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THE BODY IN THE CORNFLAKES by K.K. Beck

THE BODY IN THE CORNFLAKES

By

Pub Date: Oct. 18th, 1992
ISBN: 0312291841
Publisher: St. Martin's

The author is in a playful mood as she surveys the supermarket scene, specifically at Seattle's Galaxy Foods, where sweet, able assistant-manager Ted Constantino runs a tight shift despite interference and constant bickering from the Krogstads. The 60-ish owner, Karl Krogstad, has just become engaged to Ginger Jessup, the sexy redhead featured in the store's TV ads. His son Junior is the store's inept, alcohol-dulled manager, but the old man seems to be grooming smug grandson Lance for the job. The family gives an engagement party for the happy couple, but no one except Karl is crying when her strangled body turns up in a cornflakes display after the store has been closed for remodeling. The police aren't getting anywhere; there's a second murder; then Ted is persuaded by Karl's granddaughter Louise, who works in the video department, to do some sleuthing on their own. It takes them far afield but turns up a powerful motive and, eventually, a satisfying denouÉment. Enlivened by its vividly drawn characters--major and minor--Beck's latest (after A Hopeless Case, p. 76, etc.) is good-humored, fast and funny entertainment.