THE MIDNIGHT SHOW MURDERS

A TV chef shifts both time slot and venue when his network sends him for a late-night stint in Hollywood.

Billy Blessing likes New York. He likes being near Blessing's Bistro, even when sharp-tongue hostess Cassandra Shaw puts him in his place. He likes his morning gig on Worldwide Broadcasting Network’s Wake Up America! Los Angeles, on the other hand, holds only sad memories of his short-lived apprenticeship under Chef Ambrose Provoste, which was stopped dead by Provoste’s boss Victor Anisette after Billy challenged the alibi Anisette provided for his buddy Roger Charbonnet, accused of killing girlfriend Tiffany Arden. But Gretchen Di Voss, Billy’s current boss, wants Billy out on the West Coast as guest announcer for the debut of WBN’s late-night entry O’Day At Night, featuring Irish comic-of-the-moment Desmond O’Day. Camping out in the guest house of the funnyman’s rented villa gives Billy a ringside seat for all sorts of bad behavior from O’Day and his musical sidekick Jimmy Fitzpatrick. And it gives Billy access to novelist-screenwriter Harry Paynter, the spoiled brat co-writing Blessing’s biography. But it also reconnects him with cowboy star Stew Gentry, one of the bright spots in his earlier L.A. sojourn. And Billy will need a friend when Des gets blown to bits onstage and the police suspect that the real target may have been his announcer.

Although Billy may be too good to be true, Roker and Lochte offer a satisfying entrée to follow the appetizer they provided in The Morning Show Murders (2009).