Murder Game: There's a $10,000 Reward for Solving the Crime; It Could Be Yours!: A Novel

Three intertwined mysteries contain clues enough for the reader to figure out whodunit (and vie for the publisher's $10,000 prize) in this contest book from Mystery Writers of America executive v-p Cassiday and Adler ( Who Killed the Robbins Family ). The contest rules are also here, as is the price of admission--the ``official entry form'' for which no reproductions can be substituted. In ``Death in the Med,'' retired Interpol chief inspector Justin Birkby and his lover, Irene Manners, are guests on the yacht Shangri-la when shrewish Tammy Scott is murdered, a crime for which all the passengers had a motive. Only in a postscript does Birkby ascertain who has killed Tammy--but the criminal eludes conviction, hiding behind a false identity. ``The Featherstone Plot,'' the second entry, builds nicely on this puzzle. Birkby finds himself in Peru, investigating possible terrorist attacks on an American archeological team. This time the murder victim is Alex Loomis, financier of the team's project. Again, suspects and motives abound; again, the mystery is clarifed in an epilogue. In ``The Philanthropist,'' Birkby delves into the kidnapping of a man he'd met on the Shangri-la , but the resolution awaits contestants' entries--the rest of us, unfortunately, are left high and dry. (July)