Summary | Excerpt | Reviews | Beyond the book | Readalikes | Genres & Themes | Author Bio
Critics' Opinion:
Readers' Opinion:
First Published:
May 2005, 257 pages
Paperback:
Oct 2006, 257 pages
Book Reviewed by:
BookBrowse Review Team
From the book jacket:
At the annual convention of the American
Booksellers Association
everything goes wrong. Julia Child's cooking
demonstration in the Random House aisle
blows up and catches fire. A top New York
editor catches a pie in the face.
Invitations to the most exclusive
publisher's party are stolen and all the
wrong people show up. Worse, Heidi Yamada,
the world-famous poet, is found dead, spread
over the late Elvis Presley's king-sized
bed....
Comment: John Daniel sets his first
"Guy Mallon" mystery at the real-life 1990
American Booksellers Association (ABA)
convention in Las Vegas. His
protagonist, Guy, is a book collector (Post-World War II Poets of
the American West), a bookseller, and a
small-press publisher. He also has a nose for
mystery - a nose that senses that all is not above board when the manipulative poet, Heidi
Yamada is found dead from what the police
conclude is an accidental overdose.
Before her death Heidi was feted by all and
sundry, but barely has the corpse been
tidied up than the backstabbing begins,
cumulating in the eulogies given by her
publishing nearest and dearest, who reveal
the real Heidi - and in the process both
provide essential clues for Guy, and add
themselves to his ever lengthening suspect
list.
This delightfully sharp and sardonic
send up of the book trade is a shoe-in for
bibliophiles who are also aficionados of
cozy mysteries.
John M. Daniel is a
small-press literary book
publisher in McKinleyville,
California. He has taught
fiction writing at UCLA
Extension and Santa Barbara
Adult Education and is on the
faculty of the Santa Barbara
Writers Conference. His stories
have appeared in dozens of
literary magazines, and he is
the author of several books,
including Play Melancholy
Baby and Generous
Helpings, a story
collection.
Poisoned Pen Press published the second of
his Guy Mallon mysteries, Vanity Fire,
last month. He is
currently at work on a third, Behind the Redwood Curtain.
This review was originally published in July 2005, and has been updated for the
October 2006 paperback release.
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