Murder in a Mayonnaise Jar - Hardcover

McKitterick, Molly

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 0312093462 ISBN 13: 9780312093464

Publisher: St Martins Pr, 1993

Synopsis

Jennifer, a TV reporter in St. Louis, investigates a boy's drug death among the glue-sniffers' community of street people and stumbles into some surprising suspicions that interest both her station's conceited anchorman and a powerful local businessman

About this title

From Publishers Weekly

In this gritty but sometimes poorly focused mystery, a young woman TV reporter and an anchorman going through mid-life crisis investigate the seemingly unrelated deaths of two glue-sniffing boys near a St. Louis park. Anchorman William Hecklepeck, met before in The Medium Is the Message , is less interested in the story about a boy who died from "solvent abuse" than in his planned trip down the Mississippi with the scion of a leading St. Louis family; nevertheless, he reluctantly agrees to help newcomer Jennifer Burgess with her investigation. The subsequent, similar death of a nine-year-old boy after he has been interviewed by Burgess sparks ratings lust in the station management. The possibility that the death-dealing substance comes from a manufacturing plant owned by one of the city's elite and his growing attraction to the young reporter finally reactivate Hecklepeck's journalistic instincts and lead him and Jennifer down a dangerous path. McKitterick's sharp portrayal of insider politics in both the city and the TV studio seem accurate, but Hecklepeck, a lackluster hero in his first outing, is no more appealing here.
Copyright 1993 Reed Business Information, Inc.

From Kirkus Reviews

Self-involved KYYY anchorman William ``Heck'' Hecklepeck, eager to pilot local tycoon Gus Bussard's inaugural steamboat run from St. Louis to New Orleans--as well as film a special about his excursion--shunts another story, the glue-sniffing deaths of two youngsters a month apart, off on inexperienced, earnest Jennifer Burgess. Jennifer interviews a psychologist and his clientele, including the wacko family of glue-addict Jimmie Smith, soon another sniffer fatality. With patronizing asides (and a few wistful leers) from Heck, she also stakes out the tawdry boy- prostitution turf, as well as the Metalcote factory where the kids stole their glue. Did they sniff up the wrong container? Is the plant guilty of toxic-waste dumping? Heck and Jennifer search further and discover...death by a crazy man and, wouldn't you know it, illegal chloroflurocarbon dumping. A few passing barbs at the TV industry but, mostly, tedious wild-goose chases after red herrings. Again, McKitterick (The Medium is Murder, 1992) relies on an uninteresting hero to hold attention. -- Copyright ©1993, Kirkus Associates, LP. All rights reserved.

About this edition

• Publisher: St Martins Pr
• Publication date: 1993
• ISBN 10: 0312093462
• ISBN 13: 9780312093464
• Binding: Hardcover
• Edition number: 1
• Number of pages: 211