cover image Dial ""M"" for Murdock

Dial ""M"" for Murdock

Robert Joseph Ray. St. Martin's Press, $17.95 (295pp) ISBN 978-0-312-02194-8

Newport Beach private eye Matt Murdock returns ( Murdock for Hire ) in a complex and gritty story highlighted by the author's ability to write about credible characters in realistic relationships. Insurance-claims investigator and old Army buddy Bruce Halliburton hires Murdock to look into the death of an Orange County businessman who had tripled the value of his insurance four months before his death in a car crash. When similar cases come to light, indicating that the businessmen involved might be living on after their deaths, Murdock suspects a vast conspiracy he coyly starts to think of as ``Death Inc.'' But amusement ceases when he and Roxanne Mendez-Madrid, one of the apparent widows, confront the hidden conspiracy and discover the extent of its many resources. Ray's well-wrought consideration of what can happen to those overtaken by ``greedy little-boy dreams'' will leave readers eager for the next Murdock adventure. (Dec.)