The Murder Man

Parsons (Man and Boy) targets the snobbery of the British upper classes in his entertaining first foray into crime fiction. Maverick Det. Constable Max Wolfe becomes a hero after he disobeys orders and takes out a suicide bomber headed for a London railway station. Reassigned to homicide as a reward, Wolfe investigates the murders of investment banker Hugo Buck and homeless junkie Adam Jones, who turn out to have attended the same posh school, Potter’s Field, lorded over then as now by its headmaster, the haughty Peregrine Waugh. Parsons depicts the boarding school friends of the murder victims as upper-class clichés, but humorously so, sending up their lofty credentials. In this rarefied world, social class is often inversely proportional to morality. As the corpse count grows, Wolfe lets off steam by flirting with Buck’s seductive widow, drinking triple espressos, walking his dog, and doting on his five-year-old daughter, whom he’s raising as a single father. Readers will hope to see more of him. [em]Agent: Sloan Harris, ICM. (Oct.) [/em]