The Man Who Loved Women to Death

A serial killer is showing Hoagy his novel in progress--and every chapter is murder....Once Stewart "Hoagy" Hoag was the toast of the publishing world and the husband of luscious Broadway beauty Merilee Nash. Now, reunited with Merilee in proud parenthood, Hoagy ghosts celebrity memoirs to pay the rent. And solves the occasional murder, aided by Lulu, his anchovy-eating basset hound.A ghostwriter usually chooses his clients, but this time Hoagy finds himself chosen. His new client calls himself the Answer Man, and he's mailing Hoagy anonymous installments of his work in progress. Each one narrates the stalking and strangling of a lovely young woman--and it's no sooner in Hoagy's mailbox than the cops find her corpse: branded with orange-lipstick question marks. Hoagy's deadly pen pal--bent on a megabestseller and a movie deal--is seeking his literary advice, and Hoagy's being tagged by both the police and the press as a twisted killer's go-between.Hoagy has some questions of his own for the elusive Answer Man. But the closer he gets to the truth, the less he likes what he finds. For Hoagy fears the prolific killer may be someone too close to him for comfort. And that the next chapter of the Answer Man's grisly opus might be Hoagy's last.From Library JournalGhost-writer Stewart Hoag confronts the biggest challenge of both his writing and sleuthing careers. A calculating serial killer in New York writes about his crimes as they occur and sends the chapters to Hoag, his "collaborator." Pressured by police and press, Hoag suspects an old friend. Fun reading from the author of The Girl Who Ran Off with Daddy (LJ 2/1/96).Copyright 1997 Reed Business Information, Inc. From BooklistNearly 30 years ago, three boys became friends: unassuming, nerdy Ezra Spooner; Stewart "Hoagy" Hoag, who became a famous writer; and Tuttle Cash, the golden boy who had everything. The three eventually drifted apart, but they're about to be reunited in a most chilling manner. Hoagy recently received the first chapter of an unsolicited manuscript from an unidentified author. The chapter is a daring, violent, menacing, and brilliant story about a serial killer who befriends a young woman who works in a pet store and then strangles her with a lamp cord. A few days later, to Hoagy's horror, the body of a young woman--a pet-store employee--is found. The victim's physical description, the modus operandi, and the location of the body are identical to the murder described in the chapter Hoagy received. Teaming up with his old nemesis, hip, hyper NYPD Lieutenant Romaine Very, Hoagy struggles to make sense of the chilling case and soon finds himself suspecting that one of his old pals may be the killer. Handler has written a sleek, sophisticated, over-the-top story that's filled with red herrings, laugh-aloud humor, and plenty of suspense. Four stars. Emily Melton