Hidden Agenda
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- $10.99
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- $10.99
Publisher Description
In this series opener by the author of The Appraisal, a Toronto journalist and amateur sleuth tackles a case involving murder and a missing manuscript.
So here's the question: You're about to kill yourself. How vital is it that you get your teeth cleaned? That's the question that keeps bugging Judith Hayes, though admittedly, she keeps returning to it: It's so much easier to deal with than the real question of why her friend George Harris would have killed himself at all. But the cops don't care about the questions. Harris's company was drowning in debt, they point out. And several people saw him jump, right in front of the moving train. It was suicide, they insist, awfully sad, onto the next. There's a devious plot here, and a delicious swirl of romance, but the real joy is Judith—feisty, funny, tough as a bulldog, and everything you want in a mystery-novel heroine.
Praise for Hidden Agenda
"Lively . . . mysterious deaths and plenty of insider publishing stuff along the way." —The New York Times
"Superior fiction. Crisp prose, inventive plot, convincing characters . . . A major new talent." —San Diego Union
"Suspenseful . . . Offbeat . . . Believable and entertaining." —Publishers Weekly
PUBLISHERS WEEKLY
Porter informs her first novel with the authenticity of her experience in Canadian book publishing. Mystery surrounding the deaths of eminent book people in Toronto and New York challenges two good friendsJudith Hayes and Marsha Hillierto solve the case involving a missing manuscript. Judith is a divorced freelance writer whose son and daughter stay with their grandmother in Canada while the eager amateur sleuth visits Marsha in Manhattan. An editor at a paperback company, Marsha gives Judith details on the possible blockbuster status of the catalyst to killing, the manuscript pitting those set on publishing it against those adamantly opposed. As the women investigate, they invite dangerous attention, and so do Judith's children, whom the conspirators kidnap in a particularly suspenseful episode. The motive behind all the skullduggery is political intrigue of shocking proportions as disclosed in the offbeat story's finale. Although the author shows her unfamiliarity with Manhattan in certain geographical slips, her novel is otherwise believable and entertaining.
