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A VERY VENETIAN MURDER by Haughton Murphy

A VERY VENETIAN MURDER

by Haughton Murphy

Pub Date: May 14th, 1992
ISBN: 0-671-70664-0
Publisher: Simon & Schuster

Retired attorney Reuben Frost (Murder Saves Face, etc.) joins wife Cynthia for their twentysomething stay at the Cipriani Hotel in Venice. Also on hand are glitzy American designer Gregg Baxter and his entourage—his design assistant, his favorite model, his business partner, and his right-hand woman—one of whom tries to poison the designer at his fancy-dress ball and does manage to murder him with a hand-blown glass dagger late at night. Whodunit? Between bites of spaghetti al Gorgonzola and offerings from the Cipriani's $75-per-person, all-you-can-eat buffet, plus trips to the opera house, Harry's Bar, and tombs of the Doges, Reuben sorts through bisexual and homosexual liaisons, possible bankruptcies, and many temper-tantrums—but then, with the assistance of Commissario Valier, breaks an alibi that hinges on a not-so-subtle clue (Murphy's specialty). Lackluster as mystery, but spiffy as a Venice-on-a-zillion- dollars-a-day guide.