Murder Offscreen: A Queenie Davilov Mystery

A lively, hip investigator debuts in this movie-industry mystery. Former PI Queenie Davilov hopes to make it as a Hollywood scriptwriter but for the moment makes ends meet by working as script supervisor and occasional sleuth for horror-film producer, Burke Lymon. At the premiere of Lymon's newest film, Lucifer's Shadow , the producer is found in the men's room hacked to death with a ceremonial axe, one of several he'd given company members for meritorious work. His widow immediately begins taking over the company, but the producer's secretary dips into the company's substantial emergency fund to hire Queenie to find the killer. The detective encounters a few difficulties, including a mystery in the victim's past and the disinclination of her former lover, LAPD Lieutenant J. P. Fitzgerald, to include an outside investigator in his case. Several company members come in as suspects until Queenie, who rolls her own cigarettes, penetrates an alibi and establishes motives that will lead her to the solution. Screenwriter Osborne gives her milieu and her cast a bright and highly charged reality. (July)