Dead Man of the Year: A Whodunit - Softcover

Stephen Martin

Softcover

ISBN 10: 189253875X ISBN 13: 9781892538758

Publisher: Oaklea Press, 2010

Synopsis

Brian Durston left a bright future at a big Madison Avenue agency to join his uncle's medium-sized firm because his uncle promised him a stake in the business. The future looked bright until Brian discovered his uncle slumped over his desk with a bullet through his brain. The cops think it's suicide, which means his uncle's life insurance won't pay, and Brian won't inherit the money to buy his uncle's share. Who benefits? The surviving partners. 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 wants to help Brian save the account and find the killer. But wait, could she be the one who did it? A romance tortured by suspicion follows, and a frantic race to find the murderer before Brian's share of the business reverts to the surviving partners, or worse - he joins his uncle in the afterlife.

About this title

About the Author:

Co-founder of The Martin Agency, named national ad agency of 2009 by ADWEEK and serving such clients as GEICO (gecko & caveman), Pizza Hut, and Wal-Mart, Martin is the only three-time winner of the Writer's Digest Book Award, winning for fiction and nonfiction, and he's won First Place for Fiction from Independent Publisher, and for nonfiction from USA Books News.

From Publishers Weekly:

Set in what begs to be called the go-go nineties, this whodunit follows ad man Brian Durston as he races to find a murderer save his professional future. Leaving a flashy New York job for a controlling interest in his uncle's Virginia firm, Durston's plans are thrown off course when his uncle apparently commits suicide, and a multi-million dollar client goes missing. Believing that the death was a murder, he joins with a genre-standard sexy helpmate to solve the mystery, while also preparing for a pitch that could save the firm. Martin, a successful ad exec, makes good use of his experience; the big money, creativity, and simmering interpersonal conflicts of the trade add authentic layers of interest. The murder mystery is less carefully handled, however, with suspects passing somewhat arbitrarily in and out of favor until an abrupt conclusion wraps things up too quickly; salacious developments and details pale in comparison to the attention given the creative presentation that might save the firm. Told with confidence and evident enjoyment, the tale is cheesy fun, and Martin's winking insider's approach atones for much of the banality of the thrills.
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About this edition

• Publisher: Oaklea Press
• Publication date: 2010
• ISBN 10: 189253875X
• ISBN 13: 9781892538758
• Binding: Paperback
• Number of pages: 272