MURDER BY MICROPHONE

An extremely silly, if terribly literate, murder-mystery parody set at the Canadian Broadcasting Corp. and bursting with footnotes, funny names (Betsy Vulpitude), digressions on English usage, mock radio programs (""Musical interludes by Earl Moist and the Lunenburgers""), and the police team of Coggin & Sump, who fondly remember such exploits as the ""Case of the Muted Strumpet."" The CBC's lecherous general manager is found dead at his desk on the eve of retirement, just after dictating a memo on the merits of the candidates for his job--one closet queen, one crook, one phony, one loudmouth, and (recommended) one woman. Coggin and Sump quiz each of these suspects ad infinitum, but the true culprit has a rather unique motive: ""Am I to take it then. . . that you have committed a murder and ruined the careers of several people simply in order to further the good, as you see it, of radio?"" An in-house joke (Reeves is at the CBC) that got out of hand--but a few outsiders might possibly be amused.