A Dangerous Fiction

May 6, 2013
Someone in the New York publishing world is targeting literary agent Jo Donovan, the appealing, empathetic narrator of this clever mystery from Rogan (Suspicion), herself a former book editor and agent. Jo’s troubles begin when an aspiring writer she calls “Sam Spade”—because of “a fedora tilted down over his face”—brazenly attempts to peddle his manuscript to her on a Manhattan sidewalk. Later, Jo’s e-mail is hacked, she is defamed, and her most successful client is murdered. Plenty of other people besides Spade have reason to resent Jo: Charlie Malvino, whom she recently fired from her agency; disgruntled fellow agent Harriet Peagoody; Teddy Pendragon, the prying biographer of her late husband, Hugo Donovan, a famous author; and Det. Tom Cullen, who once wanted to marry her. As she roots around for possible motives and suspects, Jo questions her past, recasting years of what she used to think of as pure happiness in a more realistic light. Agent: Gail Hochman, Brandt and Hochman Literary Agents.

June 1, 2013
A literary agent discovers that dealing with authors can be murder. Jo Donovan, widow of the great American novelist Hugo Donovan and sole partner in the Hamish and Donovan literary agency since cancer forced the retirement of Molly Hamish, is being kicked to pieces by life. A biographer is snooping around her philandering husband's possible dalliances. A stalker insists that he's a fabulous writer and she must become his literary muse, as she was for Hugo. And a series of escalating blows is about to demolish her agency. Clients have received emails, supposedly from her, proclaiming fabulous sales to television and the movies and front-page raves in the New York Times Book Review. A spurious press release outlining her reasons for quitting her agency has been sent to publishing bigwigs. And the mainstay of her agency, a best-selling author, has been murdered, followed by Molly's death five weeks later. The only clue is a mysterious message left corpseside: "Do you hear me now?" Detective Tommy Cullen, Jo's former lover, is assigned the stalker/murder cases, and other protectors rush in, including a former FBI profiler, now an author of thrillers, and a writer raising attack dogs who lends her Mingus, a German shepherd with big teeth and killer manners. Jo's staff seems determined to shield her, but one member really wants to sleep with her, another plans to team up with an employee she fired, and a third is so placid, so frumpy and so very organized that readers will immediately suspect this toady as the villain. Rogan, who has never recouped the fame brought on by Suspicion (1999) with any of the titles that followed, clearly knows the publishing milieu very well, from authors' egos to Manhattan lunch places. But a smidgen less romance and a dollop of suspense would have been welcome.

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May 1, 2013

Successful literary agent Jo Donovan, the widow of an iconic literary figure, longs for the perfect life she remembers sharing with him. Then things take a turn for the worse when a stalker infiltrates both her physical and cyber worlds. The stalker's insidious defamation of Jo's character baffles her colleagues, the NYPD detectives working the case, and Jo herself. Then the attacks escalate to a real murder (one of her most famous clients is shot) and a clue left at the scene implicates Jo. But her inability to figure out who hates her so much brings the case to a standstill. Even the detective--a long-ago lover of Jo's--is shocked by her warped perceptions of her past. Meanwhile, a determined killer moves ever closer. VERDICT This literary mystery veers back and forth between insider-gossip tone (replete with literary stereotypes) and genuine terror at warp speed, fulfilling many of the requirements for a perfect beach read. Readers who liked Debra Ginsberg's Blind Submission and perhaps Jennifer Belle's Little Stalker would enjoy.

Copyright 2013 Library Journal, LLC Used with permission.

May 1, 2013
Rogan sets this thriller in the publishing world, a perfect showcase for sins that can boil over into murder, especially those of pride, envy, wrath, and greed. Just about every scene connected to this worldthe slush-pile meeting in the literary agency, the launch party for a megasuccessful writer, and the writers' conferenceis divided into winners, losers, and hangers-on. Rogan's heroine, Jo Donovan, is a young widow who has inherited a literary agency from her husband. Donovan is under no illusion that talent brought her the fortune and agency she enjoys, which goes a long way to make her appealing. But rejecting writers is part of the job. After a series of agency rejections, someone starts sending nasty e-mails, then moves onto cruel pranks, and, finally, murder. Donovan's longtime friend, a former FBI profiler, and an NYPD cop try to keep ahead of the murders and keep Donovan safe. Boasting an exciting pace, well-constructed scenes, and inside information about the publishing world, this engaging mystery will attract readers of P. D. James' similar Original Sin (1995), an Adam Dalgliesh crime story set in the London publishing world.(Reprinted with permission of Booklist, copyright 2013, American Library Association.)