cover image All My Suspects

All My Suspects

Louise Shaffer. Putnam Publishing Group, $19.95 (224pp) ISBN 978-0-399-13965-9

This urbane, charming debut introduces Angie DaVito, newly rehired executive producer of the soap opera Bright Tomorrow, who loves her job-until she finds the nude body of her boss, dead of a gunshot, in the star's dressing room. Suspects with motives abound since almost everyone in the cast and crew had tangled with egotistical, womanizing Gregg Whithall. Tough-as-nails Angie, whom readers know has a heart of gold, keeps the show going amidst gossip and rampant rumors. She copes with Whithall's successors, to whom murder might be just a career step, and the anxiety of her former lover, a writer for the show whose wife might have been having an affair with the victim. On the case is equally competent NYPD Detective Teresa O'Hanlon, unawed by cast and management. The Bright Tomorrow staff chooses to tell Angie, rather than the cop, what they know; as unofficial investigator, Angie becomes the repository of information which endangers her life. Shaffer's snappy pacing, intricate plotting and recognizable characters are likely to enchant even those who don't watch soaps. (Sept.)