Murder in the Mist

The real-life accidental shooting of a Civil War reenactment participant this past July at Gettysburg must have chilled Today show weatherman Scott and mystery writer Crider--for their second collaboration (after 1997's Murder Under Blue Skies) features a similar incident. But the person who fires the live bullet that hits semiretired celebrity weatherman Stanley Waters during a reenactment of the (fictional) Battle of Higgins probably didn't do it by accident, and the bullet that creases Stanley's skull kills local businessman Rance Wofford. Superficially wounded but seriously motivated, Stanley takes it upon himself to find out who in his Virginia hometown pulled the trigger. Neither the story nor the suspects have much depth, but Stanley comes off as an intriguing mixture of innocence and guile, and Scott fans will enjoy the inside references and jokes. ""Something in Stanley drove him to seek publicity,"" we learn. ""Even after he had become an established star of Hello, World!, he had gone out and opened shopping centers, visited convalescent homes, marched along in front of high school bands and emceed at balloon festivals."" Stanley's comments about Hello, World! cohost Grant Tyler (""Those who thought that television personalities had only the best hairpieces had never seen Tyler, who often looked to Stanley as if he were balancing a squirrel atop his head"") indicate that Scott knows as much about vengeance as the villains of this entertaining, if lightweight, novel. Mystery Guild featured alternate. (Jan.)