Death Caps: A Novel - Hardcover

Castleman, Michael

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 0867196750 ISBN 13: 9780867196757

Publisher: Last Gasp, 2007

Synopsis

The second title in the Ed Rosenberg mystery series. At the gala launch party for porn publisher Ted Calderone's new erotic magazine, sexy models serve delicious appetizers but a murderer has spiked one tray with poison mushrooms, death caps. A controversial investigative reporter eats them and dies. Local newspaperman Ed Rosenberg was standing next to the victim when he swallowed the poison, and gets wrapped into the vortex of the murder investigation. Ed follows leads from a dark basement in Chinatown to a fabulous mansion atop Russian Hill, and to the heart of America's porn industry. He meets gorgeous nude models, a famous feminist who hated Calderone but now works for him, and a genius computer hacker. More bodies drop, and Ed wonders if Calderone is the murderer or the killer's ultimate target. Then Ed finds himself looking down the wrong end of a gun.

About this title

About the Author

Michael Castleman grew up in Lynbrook, a Long Island suburb of New York City. He graduated Phi Beta Kappa from the University of Michigan with a degree in English (1972), and earned a Masters in journalism from UC Berkeley (1977). He has lived in San Francisco since 1975. An award-winning medical journalist, he is the author of twelve consumer health and sexuality books and currently publishes GreatSexAfter40.com. He has published three previous Ed Rosenberg novels: The Lost Gold of San Francisco, Death Caps, and A Killing in Real Estate.

Reviews

Castleman's second novel featuring San Francisco reporter Ed Rosenberg makes excellent use of the author's in-depth knowledge of his adopted city in an intriguing whodunit plot. Rosenberg writes a regular column on the history of the Bay City for a paper known as The Horn. He and his wife, Julie, are guests at a major media launch of a new magazine, Loving Couple, when several of the major players behind the publication, including publisher Ted Calderone, and editor Valerie Kurtzen, are poisoned by a mushroom appetizer that proves fatal for an investigative journalist whose exposé of toxins in breast milk made him powerful enemies in the chemical industry. Rosenberg digs into the twisted relationships of the Calderone family in an effort to solve the crime. Castleman's sure pacing and vivid journalist's world will pull readers in, though the sex scenes may be a little racy for mainstream readers, and the ending may prove less than satisfying for traditional mystery fans.
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Edition details

• Publisher: Last Gasp
• Publication date: 2007
• Language: English
• ISBN 10: 0867196750
• ISBN 13: 9780867196757
• Binding: Hardcover
• Edition number: 1
• Number of pages: 231