The Question of the Unfamiliar Husband

 

The Question of the Unfamiliar Husband by E.J. Copperman and Jeff Cohen (2015) 279 pages

Samuel Hoenig has a business called "Questions Answered." His sparsely furnished office is located in a space that used to be a pizzeria. This is not a detective agency; Samuel simply finds answers for people. He doesn't seem to have a lot of business, but one day a woman, who said her name was Shelia McInerney, comes in with a peculiar question: Could Samuel find out who is the man in her bed who calls himself her husband? She says the last thing she remembers is going to a costume party and then waking up with this man, Oliver Lewis, who told her that they were married.

Samuel takes the case, which seems to grow weirder and weirder, starting the next day, when Oliver Lewis himself barges into the office, demanding that Samuel stop conning his wife. Add to that the fact that Samuel has Asperger's syndrome, and you've got a very unusual mystery. I really liked how the story is told from Samuel's perspective; the reader learns how he sees the world and what coping strategies he has been taught to help him navigate in it, especially needed for unpredictable people and events. I thought the Asperger's details were handled very well.