Sentenced to Death

December 5, 2022
In Hechtman’s winning fourth Writer for Hire mystery (after 2022’s Making It Write), fledgling Chicago mystery author Veronica Blackstone, who’s also a writer for hire, composing “whatever anybody needed, from copy for websites to celebrations of life for funerals,” takes on a new client, the Friends of Hyde Park, an organization that hires her to prepare the booklet that will accompany its annual house and garden tour. One house on the tour belongs to Landon Donte, the neighborhood literary lion, whose most recent book has flopped royally. When, during a dinner for the Friends at Donte’s home, he’s found in his locked office with a bullet hole in his head, the police are quick to assume the man had been despondent over his recent failure and shot himself. Resourceful and observant Veronica does not agree. A subplot in which Veronica writes love letters for an executive who wants a wealthy businessman to ask her to marry him adds poignancy. Hechtman does a good job introducing her vivid cast, sowing doubt about their potential motives and relationships, and letting their egos collide. This cozy is good fun. Agent: Jessica Faust, Bookends Literary.

January 1, 2023
A Chicago-based writer with many talents gets mixed up in yet another murder. Though Veronica Blackstone has already published a successful mystery and is working on a second, most of her income comes from writing copy for all sorts of businesses and even love letters. A fresh job beckons when her friend Tizzy Baxter asks her to come to a garden club meeting. A new member has put together a plan to improve a house and garden tour, and the group wants Veronica to write the copy for the booklet. Veronica immediately notices some tension between club sponsors and homeowners who have agendas of their own and prickly personalities. One house is owned by conceited novelist Landon Donte, who's written a few lionized but depressing books supposedly based on people in the area. Next door is R.L. Lincoln, whose books are considered lightweight but bring in a lot more money. The man financing the extended tour is a lawyer made popular by TV ads who seeks recognition for himself and his wife in society's higher echelons. Veronica herself is unsure of her feelings toward Ben Monroe, police officer, workshop member, and brother of the neighbor who's pushing them both toward romance. As she gathers information, it becomes more and more obvious that a lot of things about the tour don't add up. When Donte seemingly kills himself and destroys his new manuscript in his locked office during a progressive dinner party, Veronica suspects murder and sets out to prove it. A well-written mystery with plenty of charismatic, guilty-looking characters.

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