Summary

Famed for her 22 Richard Jury mysteries, 2012 Mystery Writers of America Grandmaster goes entertainingly wonky with this sequel to her best-selling Foul Matter. Hit men Candy and Karl have been asked to take out literary agent L. Bass Hess but are reluctant to do so until they learn that he is suing author Cindy Sella for a commission on her previous novel, though she'd fired him before it was published. Insider publishing stuff delivered with acidulous wit.


A wickedly funny sequel to Grimes's bestselling novel, Foul Matter, "a satire of the venal, not to say murderous practices of the New York publishing industry" (The New York Times Book Review).

MARTHA GRIMES "GOES ENTERTAININGLY WONKY WITH THIS SEQUEL TO HER BESTSELLING FOUL MATTER . . . DELIVERING INSIDER PUBLISHING STUFF WITH ACIDULOUS WIT" (LIBRARY JOURNAL).

In Grimes's new sendup of a world she knows very well, Candy and Karl, hitmen with a difference-- they have scruples--once again venture into the murky Manhattan publishing scene. This time they come to the aid of a writer who is being sued by her unscrupulous literary agent, L. Bass Hess, a man determined to get a 15 percent commission for a book he didn't sell.

The contract killers join forces with publishing mogul Bobby Mackenzie and megabestselling writer Paul Giverney to rid the mean streets of Hess, not by shooting him, but by driving him crazy. They are helped by other characters from Foul Matter and a crew of new colorful personalities, including an out-of-work Vegas magician, an alligator wrangler, a glamorous Malaysian con lady, and Hess's aunt in Everglades City, who has undergone a wildly successful sex change.

This wickedly funny sequel to Grimes's bestselling novel Foul Matter is another character-driven "satire of the venal, not to say murderous, practices of the New York publishing industry" (The New York Times Book Review).