Sentenced to Death

In Hechtman’s winning fourth Writer for Hire mystery (after 2022’s Making It Write), fledgling Chicago mystery author Veronica Blackstone, who’s also a writer for hire, composing “whatever anybody needed, from copy for websites to celebrations of life for funerals,” takes on a new client, the Friends of Hyde Park, an organization that hires her to prepare the booklet that will accompany its annual house and garden tour. One house on the tour belongs to Landon Donte, the neighborhood literary lion, whose most recent book has flopped royally. When, during a dinner for the Friends at Donte’s home, he’s found in his locked office with a bullet hole in his head, the police are quick to assume the man had been despondent over his recent failure and shot himself. Resourceful and observant Veronica does not agree. A subplot in which Veronica writes love letters for an executive who wants a wealthy businessman to ask her to marry him adds poignancy. Hechtman does a good job introducing her vivid cast, sowing doubt about their potential motives and relationships, and letting their egos collide. This cozy is good fun. Agent: Jessica Faust, Bookends Literary. (Feb.)