The Man Who Swore He’d Never Go Home Again: A Stewart Hoag Mystery

The breezy 15th installment of Handler’s Edgar-winning series (after The Girl Who Took What She Wanted) reveals how Stewart “Hoagy” Hoag and his ex-wife, Marilee, first met. The year is 1982, and Hoagy has just published his first novel, Our Family Enterprise, to glowing reviews and stellar sales. An overnight celebrity, he even snags the cover of Time magazine. At a dinner with his agent, he meets Merilee Nash—“the hottest, classiest young actress in New York”—and they’re immediately drawn to each other. The next day, Hoagy gets a call from a high school friend informing him of the murder of Mary McKenna, a librarian in his hometown of Oakmont, Conn. Though he’s vowed never to return to the place he drew from for his bestselling novel, Mary encouraged a teenage Hoagy to pursue his writerly ambitions, so he packs up his Jaguar and sets off to Connecticut with Marilee for Mary’s funeral. There, old romances and rivalries reignite, as Hoagy realizes it’s up to him to solve Mary’s murder. While the investigation is somewhat rote, series fans will enjoy this peek into the early days of Hoagy and Marilee’s romance. Agent: Dominick Abel, Dominick Abel Literary. (Mar.)