Behind the Scenes

Roger Gainey's decision to have a midlife crisis is not the brightest business move he's ever made. The Scottsdale, Ariz.- based home-shopping magnate divests himself of his wife of 20 years (who also owns the controlling interest in one of his biggest moneymakers), along with some of the other people who helped make him what he is--including the over-the-hill queen of the infomercials and a substance-abusing, gambling comedian. But Roger's bolt for freedom opens the door to revenge and murder. Stirring the pot is the fact that his wife, Sheila, gets in bed, both literally and businesswise, with Roger's electronic retailing rival, Derek Lang. Unfortunately, what should be a juicy story becomes the stuff of yawns in Jones's awkward hands. The book starts with a gripping, if crude, hook: someone, unnamed, is shot dead by someone else, also unnamed. As the story progresses in a long flashback, readers are meant to wonder which of two despicable men--Roger or Derek--will be the victim. Few readers will survive the expository sequences without longing for a remote control to zap them to another channel, and flimsy character sketches rouse little interest in sorting out the players and their myriad machinations. By the time the identities of the victim and killer are revealed, readers--eyes glazed by a story that is as insubstantial as the industry it seeks to portray--will have long ceased to care. (July)