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DEAD ON CUE by Sally Spencer

DEAD ON CUE

by Sally Spencer

Pub Date: Feb. 1st, 2001
ISBN: 0-7278-5706-1
Publisher: Severn House

No doubt about it, death boosts ratings. So when the numbers for Maddox Row start to dip, producer Bill Houseman, creator of the NWTV’s prime-time blockbuster, orders scriptwriters Ben Drabble and Paddy Colligan to kill off Jack Taylor, known as “The Laughing Postman.” Actor Larry Coates is delighted; Jack’s death frees him to head for Hollywood and a part in a big-ticket American series. But director Jeremy Wilcox is none too pleased; he’s sick of Houseman’s treating the show as his alone. But before this volatile mix of creative genius can ignite, someone revises the script once and for all by stabbing to death Valerie Farnsworth, who plays trampy Liz Bowyer. And since the studio that produces Maddox Row lies just outside the Manchester city limits, the case falls to the Central Lancashire Constabulary, much to the dismay of Chief Superintendent Richard Ainsworth. Still more upsetting is the news from Ainsworth’s Chief Constable, John Dinnage, that NWTV chairman Horace Throgmorton wants Chief Inspector Charlie Woodend (The Dark Lady, 2001, etc.) in charge. Cloggin’-it Charlie is about as subtle as a sledgehammer, and since he’s been cut loose from Scotland Yard, he’s had his hands full keeping his longtime second-in-command, Bob Rutter, from feuding with his new sergeant, Monika Paniatowski—or keeping his daughter Annie from pitching a full-blown tantrum about being uprooted from London.

As his own life threatens to turn into a soap opera, Woodend’s steady but unsentimental determination make Spencer’s low-key latest a model puzzler.