WRITING A WRONG

Hechtman follows up her sterling debut, Murder Ink (2021), with another case for her erudite heroine.

Mystery author Veronica Blackstone may be hard at work on her second book, but her side hustles are what pay the rent. She runs a writers workshop and produces copy of all kinds for various businesses, with a specialty in love letters for the writing challenged.  Her newest client, charismatic Tony Richards, claims to travel a lot and need love notes to keep his romance afloat. One of the members of her writers group is Ben, a cop who, like her, has been divorced and is gun-shy about relationships even after his sister, Veronica’s neighbor, pushes them together. Veronica’s just picked up several prospective clients: a young woman specializing in exotic ice cream, a well-known bakery and cafe seeking to expand, a family-run shoe store for children, and another young woman with an outdoor coffee stand. When a detective shows up asking her how she knows Ted Roberts, she’s at a loss until she realizes that he’s Tony Richards, who’s been found stabbed in a girlfriend’s apartment, and that he was a con man romancing women out of their money. Veronica’s not sure whether the sleuthing she can’t resist or her attempt to get closer to Ben is the more dangerous occupation.

Another convoluted puzzle with a side of romance.