Dead On Cue

When Valerie Farnsworth, star of the highly successful soap opera Maddox Row, is found murdered in her dressing room, the question is not so much who would to see her dead as who wouldn't. The powers that be consider the case a political hot potato, and so, of course, it lands firmly in the lap of Chief Inspector 'Cloggin'-it Charlie' Woodend, who once more finds his shaky career on the line.

The more Woodend learns about the world of television, the more he comes to appreciate the fact that he will never understand the people who live in it, though it soon becomes plain to him that unless he unmasks the murderer soon, there is a grave danger that there will be a second killing.

As Sergeant Monika Paniatowski goes under cover, posing as a personal assistant and Bob Rutter wonders whether he will ever make it as an inspector, Woodend struggles to untie the knots of jelousy, betrayal and revenge, which seem to be all that is holding the television studio together.

"Fast-paced, often humorous puzzler ... Spencer melds her characters' spoken words and inner thoughts seamlessly, and nimbly makes scene changes to places as far away as the California coastline. Descriptions of melancholy English moorlands are reminiscent of Conan Doyle, as is the inspector';s sudden revelation of the culprit in a tense final scene." Publishers Weekly

"The latest Charlie Woodend novel again boasts a difficult mystery and evocative early '60s atmosphere. There is much here to please Woodend fans, as well as those who like mysteries with a television setting." Booklist

Order Dead On Cue (hardcover) from Amazon.co.uk

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