Encore to Murder: An Ed McAvoy Mystery [Paperback]

Due to a shattered leg from a drug dealer's bullet, homicide detective Ed McAvoy has retired from the Detroit Police Force and become the police chief of Peekamoose Heights, N.Y., a quaint Catskills resort town, in this genial if overly contrived prequel to Stackhouse's first novel, Stream of Death (2001). After Veronica Loring is found dead in her Jaguar XJS at the bottom of a cliff one snowy night, McAvoy soon decides that the beautiful ex-model turned fashion executive was murdered. McAvoy, who directs amateur plays in his spare time, uses a suitably theatrical if cumbersome device to trap the killer. In addition to some nicely drawn local characters (many of them related to the police chief), Stackhouse delivers five prime suspects-Veronica's business partner, Jennifer Rooney; Veronica's brother, David; Jack Dunbar, a design associate in their firm; Jack's wife, Kim; and competing fashion designer Roger St. Ives. Alas, by the final curtain, when the murderer stands unmasked, many readers will feel that the author hasn't played fair.
Copyright 2003 Reed Business Information, Inc.

Even with a left leg shattered by a drug dealer's bullet and a medical retirement from the Detroit Police Force, former homicide captain Ed McAvoy feels he

Mystery writer and playwright Bill Stackhouse works as a scriptwriter for a multimedia production firm. His credits include training and promotional videos for NASA, the Army Aviation & Missile Command, and the Corps of Engineers. Four of Bill s seven stage plays have won awards. Encore to Murder is his third novel.