cover image Manuscript for Murder

Manuscript for Murder

P. J. Coyne. Dodd Mead, $15.95 (166pp) ISBN 978-0-396-09110-3

While lunching with Hardy West, an old friend and one of his least successful clients, literary agent Ned Spearbroke is surprised to hear that West and another old friend, Adam McKendrick, are ghostwriting an expose of the Lindsay administration. Moreover, West confesses that he fears for his life. When McKendrick turns up dead, and West disappears, Spearbroke gets nervous. His office is ransacked and he himself roughed up, compelling him to call in the experts, in the persons of detective Ryan from Major Cases and Cecilia St. John, Spearbroke's successful mystery-writer client. Meanwhile, Spearbroke takes the time to bed down with an engaged talk-show host, with his own beautiful and brassy associate and with West's tennis-playing wife. Most readers will have given up on this mystery long before the killer is revealed, while those who persevere will be treated to a cliched ending that was evident from the start. (September)