A killer stalks an outrageous talk show host and Gregor Demarkian agrees to appear on the show, but soon finds himself drawn into backstage politics and off-camera malice as he struggles to outbluff a murderer.
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Book Description
Editorial Reviews
From Publishers Weekly
Since Lotte Goldman's TV show specializes in exploring guests' sexual secrets, its employees take the unusual in stride-but even they are caught off guard when the program's all-around boss, DeAnna Kroll, discovers the body of talent coordinator Maria Gonzalez in a storeroom with her face beaten in. Lotte and her crew are scheduled to hit the road for Philadelphia, where one of her first interviews is to be with ex-FBI agent Gregor Demarkian (most recently featured in Dear Old Dead) and a convicted serial killer. Before the show can begin, high-pitched screams lead Gregor to a second victim, whose face has also been destroyed. Being right on the scene, how can Gregor not help his friend, Philadelphia police detective John Jackman, close in on the killer? The story's Hanukkah connection remains peripheral until a contrived link between the killer and some "defective" dreidels is revealed. The slight, rather far-fetched puzzle is overwhelmed by the two richly populated communities (show staffers and Gregor's cutely colorful Armenian-American neighbors). But folks who read the series precisely for those characters will find this entry festive enough.
Copyright 1994 Reed Business Information, Inc.
Copyright 1994 Reed Business Information, Inc.
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Most Helpful Customer Reviews
3 of 3 people found the following review helpful:
4.0 out of 5 stars
Like all of Haddam's books, this is taut and well-written.,
By A Customer
This review is from: A Festival of Deaths (Gregor Demarkian Series) (Mass Market Paperback)
Festival of Deaths finds Gregor Demarkian thrust into the crazy world of a TV talk show. A young woman working for the show is killed in New York just before the show goes on the road to Philadelphia. In Philadelphia, the violence continues, and Demarkian and John Jackman of the Philadelphia police sort it out. As usual, Jane Haddam spins a web around the murders consisting of an unusually large cast of characters and their lives and activities. Even minor characters are well drawn, and though there are clues to the solution of the mystery, they're well hidden and the reader is led astray in any number of subtle and entertaining ways. The whodunit in a Haddam novel is almost always a surprise, but the best part is getting to the end, one page at a time.
1 of 1 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
I was hooked from the opening pararaph.,
By
This review is from: A Festival of Deaths (Gregor Demarkian Series) (Mass Market Paperback)
Gregor Demarkian, the retired FBI agent, is a man of reason, logic, intelligence and good will. Jane Haddam recognizes that life as it is lived reflects few of these qualities. The play in her works, which allow for her subtle ironic commentary, comes from the contrast of Gregor and the situations in which he finds himself. This time he is agrees to appear on an outrageous talk show--as favor to a friend--completely unaware of that he's agreed to appear center ring in America's favorite new circus.Hannukah, the season of light, that celebrates the survival of the oppressed, is the theme of this book. Haddam contrasts the cult of celebrity and the outrageous with the lives of those who work on the show, many of whom are among the poor and the marginalized. Well-done, thought-provoking and engagingly funny and ironic.
4.0 out of 5 stars
Talk Show Pizzazz,
By
This review is from: A Festival of Deaths (Gregor Demarkian Series) (Mass Market Paperback)
Based on copyright information Jane Haddam is a pseudonym it is believed. DeAnna Kroll is six feet tall. THE LOTTE GOLDMAN SHOW was her idea. When the Siamese twins fail to materialize at the airport on time because of delays at Gatwick and Heathrow, the show is thrown into turmoil and a replacement subject has to be found. DeAnna Kroll is the closest thing to a friend that Lotte Goldman has encountered in a long and action-packed lifetime. The show is outrageous, a kind of Dr. Ruth extension. The characters manifest all of the exotic diversity of New York City. The people are just plain vivid. For example, there is Itzaak Blechmann late of the Soviet Union and Israel whose experiences have put his body into a crisis mode permanently. "His fright-or-flight response never came down out of high gear." Most workers on the show are immigrants. Lotte Goldman likes to give people chances. She is an immigrant. A worker on the show turns up dead in the storeroom. Her apartment has been ransacked. There is a jealous co-worker on the scene who strikes the reader as suspicious. Gregor Demarkian, a former FBI agent resides in Philadelphia. The show is to go on the road and travel to Philadelphia first. Demarkian is famous in Philadelphia for solving some high profile crimes. So--the set up is preposterous but the writing is good and the scene has been set for Demarkian to work his detective magic on the situation. To be sure, of course, he enjoys no official title, and he is not really authorized to solve any mysteries whatsoever. (His favorite fictional detective is Nero Wolfe and there is a certain resemblance.) One of the stranger aspects of the show is the early hours in the morning it is taped. Demarkian is picked up at five A.M. to go into the studio. He is to appear on a program concerning serial killers. Another worker on the show turns up as a dead body. I do not think the plotting here is very adroit but the character portrayals and dialogue are wonderful. Even though this is a genre work it is fairly serious in the sense that it shows the consequences of violence in straightforward fashion. A third person turns up, but this person is only almost dead. The Bureau dealt with paper crime or the employees of the Bureau were called in after the fact. Demarkian had been astounded at all the blood, confusion, and mess of a real crime scene the first time he had been called into one. The mystery takes place during the season of Christmas and Hanukkah. There is liveliness with the existence of Armenian and Jewish clerics among the cast of characters. Demarkian is determined to remain a resident in his ethnic neighborhood because had had been so immersed in the lives of serial killers when he was in the Bureau. Gregor Kemarkian is also helping to investigate a hate crime. Well, the mystery is really like a closed room puzzle, sort of like, you know, did the bultler do it. It is quite an accomplished piece of work.
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