From Library Journal
In a fit of pique, well-known mystery reviewer Kyle Malachi phones the New York Times with the news that Stokes Moran, his pseudonym, has died. The next thing he knows, New York police suspect him of murdering an actual person by that name. Malachi, typically, goes wild in his self-defense: he trades his clothes for information from a bag lady; he wades through an anti-Charlie Chan demonstration in Chinatown; he interrogates a devious transvestite in Chelsea. Standard mystery situations?not always successfully tongue-in-cheek?and references to other mysteries and writers punctuate this moderately humorous effort. For series fans.
Copyright 1998 Reed Business Information, Inc.
From Booklist
Under the name Stokes Moran, Kyle Malachi writes mystery reviews, and in "real life," he's happily married to his former agent, Lee, who's pregnant with the couple's first child. Lately, though, Kyle has grown tired of Stokes and, in a fit of pique, decides to "kill" the fictional reviewer by publishing a fake obituary in the newspaper. The next day, a body carrying identification for Stokes Moran is discovered in a deserted airshaft. Where did the body come from? And was it a coincidence that the corpse turned up the day after the obituary appeared? When the cops turn up to question him as a murder suspect in the death of "Stokes Moran," Kyle sets out to nab the real killer. Fortunately, he knows everything there is to know about solving mysteries--after all, he's reviewed thousands of them. Though it's more fluff than substance, this fourth Stokes Moran novel offers an inventive plot and some likable characters. Lightweight fun.
Emily Melton
