The Talk Show Murders: A Billy Blessing Novel

Roker and Lochte delve into the hitherto unknown dark side of their engaging lead, chef and TV personality Billy Blessing, in their third whodunit (after 2010’s The Midnight Show Murders). While Blessing’s Today-like morning show, Wake Up, America!, is telecasting for two weeks in Chicago, Pat Patton, an ex-cop turned right-wing blogger, corners Blessing. Besides knowing Blessing’s real last name, Patton knows of the chef’s arrest for fraud 25 years earlier and, possibly, the truth behind the murder of Blessing’s partner-in-crime. While Blessing’s still adjusting to the implications of Patton’s blackmail threats, someone connected to Wake Up, America! is murdered. The authors take things lightly (“Every mystery novel I’ve ever read,” Blessing says at one point, “if somebody dies in a fire, they always turn up in the last chapter alive with a gun in their hand”), but offer enough clues and twists to gratify fair-play fans. (Dec.)