The protagonist, 32 year old Brian Durston, has left a bright future at a big Madison Avenue agency to join his uncle's medium-sized ad firm. He did so with the understanding his uncle would give him a stake in the business. The future looks bright for Brian until he discovers his uncle Rod dead, slumped over his desk, a bullet through his brain. The police think suicide is the cause, which means the uncle's life insurance won't pay, and Brian will not inherit the money to buy his share of the business. This raises a big question in Brian’s mind. Who benefits? The answer seems obvious: The surviving partners, of course. So Brian decides some investigating is in order. Meanwhile, the agency's largest account goes into review, and Brian must pull out the stops to save it, or there won’t be much agency left. In steps the beautiful and enigmatic copywriter, Nickie D'Agostino. She says she wants to help Brian save the account and find the killer. But after a while, Brian begins to wonder. Could she be the one who did it? A romance tortured by suspicion follows, and a frantic, white-knuckle race to find the murderer before Brian’s share of the business reverts to the surviving partners, or worse his snooping prompts the killer to strike again, sending Brian to join his uncle in the afterlife.
My thoughts
Dead Man of the Year by Stephen Hawley Martin is a mesmerizing murder mystery that is somehow entangled in the advertising industry. With his background in the industry, Martin creates a realistic feel of the energetic pulse behind the ad men and spices it up with a murder right there on Madison Avenue. The story unfolds with Brian Durston, finding the body of his uncle who runs a New York advertising firm. Since the police write it off as suicide, their largest client putting out to bid their latest campaign, Brian is in a frenzy to solve the case and save the firm! An amusing adventure in the ad world.
Disclosure: I received thisbook from the publisher for review. I received no compensation for my thoughts.
0 comments:
Post a Comment