Publisher's Weekly
Paul, who gave New York's entertainment world the once-over in The Renewable Virgin, turns here to the magazine industry. Leon Walsh, a whiny individual but a brilliant editor, has been unhappy ever since he sold a majority share in Summit, the literary publication he began in the New Jersey town of that name, to Jerry Sussman. Sussman is a philistine with a talent for building circulation by pandering to the lowest common denominator in taste; what is more, he lets advertisers dictate editorial policy. Now Walsh learns that Sussman is planning to sell out to UltraMedia Corporation, whose plans for the magazine do not include Leon Walsh. Before the deal is finalized, however, Sussman is gunned down on the street. Walsh is delighteduntil he gets a bill in the mail ''for services rendered: one murder.'' Police Lieutenant James Murtaugh has a lead on the killer, whom he suspects is responsible for a long string of unsolved killings where one person with an alibi profited from another's death, but he is hampered in his investigations by his sadistic superior, Captain Anspacher. Nonetheless, he tracks down the perpetrator only to find that their roles are reversed and the hunted man is hunting him. This clever, readable story has one, long-forseeable twist, which doesn't detract from the fun, and a final, unexpected, and quite nasty one.