Customer Reviews

Death in Advertising

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If you've ever worked with a creative director, an accounting manager or anyone in the ad biz, you'll enjoy this book. A 31-year-old ad exec must win the hope chest account, solve a murder, and explore the challanges of management. Some very funny characters, including a gifted but gutter-mouthed Creative Director, a huckster who knows his business, and a vegetarian Kafka-reading Copywriter who romances the protagonist. The use of the whodunit genre gives Martin license to explore the strange world of advertising, the characters and the fascinating process of art against deadline. He touches on enough detail about the financial world without excess, and the believable, well-drawn and colorful dialogue has all the mercurial fury of Wall Street. Makes me want to read more of his books.

Martiin, a vetran of the New York and Richmond advertising scene (The Martin Agency) has written a very readable mystery using the Richmond advertising community as his setting. His characters are well-developed and the element of suspense is always with the reader. A delightful bonus for those familiar with Richmond is his accurate descriptions of the geography of the Fan and West End. A very good read. Lit Maxwell, University of Richmond, Richmond, VA.

Amanda Boyd, editor of Writer's Digest, announced on April 16, 1998 that Stephen Hawley Martin had won an unprecedented second Writer's Digest Book Award for Fiction. "No one has ever won twice in this competition," she said. "We'll be featuring Martin's book, Death in Advertising, in the August edition of Writer's Digest." Novels and other book length works of fiction are judged based on the quality of the writing. Writer's Digest staff screens entries and sends finalists to an independent panel of judges made up of publishing luminaries. These judges select the final winner. Advertising executives, and journalists who cover the industry, have also endorsed the work as a fast-paced thriller and an authentic look inside the business." "I'm overwhelmed," Martin said. "I felt good about this book all along, and it was a lot of fun to write, but I'd never have thought it would win the top award from Writer's Digest after they'd given it to me once before. I'm keeping my fingers crossed it will do well in the mystery award competitions, too." Death in Advertising, Martin's first whodunit, is set in a fictitious Richmond, Virginia, advertising agency. Shockoe Slip, the Fan District and other prominent sections of the city figure prominently in the story. Martin's previous winner was a suspense novel with a metaphysical theme called, Out of Body, Into Mind. A best seller in the New Age category, it is being reissued in June by Hampton Roads Publishing under the title, The Mt. Pelée Redemption. The first edition under the original title is still available through Amazon as of this writing. (4/21/98)

"Death in Advertising" literally forced me to turn to the next page.

I couldn't believe the way this book was crafted and executed. It gives a whole new meaning to 'Mystery.'

Martin brings to life characters in a way that you wouldn't have imagined possible, and in a setting -- advertising -- that you never before would have cared about.

It's equally exciting that "Death in Advertising" is set in one of the oldest and greatest cities in the south, Richmond, VIrginia.

"Death in Advertising" would make a great Holiday present that they'll never forget!

With his sexy and likable protagonist, Brian Durston, advertising agency veteran and prize-winning novelist Stephen Hawley Martin has created a compelling new voice in the genre of whodunits. Martin should be off to the races with this one. Death in Advertising grabs a reader¹s attention in the first shocking scene and holds on relentlessly to the heart-stopping finish. Durston is a bright young hot shot in the ad game, who at 32 has left the fast track at a huge New York advertising agency to join his uncle¹s medium-sized shop. Why would a guy with a big future and a $150,000 salary do that? His uncle has promised he¹ll soon take over this established, successful firm. The future looks secure until Durston discovers his uncle¹s body, the victim of what looks to him like a staged suicide. Because life insurance companies won¹t pay on a suicide, Durston can¹t buy what is rightfully his, his uncle¹s share of the business. It definitely looks like a set up, so Durston begins a clandestine investigation of the agency¹s shareholders while he simultaneously fights to save the agency¹s biggest account. Then, lo and behold, along comes the beautiful but enigmatic copywriter, Nickie D¹Agostino. What follows is a romance tortured by suspicion, and a frenetic race to find the murderer as time ticks toward a deadline beyond which his uncle¹s stock cannot be purchased. Death in Advertising is a fast-paced thriller with characters that readers will come to care about and enough shady and slimy ones to keep them guessing. People who work in advertising will get more than a few laughs out of situations they no doubt will have encountered. Others will learn what goes on behind the scenes as an agency swings into action on a big new business pitch. All the elements mesh to create an edge-of-your-seat thriller that is impossible to put down. As ADWEEK editor, Jim Osterman, summed up, ³Death in Advertising is an engrossing murder mystery wrapped around the inner intrigue of the agency business.² Whether you are a whodunit fan or not, this is one you will not want to miss.