HARD NEWS
by Jeffery Wilds Deaver
Rolling-stone punk naif Rune (veteran of two paperback mysteries) embarks on a crusade to free Randy Boggs, who's done three years in Attica for killing Lance Hopper, head of the news network for whose Manhattan affiliate she's been grinding a camcorder. Naturally, everybody from sympathetic producer Lee Maisel to cartoonishly nasty news-anchor Piper Sutton tries to get her off the story, but, untroubled by a scene-stealing baby she's just inherited, a thug named Jack Nestor who's stalking her, and the deaths of Boggs's protector in prison and a key witness whose testimony exonerates Boggs, she finally succeeds in getting him sprung—and then wishes she hadn't, as he doesn't look nearly so innocent out on the street. Peerless entertainment for those who like 'em gaudy, manic, and totally awesome.