MURDER TAKE TWO

by Charlene Weir ‧ RELEASE DATE: March 18, 1998

The little town of Hampstead, Kansas, is enthralled when a Hollywood crew arrives to make a movie in a long-untenanted local mansion. The film's star is beautiful Laura Edwards, whose stand-in for dangerous scenes is stuntwoman Kay Bender. Then Kay is killed while doing one such scene. Was Laura meant to be the target? Town police chief Susan Wren (Family Practice, 1995, etc.) is determined to find out. The news that Ben Parkhurst, her best officer and (slowly growing) romantic interest, was once married to Laura leads her to remove him from the case, substituting the less experienced Peter Yancy. Matters escalate with a series of stalker-like notes to Laura and the stabbing death of bimbo-ish supporting actress Sheri Lloyd in her hotel room--the body discovered by moody, pink-haired gofer Clem Jones. Arrogant local teenager Kevin Murphy; hanger-on oddball Delmar Cayliff; and even Yancy's slightly cracked mother Raina are suspect--until there's a confession following an attack on Yancy. Susan isn't buying it, though, and is inspired to call on an old friend in Hollywood, eventually uncovering the background events that lead her to the true culprit. A tangle of subplots and neuroses kept afloat by high-pitched suspense, lots of moviemaking lore, and the on-target dissection of a clutch of dysfunctional personalities. Flawed but steadily diverting.

Pub Date: March 18, 1998

ISBN: 0312291930

Page Count: 336

Publisher: Dunne/St. Martin's

Review Posted Online: N/A

Kirkus Reviews Issue: Feb. 1, 1998

Categories: FICTION