Customer Reviews

Murder at the Heartbreak Hospital

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Henry Slesar is a television writer with over 500 episodes of such well-known series as "Alfred Hitchcock Presents," "Batman," and the "ABC Movie of the Week." His portolio also includes two Edgar Awards for his mysteries, placeing him in the enviable top echelon of mystery writers.

MURDER AT HEARTBREAK HOSPITAL begins with Detective William Troy, reassigned by the NYPD after a run-in with an angelic looking but evil-minded prostitute with homicide by knife on her mind:

"He was making all the right moves towards detective status when, on his twenty-sixth birthday, a hooker with a face like a Botticelli angel and the mental attitude of a Borgia plunged a six-foot kitchen knife into his chest, narrowly missing his heart."

This is just a sample of the descriptive and witty writing as Detective Troy joins the Movie/TV unit of the NYPD, and begins meeting the stars, writers, and producers of HEARTBREAK HOSPITAL. Naturally every daytime soap requires a witch with a "b" to head up the cast, and before long Troy meets and falls in love with Sunday Tyler, who plays Andrea Harmon...the most hated and loved actress who ever graced a soap set. Despised by fans and co-workers, it isn't long before Sunday is also knifed to death. Troy sets out to solve her murder, but is distracted when his ex-girlfriend tells him she is pregnant and then is also murdered...this time poisoned by a lemon-meringue pie when she crashes Troy's apartment with his not yet returned keys. Troy finds himself at the top of the list of suspects for his ex's murder, even as he finds more and more of his personal items purloined by her and her doting mother pointing the finger at him.

HEARTBREAK HOSPITAL is a fun read, full of all the expected misery of a soap drama...a cast with lots to hide; the fan club filled with kooky women with a tentative grasp of reality; the token transsexual; the evil star's past; and the lovelorn cop. Slesar even throws an unexpected twist into the ending. But that would be telling.

Shelley Glodowski
Senior Reviewer

Anyone who watched The Edge of Night is going to enjoy this wry peek at the inner workings of a daytime soap opera. Written by Henry Slesar, who was the head writer for The Edge of Night for many years, Murder at Hearbreak Hospital reads almost like a plot line from that fondly remembered series. Even the characters' names like Sunday Tyler or Milo Derringer sound like they could have come right out of Edge. There are lots of inside references to the daytime dramas (especially Edge), and Slesar's fans will not fail to notice his trademark "blue herrings."

Although I only two-thirds of the way through this novel, I can safety assure other potential readers not to bother with this trite and strictly by the numbers murder mystery. The only real mystery is exactly how many typos you'll be able to pick up throughout this book. (Is it just me or has proofreading at publishing companies gone out of style) The proofing is so bad here the protagonist's name actually changes at 2 different points in the story. Even ardent soap fans will find little inside humor in this offering. Every soap reference is to The Edge of Night, a soap that went off the air years ago. (This author must have worked for the show). In short, mystery fans, soaps fans, and fans of good writing- skip this book.