Murder by Design
A Rick Domino Mystery
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- $12.99
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- $12.99
Publisher Description
Rick Domino is at the very top in his world - which is Hollywood - and his stock in trade is celebrity gossip. His finances, however, are the pits and can't begin to pay for his copious good taste. So when his producer 'suggests' he be a guest on a popular cable decorating/reality program - "My House, Your House" - Rick agrees to appear not only because he's not really given a choice in the matter but it's a chance at a free makeover for his sagging, outdated living room. As plans go, this isn't Rick's best.
And it all quickly goes horribly wrong. The consulting designer assigned to his house is well known for the particularly dreadful remodeling horrors she's perpetrated on other guest's spaces. To make matters more unpleasant, Rick is teamed up with his bitterest professional enemy - his grasping, bitch co-host Mitzi McGuire-while the other 'couple' in the program is his friend Terry Zane - a sweet but savagely unstylish police detective - and Terry's recent ex-wife, the charmless Darla Sue. As if this mess wasn't big enough, one of the designers is savagely-if perhaps understandably-murdered and the prime suspect is Terry Zane's cousin.
With Terry's help, Rick Domino is on a quest to rescue his reputation, salvage his living room, and - if at all possible - find the person responsible for this particularly tasteless act of murder.
PUBLISHERS WEEKLY
Gay gossip columnist Rick Domino made a smashing debut in Bloch's spoof of the Oscars, Best Murder of the Year (2002). If this wickedly funny sequel doesn't quite match the same high standard, the author keeps the satire mostly on target as Rick lets the design experts of the do-it-yourself cable TV show My House, Your House make over his outdated living room. Rick soon finds not just his house but his life turned upside down. Playing the comic innocent is Terry Zane, an LAPD "junior detective" whom Rick befriended (and helped bring out of the closet) in Best Murder of the Year. At Rick's suggestion, Terry allows MHYH to make over his bedroom on the same episode. The program's quirky cast includes Aunt Fern (country-style, heavy on the crochet); Bill McCoy (aka Shirtless Bill), who used to design theme parks; and Helena Godiva, "a kind of Donna Reed with a whip." The carpenters who assist the designers are no less extreme. The show's volatile and promiscuous relationships turn deadly with the murder of Helena, whose body is discovered swaddled in fabric swinging from a ceiling fan in her motel room the morning after the crew decorates Terry's bedroom walls with police badges. Bloch may rely too much on his characters' odd sexual proclivities for laughs, but anyone who has watched a DIY program like MHYH should enjoy the book's warped take on such shows.
