Fine Lines

Oklahoma's lieutenant governor, One-Eyed Mack, is called in by Governor Buffalo Joe Hayman to investigate once again when a killer begins targeting the state's legislators of both parties for murder. 25,000 first printing. $25,000 ad/promo. Tour.

Still another departure for multitalented Lehrer--news anchor, playwright, and chronicler of the One-Eyed Mack, Oklahoma's priceless lieutenant governor. This time Mack plays detective when four state representatives are killed: three while he's away overnight in Chicago, the fourth corpse rapidly cooling in his office on his return. Shrugging off the suggestion that somebody's trying to kill every Democrat in Oklahoma, Mack, his back pushed against the wall by cowardly, incompetent Gov. Buffalo Joe Hayman, concentrates on what the late legislators had in common: their 11th-hour support for Rep. Jess Deaton's public education initiative, ``Sooner Number One.'' Would Jess kill legislators he had patently just finished bribing? The answer won't become clear until Mack's waded through his wife, Jackie's, Chocolate Fork Award ceremony, paved the way for the Oklahoma Blue Arrow Bus Lines to try his son Tommy Walt's innovative fuel mixture--ethanol and recycled cooking grease, gone another round with Sandra Faye Parsons, whose all-points request for mummified Americans (Short List, 1992) has borne unexpected fruit, and lucked into a colossally inept FBI sting. Beguiling minor work from a satirist who usually cuts deeper. -- Copyright ©1994, Kirkus Associates, LP. All rights reserved.

YA-The announcement that "Someone croaked the Cluck" heralds a series of unexplained deaths within the Oklahoma state legislature. As Lt. Governor, it is the One-eyed Mack's job to solve the mystery. Usually murders are serious business, but not in the Sooner State Capitol, with its colorful coterie of politicians, law-enforcement people, and others. The antics are wildly improbable yet completely believable because of Lehrer's deft touch and his permanently attached tongue-in-cheek. There is homespun philosophy gently woven into this fun read that should appeal to YAs who appreciate satire.
Judy Sokoll, Fairfax County Public Library, VA
Copyright 1994 Reed Business Information, Inc.

Lehrer's gabby, smartass characters, who are also possessed of depth and originality, will continue to delight those who've read the PBS newscaster's earlier One-eyed Mack mysteries. The pleasure of readers new to the series may be enhanced by surprise. Except for the passing mention of someone named MacNeil, Lehrer leaves off his TV hat to delve into the deep and dirty heart of politics in Oklahoma, where Mack is Lieutenant Governor. When four members of the Oklahoma House of Representatives, all Democrats, die in suspiciously quick succession, Mack is soon on the case, his sleuthing only slightly distracted by his entrepreneurial wife Jackie's winning a coveted award and his enterprising stepson Tommy's scheme to power diesel vehicles with a combination of methanol and fast-food grease. The politicians are done in in different ways, but all die after an about-face on a sensitive issue--about which a secretive local millionaire would rather they hadn't changed their minds. Lehrer has infectious fun with his cast of fast-food junkies and conniving politicians, among whom such real folks as violinist Isaac Stern, mystery writer and poet Stephen Dobyns and Henry Kissinger's wife keep popping up. Author tour.
Copyright 1994 Reed Business Information, Inc.

One-Eyed Mack, lieutenant governor of Oklahoma and the governor's right hand, tries to halt a murderer of state legislators. He contends with his foxy wife's Chocolate Fork achievement award, meanwhile, and various other comical demands on his time.
Copyright 1994 Reed Business Information, Inc.

The One-Eyed Mack is back! And, as usual in Lehrer's sweetly goofy Oklahoma, there's all manner of skulduggery and eccentricity afoot. In this sixth tale of the lieutenant governor of Oklahoma, someone is killing members of the state legislature. As he always does when bad PR threatens the Sooner State--and his career--Governor Buffalo Joe Hayman orders Mack to get to the bottom of it all. Needless to say, Mack unravels the mystery. In the process he helps his son Tommy Wait build a new market for his recycled restaurant grease business, waxes affectionate for intercity bus lines, sidetracks Buffalo Joe's plan to create a state border patrol to keep Arkansans out, and ends the hunger strike of a small-town sheriff protesting passage of a state statute that outlaws speed traps. If all this doesn't make much sense, you just haven't been reading the PBS newsman's winsome series. Rest assured that your patrons have, so buy several copies of Fine Lines. Thomas Gaughan