1

Profile: https://hahafiction.com/books/dating-dead-men-3f59032a/

Wollie Shelley has agreed to date forty men in sixty days for a radio host's book. The Los Angeles greeting-card artist then finds a corpse on the way to visit her hospitalized brother and worries he may be implicated. An attractive stranger with a gun gives her another reason to miss her next date.

## What makes it funny?

Wollie is almost as startled by her attraction to her captor as by the gun. Kirkus singles out her embarrassment at realizing it has been so long since she wanted anyone that she has forgotten whether she has a type.

### The comedy at work

A dating experiment imposes a schedule on a life that murder refuses to accommodate. Romantic judgments keep intruding on Wollie's investigation, while the men she meets socially begin to look only marginally safer than the criminals.

### Try this if…

There is a mystery to solve and a romantic life to untangle. Wollie's resourcefulness makes this a prospect for readers who like an amateur sleuth with enough nerve to keep working through a screwball predicament.

### Good to know

The setup includes murder, an armed abduction and Mafia danger. Wollie's concern for her brother, who is hospitalized with schizophrenia, is part of her reason for investigating.

## What to expect

- Genre: Mystery · Romance
- On the shelf: Amateur sleuth · Cozy mystery
- Kind of humor: Situational comedy
- Format: Novel
- Published: 2004

## A few distinguishing details

- Forty dates in sixty days, interrupted by murder

## Sources & further reading

- Publisher: [Publisher](https://www.penguinrandomhouse.com/books/95375/dating-dead-men-by-harley-jane-kozak/paperback)
- Author commentary: [Author series page](https://harleyjanekozak.com/writing/the-wollie-series)
- Review: [Kirkus review](https://www.kirkusreviews.com/book-reviews/harley-jane-kozak/dating-dead-men)