Question of the Felonious Friend: An Asperger's Mystery, Book 3 Paperback – 8 September 2016

These are the best books!!!

Just like the rest of the books in this series, once I started reading I couldn't stop. Samuel Hoenig has Asperger's Syndrome, but it sure doesn't slow him down. Thank heaven for a mother who wouldn't let him get away with feeling sorry for himself. With her guidance he is now a businessman, the proprietor of Questions Answered, a service for people who need their questions answered of course.When Tyler Clayton, another young man who also has been diagnosed with Asperger's, contacts Samuel and asks if Richard Handy, a Quik N EZ store clerk, is his (Tyler's) friend, Samuel finds himself in a bind. He has always been able to answer questions because the Asperger's has given him objectivity and almost a compulsion for research, but this is not an objective question.Shortly after Samuel and Ms. Washburn, Samuel's associate, start the inquiries to be able to give the answer, a death and a murder charge almost derail the process. Samuel finds himself trying to define friendship while keeping himself and Ms. Washburn alive and in one piece.I really appreciate the "peek behind the scenes" of a person with Asperger's. I have known a few people in my life with this diagnosis, and I now realize I could have had better interactions with them if I'd been able to read these books earlier. The insight into the workings of their brains are really helpful, and much appreciated. Added to that, the mystery element is great, and I didn't figure out "who-dun-it" before the secret was revealed. That doesn't happen often, and I appreciate it when it does.Thanks to E. J. Copperman and Jeff Cohen. I also recommend E. J.'s series Haunted Guesthouse series.

They get even more fab as they go on.

I enjoyed getting to read more about Samuel (the Asperger's spectrum question-answerer) and his cohorts Ms. Washburn and his mom and the cab driver. I always enjoy the analyses of events that is going on in the internal monologue of Samuel in contrast to what we neurotypicals figure is actually going on. The story was good and the plot interesting. However . . . there was a huge PLOT HOLE when you got to the end, if you think like me. It's a huge SPOILER for me to tell you what the plot hole is, however. So--~~~~~~SPOILER ALERT~~~~~~...when you get to the end and discover that this guy Tyler who is brought to Samuel to ask the question, "Is Richard really my friend?" . . .and this causes the solution to a crime mystery that they had no idea was even going on . . .well, the big sister of Tyler who has brought him there to ask the question is involved in the crime! She is providing money for Tyler to pay to this guy Richard the entire time, and she knows of the theft/crime that is going on where Richard works. So she must be a COMPLETE LUNKHEAD to bring Tyler there to ask the question in the first place! What did she think would happen--they'd pull out Tarot cards and give him a reading? No, they went to Richard to investigate and they investigated what went on when Tyler went to see Richard. So how could she not know that this would lead to the uncovering of the scheme that she is an accessory to? While I was reading the book and did not know that she was involved, everything made sense, but once I knew she was involved, I could not reconcile the idea that she would ever take Tyler to someone to investigate Richard because that would logically reveal her part in the crime ring! Why wouldn't she just say, "Yes, he's your friend, of course," or whatever, and definitely NOT take him to an investigator to ask the question. I would not take someone to a question-answering place without knowing the question I was paying for, because maybe it's something easy to Google up. No possible way to explain this away. Seriously . . . surely there could have been some reason given or something. Something! I hope I do not have this sort of plot difficulty in my next mystery.That said, I did enjoy reading the book and hearing Samuel contemplate things in his own fashion. He does not believe that autistics or Asperger's people (and that diagnosis of Asperger's no longer exists--they took it out of the medical books!) are damaged or disabled in any way, but says they just think differently. If you would like to see a humor-tinged portrayal of the way a Sheldon-like character (as in Big Bang Theory) would reason, this is your ticket. I do wish I hadn't been so bludgeoned by the plot hole I describe, because then I wouldn't have had to express any problems. No howlers and no big problems with grammar or punctuation, so it's already ahead of the game in general.If you like this series, you'll like this one. Recommended in spite of the problematic kickoff/plot hole.

My favorite of the Asperger's Mysteries and I have loved the first 2! This is a taut mystery, because there are limited known suspects. Samuel is excellent at finding answers to all kinds of questions! One of the best parts of this story was how Tyler is treated by the team running Questions Answered.