NO WRITE WAY TO DIE

Who slew the sleazy boyfriend?

A brief prologue finds NYPD Det. Delmore Kerbich asking Scarsdale businessman Scott Morgan, “Did you commit the murder?” before flashing back to the fateful day when Morgan and his wife, Meredith, first meet their daughter Sarah’s boyfriend, Ed Blaus, a charming novelist who’s but three years younger than Morgan himself. Scarcely has Morgan begun his obsessive probe into Blaus’ past than Sarah announces that she and Blaus are moving in together. Morgan hires an investigator named Mickey Genz to gather information about Blaus but soon regrets it, deciding that the man is a grifter. As Blaus undertakes a charm offensive with Morgan and especially Meredith, more unsavory details of his life come to light. There’s his ex-wife, Mary, and Justin Skilbahl, an adult son he’s cut out of his life, along with Justin’s mother, Emily. Most heinous of all, Blaus has abandoned Michael, his special needs brother, and cheated him out of an inheritance due to him on the death of their mother. Michael currently lives in a group home, mentored by fierce protector JoAnne Pesto. Not until the midpoint, after Sarah discovers Blaus’ corpse, does the tale return to the opening scene. Whodunit? Complications ensue on the march to a solution. Lipschutz’s sleek debut wraps its clever puzzle in an authentic portrait of the Big Apple and the varied lifestyles of its residents.

A tidy whodunit with a New York state of mind.