Like a Hole in the Head by Jen Banbury was the fifth book I read for the Cozy Mystery Challenge . Some reviewers likened the author's work to that of Dashiell Hammett and Raymond Chandler. I think Banbury's style is her own, with comparison to no one in the mystery genre. She caught my attention immediately when I randomly picked her book at the library. "I woke up with a hangover and roof tar on my feet and a vague recollection of pacing around up there half the night. . . ." That's her first line. Uh-huh. Jill is the name of the main character. She lives in Los Angeles and works at a used bookstore. For the past few years, she has been running away from the memories of her mother's death. Every so often the author cleverly lets some of those memories enter Jill's mind, and we, the readers, learn that her mom was painfully dying from a terminal disease. Her mom may have asked Jill to help put an end to the misery. With that bit of background, it is unde