cover image Bloody Soaps: A Tale of Love and Death in the Afternoon

Bloody Soaps: A Tale of Love and Death in the Afternoon

Jacqueline Babbin. International Polygonics, $17.95 (177pp) ISBN 978-1-55882-002-9

Babbin, who once produced All My Children , calls on her extensive backstage knowledge of daytime soap operas to enrich this lively, tartly witty murder mystery. The cast and crew of a TV soap opera called The Key to Life are shaken when their producer, obnoxious Wally Krog, is found in the studio with a knitting needle thrust through his neck. New York homicide detective Clovis Kelley, whose girlfriend Yancey Howland acts on Key , quickly learns that nearly everyone associated with the program resented the dead man. In fact, Wally's bullying and taunting infuriated so many people that Clovis is hard put to identify a prime suspect. To gain additional insight, he questions Key stars, writers, executives and staffers. What emerges is a tangled tale of behind-the-scenes backbiting and tenuous alliances just as titillating as the show itself. Then a second murder complicates things even further in this overpopulated piece of light, entertaining fiction. (July)