Smoking Out a Killer

By Harry Paul Lonsdale

Roll the Stogies... Once, Nick Chase was a New York homicide detective. But he traded in the grime of the Naked City for a new life as the proprietor of a cigar store called The Happy Smoking Ground in Cambridge, Massachusetts. For fifteen years it's been paradise. But lately, there's been an unwelcome customer hanging around--called murder... ... Roll the Film Movie producer Natalie Goodman has just begun filming a flick based on Nick Chase's first case, so she's invited a few people out to her New England island estate to celebrate with a weekend of cigars and murder. But she only planned a murder game, not to become the target of a murderer herself. There's no shortage of suspects: a major investor with whom she had a very intimate relationship, the hot young actor who's very eager to recover an incriminating videotape, the co-producer anxious to gain control of the studio, the writer who was shut out of onscreen credit. All these guests and more have plenty of reasons to smoke Natalie. But Nick better wrap this case fast--because as more bodies keep turning up, it's clear that somebody's bent on snuffing out a few aficionados

• Format: Mass Market Paperback
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0380802996
• ISBN13: 9780380802999
• Release Date: May 2000
• Publisher: Avon Books
• Length: 256 Pages
• Weight: 0.30 lbs.
• Dimensions: 0.6" x 4.2" x 6.9"

Customer Reviews

Classic mystery mixed in the movies

Nick Chase is a former NYPD detective who retired and now runs a cigar store. He keeps finding himself mixed up in murder though, this time as a result of his his first case being made into a movie. The movie producer, Natalie Goodman, more of less blackmails Chase's conscience into investigating the attempts being made on her life. She manipulates all the players into an "And Then There Were None" scenario by inviting them to spend the weekend at her vacation home so that Chase can identify the villain. Of course, nothing goes as planned, and Chase has to investigate a hunky actor with a gay porno film, a fired writer, a dumped investor, a co-producer and his boy-toy of the moment, and an about-to-be-fired writer before they all end up picked off by the murderer. Although Chase is very likeable, I was distracted by having figured out who was the murderer while Chase and company ignored the obvious. However, a nice plot twist redeems the mystery and makes it a fast and entertaining read.