The Talk Show Defense

Not a single institution of modern America is without corruption, or so it seems in the latest outing for NYPD Detective Maggie Van Zandt (Full-Blown Rage). When a woman's body turns up in Central Park, mutilated, with no face and no fingertips, Van Zandt thinks it might be Peggy O'Neill, a TV talk show guest who disappeared after discussing her ex-husband's brutalities on the airwaves. But Gross lets readers know what Van Zandt doesn't: that Peggy O'Neill is alive, but not well; that the murder was committed by her ex-husband, Mickey, right in front of Peggy's eyes; and that Mickey has dragged Peggy off to a fleabag hotel. There, from the depths of her accumulated rage, Peggy vows revenge against Mickey and the world--especially the TV stars. While the police try to determine whether or not the dead woman in the park is Peggy, she lists her enemies. There's Mickey, of course; Kevin Grant, the pathetic almost over-the-hill talk-show host who grew bored with her story; Grant's wife, the famous Dr. Judy Winner, a TV psychologist who could use some long-term treatment herself; and Grant's arrogant assistant producer, Gary Lock. In a finale that makes television history, Peggy returns to the TV studio to mete out justice. Gross is less interested in mystery (readers know Peggy's alive and crazy) than in suspense (how many people will Peggy kill before Van Zandt nails her?) as he expresses some commonplace ironies about how the media corrupt everything and everyone. (May)