Rough Cut

Read Rough Cut Storyline:

    Sometimes, the breakneck world of advertising gets to be
just too much for Michael Ketchum-he can't stand the pace, the politics, the
backstabbing. And things at his small agency are starting to get out of hand:
his partner, Denny Harris, is polarizing the employees; there are
inconsistencies in the bookeeping; and he finds out that Harris is having an
affair with their top client's wife-threatening the future of the
business.
    In a rage, Ketchum drives off to his partner's home for a
confrontation. But someone has been there before him: Ketchum finds Harris
dead-brutally stabbed and murdered.
    Could the murderer have been Cindy Traynor, the client's
wife, whose car Ketchum saw leaving the scene of the crime?
    Rough Cut follows Ketchum into a fight to save his
business-and his life: he must prove to the police that he is not the
murderer; he must prove to himself that the beautiful Cindy Traynor is not the
murderer; and he must find the mysterious connection between the killing and the
other strange goings-on at the agency.
    But before long there is a second murder. And then a
third. And there is only one thing that Ketchum is certain of: that he
will be next.
    
***
    
    "…a fine mystery that breaks new ground in the way of
combining the best elements of the so-called English school and the American
method, while allowing the reader a peek inside the subculture of the
advertising industry. The writing is lean and visual, the characterizations
sharp. The mood is at times somber, at times terrifying, and always compelling.
All in all, an excellent first effort."
    -Loren D. Estlemen
    
    "A clever and suspenseful venture into the cutthroat,
anxiety-ridden world of advertising… A slick, fast-paced, witty mystery."
    -Booklist