Death with Honors

Death with Honors

Nessen, a former press secretary for President Gerald Ford, and Neuman, an editor for “USA Today, ” team up to present this tale of Washington D.C. political intrigue. A right-wing talk-show host and a leftist reporter investigate the murder of a politically active movie star at the Kennedy Center Honor Awards.

Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly

This lackluster addition to the series starring liberal Washington Post reporter Jane Day and her lover, right-wing radio talk-show host Jerry Knight (Knight and Day; Press Corpse), centers around the murder of a veteran actress about to receive a Kennedy Center Honor for lifetime achievement in entertainment. Jane is writing a profile on the honoree, Carla Caldwell, a left-wing feminist who stood up to Senator McCarthy decades ago. At a small ceremony at the White House, the actress publicly protests the current president’s reprimand of the film industry for its emphasis on violence and sex, suggesting his stance slights the First Amendment. The actress’s dramatic protest riles conservatives in politics, religion and art, including Jerry, while rallying a like assemblage of liberals. When her body is discovered in her Kennedy Center dressing room the night of the gala event, D.C. homicide detective A.L. Jones gets the case and, feeling out the dead woman’s milieu, asks Jane and Jerry to help. They unearth much of interest in Carla’s past, including a daughter whose unidentified father might be a famous conservative politician. Readers will likely catch on to the culprit’s identity early, leaving unsolved a bigger mystery: why an intelligent, savvy woman like Jane wastes her time on the thoroughly unlikable Jerry.
Copyright 1998 Reed Business Information, Inc.

From Library Journal

Series opposites Jerry Knight and Jane Day (Knight and Day, LJ 1/95), a right-wing conservative late-night talk show host and a liberal newspaper reporter, respectively, are caught up in another murder?along with previous ally A.L. Jones, an African American homicide detective. During a prestigious honors ceremony at the Kennedy Center in Washington, D.C., a legendary actress interrupts the president’s speech against sex and violence in film. Her subsequent murder casts suspicion on many, including the manipulative wife of the usually empty-headed president. A journalistic prose style and superficial characterization make this a choice only for series fans and larger collections.
Copyright 1998 Reed Business Information, Inc.