WITH YOU IN SPIRIT

For a tale fueled by the cryptic commands of disembodied voices, TV journalist Cooper’s debut also shows a fascination with human anatomy rarely seen outside high-school health classes.

When he isn’t caressing his lover Pedro’s erection or having his ass whooped by hoodlum vaginas (a dream, fortunately), Graydove Hoffenstein has just one goal: to clear his mother, parking-meter heiress Celeste Garrison Hoffenstein, who’s been unjustly jailed for the murder of his half-Jewish, half–Native American father, Colin Lightfoot Hoffenstein. Gray arrives at his parents’ Martha’s Vineyard estate (which he affectionately calls Entre Tetas since it sits between two mountains) to find his sister Chaka on the verge of a séance. In whooshes blind medium Brenda Cloudholder, escorted by Derderva, her driver, and Lourdes, her seeing-eye cat, to summon Colin’s spirit in hope of a lead. Colin obliges, but only to the extent of singing “I Will Survive”; it’s up to Gray and Chaka to dope out how the Gloria Gaynor classic points to the killer. Which they do with no help from Detective Plotzman of the Martha’s Vineyard Police, but with more than a little from their sister Skye, currently filming a commercial for a yeast-infection remedy; Gray’s best bud Stevie Goldman and his plane, Luftpussy; and some friends from the other side.

Witty, smutty nonsense with just a ghost of a mystery.