The authors of this elaborate thriller-spoof are an odd team: Walsh is a fictional character from the soap opera One Life to Live
and Edgar-winner Malone is the ABC show's former head writer. The book has nothing to do with the TV program or its characters. Marcie herself isn't even a character. But on the actual television soap, the character Marcie will be writing a book—this book—as part of the show, and there will be eerie echoes of Marcie's plot—this plot—on the show. The book's heroine is 20-something Jamie Ferrara, a police homicide detective in the small New Jersey town of Gloria. When one of Jamie's high school buddies is killed in what looks like an accident, Jamie is reminded that during her senior year, she and the victim belonged to the Killing Club, in which members designed strategies for killing people they didn't like. When Jamie realizes that the accident victim invented his own murder scenario, she starts investigating. Walsh/Malone craft an interesting plot spiced up by the Peyton Place–like antics of Gloria's residents. At one point, Jamie asks herself, "Was there anybody in Gloria... who wasn't cheating on a spouse?" Kind of like Llanview, where One Life to Live
takes place. If "author" Walsh is killed off on OLTL
, she can always make a new career writing readable, enjoyable mysteries, as long as she teams up with Malone. Agent, Peter Matson at Sterling Lord Literistic. (Mar.)
Forecast:
Cross-promotion (or call it cross-pollination?) with ABC should attract curious
One Life to Live fans. At the other end of the spectrum, Walsh/Malone might spark some publishing biz gossip with their transgression of book-world boundaries.
