Protocol for Murder - Softcover

In his first novel, Nathan, who writes PW 's Rights column, introduces a likable, witty amateur detective who could be a model of his kind for the '90s. Bert Swain is a divorced, middle-aged writer with an understated sense of humor--the sort of fellow who is polite but never stuffy. When offered a job in New York directing publicity for the Krinsky Research Center, a major medical research facility, the Florida-based Bert jumps at the chance to get back to the city he loves and be nearer his 11-year-old daughter, who lives with her mother in Toronto. His first task is to handle the abrupt decamping of a prominent scientist; his second, to help find missing researcher Faith Frawley, is not as easy. He learns that Faith may have been seeing someone from the Center, but his only clue is a bottle of Tullamore Dew Irish whiskey in the teetotaling woman's apartment. Suspecting murder, Bert contacts the police, and while working with them must toe a fine line to keep his job at a company harboring a killer even while helping to rout out the miscreant. Aided by a new lady love, who is the Center's comptroller, genteel Bert manages to solve a few crimes, avoid violent death and save both the reputation of the Center and his job. Delighted readers will welcome the next promised Bert Swain adventure. Mystery Guild selection.
Copyright 1994 Reed Business Information, Inc.

At the outset of this debut mystery, Bert Swain, once a New York City reporter with a belief in the difference between good journalism and schlock, is in Florida writing stories about poltergeists for a supermarket rag. Nathan (who writes the ``Rights'' column for Publishers Weekly) sends Bert back to Gotham, where an old friend has wangled him a job as publicity director for a medical research facility, and where strange doings trigger his reporting instincts and set him to sleuthing. (Mystery Guild selection) -- Copyright ©1994, Kirkus Associates, LP. All rights reserved.