Vanity Fire: A Guy Mallon Mystery

by John M. Daniel

Book Overview

"Fast pacing, a strong sense of place, and plenty of publishing-business details combine with a likable although flawed main character to produce an engrossing read."--Booklist

The phone rings in the middle of the night. Publisher Guy Mallon's book warehouse has burned to the ground. In the ashes there is a burned body. Carol Murphy, Guy's lover and business manager, fed up with the failing operation, has already split. But...

• Format: Hardcover
• Language: English
• ISBN: 1590583221
• ISBN13: 9781590583227
• Release Date: September 2006
• Publisher: Poisoned Pen Press
• Length: 250 Pages
• Weight: 1.09 lbs.
• Dimensions: 0.9" x 6.0" x 9.1"

Customer Reviews

A romp through a publishing scam

Welcome to the survival story of a small niche publisher who gets hung out to dry by would-be vanity book publishers. All they have is a print-on-demand machine and some clueless clients. It's a simple scam with a big payoff. For $20,000 up front a newly-minted publisher will print one book for the author, using a computer savvy porn star to format the manuscript and her friend to help with packaging and mailing. Then it's bye-bye-birdie. The publisher changes mailing addresses constantly so no angry author can find him. Protagonist Guy Mallon owns a legitimate business publishing poetry. Doesn't make much money but loves his work and has a spotless reputation. Before he knows what hit him, he has sold his soul to three different people. One is a slippery blowhard. One is an out-and-out crook. One is a western movie star who will bail Guy out of debt in return for one printed, bound copy of his autobiographical poems. Daniel's characters use some expressions I'm going to steal. When the owner of a torched building says, "I don't give a French-fried fart ..." I had to put the book down to laugh without spilling coffee. I lead a sheltered life. Never heard that expression before. Guy is a likeable character and an amateur sleuth purely by accident. He's five feet tall. The author uses that height with wit and humor, almost as if height is mainly in Guy's mind. As his lover tells him, "You're going to have to give up being short." The ending leaves the door open for a sequel, but VANITY FIRE would be a hard act to follow. I loved every page.

Small press publisher enters the crime-solvers arena

Diminutive Guy Mallon runs a small press firm with his partner Carol Murphy in picturesque Santa Barbara, California. Guy agrees to accept payment from Fritz Marburger to publish singer Lorraine Evans' novel. Fritz, a pushy and shady character, lets it slip that Lorraine's novel might be autobiographical, and the news media swarms her. Upset, Lorraine decides she wants out of the deal. Guy is left facing debt and paying the rent on a huge warehouse, not to mention the stacks of unsold books. Then his warehouse burns and a dead body is discovered inside it. This is all told to us tongue-in-cheek by the crusty, affable Guy. And how can you not like Guy? He owns an enviable collection of first-edition poetry volumes and has a big heart to boot. But his judgment sometimes isn't the wisest or most practical. A briskly paced mystery, VANITY FIRE is more of a caper about Guy working his way out of a jam with the help of his many equally colorful friends. A fun read.

Excellent mystery.

John M. Daniel's VANITY FIRE tells of a publishing firm which burns to the ground, leaving a body and a total loss. For Guy, it's the end of a career and a lover - and possibly the beginning of a new career and encounters with two strippers. It's a Faustian arrangement that blends the irony and terror of murder with a pact that could rescue or condemn Guy in this excellent mystery.

adrenaline racing, heart bumping crime caper

Guy Mallon is perfectly content running his small publishing company with his business partner and lover Carol Murphy. Trouble comes to the happy couple when retired businessman Fritz Marburger offers to pay them to publish his young lover's book. The author is fancy jazz singer Lorraine Evans. Once Carol and Guy read it, they believe they have a hit on their hands. Marburger is Lorraine's agent and together they set up a publicity scenario where the singer appears on Oprah and does a spread in People. When Lorraine nixes the People article and refuses to go on Oprah, sales plummet. The warehouse that Guy rents from Marburger to store the books inside also has a tenant, Roger, who is running a POD scam and making a fortune. Carol leaves Guy who in order to avoid bankruptcy; he goes in on the POD scam with one of his authors. The warehouse burns down and all his books are gone. The police determine the cause of the fire is arson and a body is found in the ruins. Roger has disappeared and Guy intends to find him and earn back his self esteem that he lost by dealing with a criminal. John M. Daniel has written an adrenaline racing, heart bumping crime caper that has so many interesting plot twists that readers really don't have a clue who besides Roger is the antagonist. What this reviewer likes about VANITY FIRE is that nobody can predict what will happen next. This leads to a one sitting reading to find out how Guy's problem all turn out. Harriet Klausner

Driving conclusions...may not find you the answer

Reviewed by Beverly Pechin for Reader Views (7/06) "Vanity Fire" is truly a suspense novel that as you piece together the facts, you will always come up short. Never ending guessing evolves into utter surprise as you read into the lives of the characters and think you know the answers. The key word here is Think. Fortunately for us, Mr. Daniel knows how to keep you drawing conclusions but never finding answers. This nonstop thriller will seriously challenge the best of mystery solvers. "Vanity Fire" is a well-written piece of literature that truly would be a wonderful addition to any mystery and thriller collector. Guy and Carol think all their dreams have come true as they are suddenly blessed with an offer they can't refuse that will put their tiny, lifeless publishing business into the headlines with a best selling novel and a financial backing. But is the dream for real or does it come with unthinkable consequences? Peppering the story with absolutely wonderful characters, so well described that you know exactly the type he's talking about, you will enjoy seeing some of the most interesting people you've met in a long time become fully engulfed in a rather "scorching" situation. Combining mystery, business, romance, murder and some pretty good disappearing acts, you will come up drawing conclusion after conclusion only to read a few pages further and go "I can't believe it!" as your intuitions are quickly put back on the shelf to rest. Excellent writing, wonderful characterizations, and an even more intense plot than some of the best mystery writers of today's literature have been able to bring out. Highly recommended for anyone that just can't seem to find a book they truly can't "figure out" before the end, because I guarantee that what you think is happening, definitely is not!