Death Before Bedtime V53 [Paperback]

Edgar Box (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: November 12, 1979

In Death Before Bedtime, dashing P.R. man Peter Sargent is invited to the home of a venerable senator to help strategize his imminent run for president.  On the night before he’s to announce, though, the senator is murdered in his bed.  No longer needed as a political publicist, Sargent finds himself helping the police find the killer.  He deftly navigates an eccentric cast of characters, all of whom are suspects: the rebellious daughter; the sycophantic aide; the grieving widow; and the power-hungry governor with his eye on the senator’s job.  Somehow, between charming the senator’s daughter and glad-handing Washington’s elite, Sargent still manages to methodically put the pieces into place and sees that politics truly is a cut-throat business.

--This text refers to an alternate Paperback edition.

Editorial Reviews

Review

“Clever and lively.” —Anthony Boucher, Los Angeles Times

“The case of the missing author is over.  Gore Vidal has emerged from behind the facade of Edgar Box.” —The New Republic --This text refers to an alternate Paperback edition.

About the Author

Gore Vidal is the author of twenty-three novels, five plays, two memoirs, numerous screenplays and short stories, and well over two hundred essays. His United States: Essays, 1952–1992 received the National Book Award. --This text refers to an alternate Paperback edition.

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Product Details

• Paperback: 169 pages
• Publisher: Vintage (November 12, 1979)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 039474053X
• ISBN-13: 978-0394740539
• Product Dimensions: 6.8 x 4.2 x 0.5 inches
• Shipping Weight: 4.8 ounces
• Average Customer Review: 5.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (1 customer review)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #5,334,176 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

1 of 1 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars super timely satirical 1950s amateur sleuth, May 16, 2011

By 

Harriet Klausner - See all my reviews
(#1 Hall OF FAME REVIEWER)    (REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Death Before Bedtime (Vintage Crime/Black Lizard) (Paperback)

Highly respected United States Senator Leander Rhodes asks Manhattan based public relations expert Peter Sargent to visit him at his home. He wants Peter to help him develop his PR plan for his run for the presidency and to stay on staff to work the media.

However, the night before Rhodes is to announce his candidacy, someone murders the senator in his bed. Out of work at least as a presidential candidate's publicist, Sargent investigates who killed the respected reactionary politician. He finds a wealth of suspects with motives and opportunity to include the victim's immediate family (of which he shared a sleeper car with the victim's daughter Ellen from New York to DC), an aide and an ambitious Governor who craved being a senator.

This reprint of a satirical 1950s amateur sleuth is a fun timely tale that lampoons the cynical pompousness of the DC insiders starting with "don't call him Dusty" Rhodes (obviously not a NY Giant fan) chairman of the Spoils and Patronage Committee (both political parties can apply). Peter is terrific as he works the case of the murder of his client, which in his mind means getting into the DC dirt. Death Before Bedtime is a terrific political whodunit.

Harriet Klausner