Final Edit (29 page)

“A page-turner” was how John Dunning, author of
Booked to Die,
described Robert A. Carter’s first Nicholas Barlow mystery. “Both literate and literary…a clever debut in what should be
a sophisticated, satisfying series” was author Jeremiah Healy’s reaction. Perhaps, as they say in the business, Robert A.
Carter knows where the bodies are buried…

Nicholas Barlow is the erudite, urbane, and flamboyant CEO of a small New York publishing company. But the corpse he finds
in his Manhattan office is definitely nonfiction. The victim is Parker Foxcroft, editor
extraordinaire,
or should one say
diabolique.
So many authors has he cut to the quick, so many co-workers has he offended, and so many coveted prizes has he won, that
Foxcroft could have earned a Lifetime Achievement Award for Most Enemies.

Nick wants to just close the book on the case. Instead, he leads the cops’ list of suspects. After all, didn’t he have a public
shouting match with the victim at the annual booksellers convention? Didn’t he arrange to meet the victim at the office after
hours? And isn’t he now being seen about town with Susan Markham, the drop-dead gorgeous young editor who was Parker Foxcroft’s
lover? Nick stands, in his Savile Row suit, guilty as charged of everything except the crime. To move the plot along, he introduces
another character: his brilliant though bedridden brother, Timothy. He also feels the need to start grilling suspects, including
sweet Susan, which he proceeds to do at the Rainbow Room, Players Club, King Cole Room, and other favorite publishing watering
holes.

What he discovers is a paper trail on Parker Foxcroft leading to a denouement that has scandal and death written all over
it. Now Nicholas Barlow must quickly read between the lines and guess whodunit before the killer makes his final edit—and
Nick becomes his final victim. Once again, Robert A. Carter has given us a deliciously wicked, gossipy, and revealing behind-the-scenes
romp through the lives of those who make books.

LIGHTWORKER PHOTOGRAPHY

R
OBERT
A. C
ARTER
, author and publishing veteran, has written widely on publishing topics and helped develop a publishing master’s program
at Pace University. He won wide acclaim for his first Nicholas Barlow novel,
Casual Slaughters,
and now, in this second in the series, Carter shows that he can write the book on entertaining mystery fiction. A longtime
resident of New York City and Connecticut, he now lives in Virginia.

“[A] BREEZY FIRST MYSTERY…

A WIT IS BORN.”—M
ARILYN
S
TASIO
,

N
EW
Y
ORK
T
IMES
B
OOK
R
EVIEW

“VIGOROUS AND SEXY…

Barlow delivers hard-boiled utterances with tongue-in-cheek relish…the personable hero’s glee at happening
upon a real, rather than a paper-and-ink case, is contagious.”—
P
UBLISHERS
W
EEKLY
(
STABBED REVIEW
)

“WITTY AND STYLISH…

[Robert A. Carter] has created an engaging hero in Nicholas Barlow, a man of great charm and style, with a
well-ordered life, a touch of old-fashioned formality, and a secret yearning to be one of the Hardy boys.”—R
ICHMOND
T
IMES
-D
ISPATCH

“HIGHLY LITERATE….

There is something refreshing about an amateur sleuth who solves a case without inane violence…. Possesses
a degree of charm that keeps you reading it to the end.”—
W
EST
C
OAST
R
EVIEW OF
B
OOKS

“LITERATE, OBSERVANT, AND WITTY.”

—L
IBRARY
J
OURNAL