The Man in the White Linen Suit: A Stewart Hoag Mystery

Set in 1993, Edgar-winner Handler’s intricately plotted 11th Stewart Hoag mystery (after 2018’s The Man Who Couldn’t Miss) opens with a meeting between Hoagy, whose first—and only—novel was a huge success (though he is now reduced to ghosting celebrity memoirs), and Sylvia James, the editor-in-chief of a Manhattan publishing house, at the Algonquin Hotel. Sylvia, who’s “the single most reviled woman in all of publishing,” offers a big advance for Hoagy’s second novel in exchange for him finding Tommy O’Brien, the longtime research assistant of her father, Addison James, “the wealthiest author in America.” Tommy, the uncredited author of Addison’s last two bestsellers, has disappeared with the manuscript of Addison’s latest historical saga. Hoagy, who’s Tommy’s friend, agrees to look for Tommy and try to persuade him to return the manuscript. When things take a deadly turn, Hoagy joins forces with New York homicide detective Romaine Very to unravel a series of baffling murders. References to celebrities of the day—Hoagy spots Gloria Steinem at the Algonquin—help bring the period to life. Hoagy’s fresh narrative voice is a pleasure to read. [em]Agent: Dominick Abel, Dominick Abel Literary Agency. (Aug.) [/em]