In the next novel in David Handlerâs Edgar award-winning series, Stewart âHoagyâ Hoag and his beloved basset hound, Lulu, investigate a murder in a fabled Connecticut summer playhouse
Hollywood ghostwriter Stewart âHoagyâ Hoag has chronicled the rise, fall, and triumphant return of many a celebrity. At last heâs enjoying his own, very welcome second act. After hitting a creative slump following the success of his debut novel, Hoagy has found inspiration again. Ensconced with his faithful but cowardly basset hound, Lulu, on a Connecticut farm belonging to his ex-wife, Oscar-winning actress Merilee Nash, heâs busy working on a new novel. Heâs even holding out hope that he and Merilee might get together again. Life is simple and fulfillingâwhich of course means itâs time for complications to set inâŚ.
When the police call to ask if he knows the whereabouts of a man named R.J. Romero, Hoagy learns of a dark secret from his ex-wifeâs past. Itâs already a stressful time for Merilee, whoâs directing a gala benefit production of Private Lives to rescue the famed but dilapidated Sherbourne Playhouse, where the likes of Katherine Hepburn, Marlon Brando and Merilee herself made their professional stage debuts. Her reputation, as well as the playhouseâs future, is at stake. The cast features three of Merileeâs equally famous Oscar-winning classmates from the Yale School of Drama. But it turns out that thereâs more linking them to each otherâand to their fellow Yale alum, R.J.âthan their alma mater. When one of the cast is found murdered, it will take Hoagyâs sleuthing skills and Luluâs infallible nose to sniff out the truthâŚbefore someone else faces the final curtain call.