Murder: The Musical

The Wall Street sharks that usually menace New York headhunter Leslie Wetzon are guppies compared to the Broadway bottom-feeders featured in this follow-up to Blood on the Street. Wetzon, who was a Broadway gypsy before she and Xenia Smith opened their executive search firm, stops in to see her old dancing partner Carlos Prince, choreographer for Hotshot: The Musical , now in rehearsal. At the theater, she discovers the bludgeoned body of the hated stage manager ``Killa'' Dilla Crosby. The murder brings her back in contact with former lover and cop Silvestri, and also with the show's famed director, Mort Hornberg, who wants Wetzon to find a Wall Street angel to save the show's Boston opening. Another murder in Boston before the opening sends ticket sales over the top and Wetzon over the edge. Her love life founders and collapses, her business ventures suffer and she is unable to save Smith from a shocking discovery. Then Dilla's lover Susan dies with a crucial secret, leaving Wetzon and Carlos facing a final curtain and keeping readers guessing up to opening night. Meyers was assistant to producer Hal Prince for many years; theater buffs will have fun trying to identify the real-life characters behind her fictional ones. Author tour. (Sept.)