The Woman Who Lowered the Boom: A Stewart Hoag Mystery

Handler’s witty 15th cozy featuring novelist-turned-sleuth Steward “Hoagy” Hoag (after The Girl Who Took What She Wanted) unfolds in the spring of 1995. Not long after receiving the news that his latest novel has been accepted for publication by Norma Fives, the brilliant young editor-in-chief of Guilford House, Hoagy gets a call from Norma enlisting his help. She’s just received a death threat in the mail, and her boyfriend, Det. Lt. Romaine Very, the city’s “top celebrity homicide detective” and an old friend of Hoagy’s, wants the novelist to join him in the investigation. Who would want to kill Norma? One of the writers she’s rejected? A top literary agent who lost his job and reputation when she outed him as a liar? A disgruntled former employee? The list is distressingly long, and after a series of interviews, Very and Hoagy—who’s accompanied, as always, by his faithful basset hound Lulu—set out on the trail of a vicious, switchblade-wielding killer. Though the resolution is slightly below par for the series, Hoagy’s narration is as sharp as ever. Fans will be glad to see that Hoagy and company haven’t lost a step. Agent: Dominick Abel, Dominick Abel Literary. (Feb.)