The Silly Season: An Entr'acte

Decades after the famed Ann Arbor UFO sightings of 1966, intrepid University of Michigan journalism student Zoe Kaplan is on hand to witness and report on a new batch of appearances, in this fizzy fifth installment of the mystery series featuring computer consultant Anneke Haagen. Much to the amazement and amusement of Zoe's friends, her mentor, Anneke, and Anneke's fiance, police lieutenant Karl Genesko, Zoe parlays her summer sports slot on the Michigan Daily into a position as a stringer for the Associated Press. But when the college town is invaded by hordes of UFO followers--including a psychic channeler, a history professor, a professional debunker and a government conspiracy buff--Zoe has all she can handle covering their various theories behind the sightings. After the history professor is found electrocuted in a charred field, UFO groupies announce that he was killed by intergalactic travelers, and Karl must step in to ferret out the truth. Anneke, using information she gathers on the Web, helps him to sort out the contentious relationships among the UFO factions in order to pinpoint who had the most compelling reason to murder the man. Rife with low-key humor, Holtzer's (Black Diamond) purposefully lighthearted book serves as an entr'acte between Anneke and Karl's courtship and marriage while delightfully highlighting the bizarre reasoning common to zealots--whether UFOlogists or news reporters. (Feb.)