The Girl Who Ran Off with Daddy

Celebrity ghostwriter Hoagy Hoag is dismayed when Thor Gibbs, his former mentor, arrives on his doorstep begging for asylum with his much-younger stepdaughter, now his lover, who is fleeing with him from her incensed mother

Stewart "Hoagy" Hoag, the ghostwriter who often stumbles into celebrity murder (The Man Who Cancelled Himself), is trying to enjoy the quiet country life in Connecticut with ex-wife Merilee and their baby when trouble roars up on a motorcycle. It's Hoagy's old friend Thor Gibbs, a legendary author who began with the Beats and lately trades in male-backlash writing. Thor has run off with his wife's daughter, Clethra, a lovely but apparently empty-headed 18-year-old. Hoagy agrees to take them in and help Clethra write her stormy story. When Thor's body is found in a pond on Hoagy and Merilee's farm, suspicion falls on the abandoned wife, a pioneering feminist. Other suspects include Clethra's father, his gay lover, Clethra's other boyfriends and a crew of local rowdies. With help from two unlikely police allies, Hoagy finally gets face-to-face with the killer. Handler controls his material masterfully, delivering newsy verisimilitude and domestic repartee worthy of Nick and Nora Charles. Notable also is Lulu, Hoagy's possessive and intuitive basset hound, who almost steals the show from this thoroughly entertaining cast of characters.
Copyright 1996 Reed Business Information, Inc.

Where does Handler get those outrageous ideas for celebrity ghostwriter Hoagy Hoag's adventures (The Man Who Cancelled Himself, 1995, etc.)? This time his client is Clethra Feingold, 18, who's been offered $2 million for her story of eloping with Thor Gibbs, 71, the stepfather who combines the windy virility of Hemingway and the sexual ethics of Woody Allen. Moments after the two of them turn up at the ancient Connecticut house Hoagy's sharing with his ex-wife Merilee Nash and their infant daughter, he realizes that Clethra is, like, not all that great with words, and it looks as if he'll be spending more quality time with his old mentor Thor. Wrong: soon after Hard Copy screens a salacious video Thor allegedly made of his stepdaughter, the old goat is bashed to death, gelded, and dumped into a convenient pond, and Hoagy himself becomes the number one suspect of slow-moving, fast-burning local cop Lt. Chick Munger. Trying to salvage both his share of the $2 mil and his freedom, Hoagy hobnobs with Clethra's furious mother, feminist icon Ruth Feingold, her ex- husband and the toy boy he left her for, and Arvin Gibbs, the younger stepbrother, who may have had an even stranger attachment to Clethra than her dear old stepdad. Gathering the suspects around Hoagy's own home tames his usual zany gaiety; this accomplished puzzler is probably as sober, even ruminative, as we'll ever see mystery's liveliest ghost. -- Copyright ©1996, Kirkus Associates, LP. All rights reserved.

Stewart "Hoagy" Hoag has plenty to be satisfied about--a happy relationship with his glamorous ex-wife, a sweet new baby girl, and a laid-back lifestyle as a Connecticut gentleman farmer. His career as a celebrity ghostwriter is languishing, but even that's okay, since he's stashed away enough bucks to keep him afloat for a good while. Unfortunately, trouble arrives in the form of old buddy Thor Gibbs, a larger-than-life septuagenarian who shows up with his 18-year-old girlfriend, Clethra Feingold. Trouble is, Clethra, the daughter of a former congresswoman, is Thor's stepdaughter, and the Woody Allenesque romance has provoked a storm of media attention. Thor and Clethra want Hoagy to put them up until things settle down, but before that can happen, Thor turns up murdered. Breezy, funny, and debonair, this seventh in the Hoagy Hoag series satisfies both as a mystery and as light comedy. Emily Melton

Unlike most formulas, this series does not begin with the discovery of a dead body. Instead, Handler grabs the reader's attention with an interesting premise. Famous 71-year-old author Thor Gibb leaves his equally famous feminist wife for her misguided 18-year-old daughter. To escape media attention, the pair drop in on series protagonist Stewart Hoag in Lyme, Connecticut; however, a murder upsets their plans. Hoag's wife and baby escape to New York, and Hoag and his long-suffering basset hound, Lulu, are left to solve the case. Good psychological depth, sharp wit, and a slow-moving but thoroughly satisfying plot.
Copyright 1996 Reed Business Information, Inc.