Talked to Death

Daytime Crime #2

by Louise Shaffer

Investigating the murder of a prominent talk show's former producer, newly hired producer Angie DaVito finds suspects in the show's touchy-feely hostess, the hostess's trampy daughter, and an icy arch enemy. Reprint.

Genres: Mystery

246 pages, Mass Market Paperback

First published September 26, 1995

About the author

Louise is a believer in there’s always a second chance. An actress since she was fifteen, she found herself unemployed when she was in her mid-forties. The reason was…well, she was in her mid-forties. Not a good thing if you’re an actress – aging and eating are taboo. Louise has done both. Also, she was pretty clear about the fact that she was never going to have “knee surgery.” That’s what happens when an actress of a certain age drops out of sight for six weeks and her publicist announces that she’s having an old knee injury repaired. Then the actress emerges with her eyebrows hiked up kind of high on her forehead and all those nasty little lines around her mouth seem to have vanished… oh yeah, and her knee is working fine too.

The un-surgically enhanced Louise spent two years auditioning for commercials touting high fiber cereals and denture glue, she figured there had to be something better, and she decided to try writing scripts for soap operas. Writing had actually been her first love when she was a kid. She worked as a soap writer off and on—mostly off – for the next few years. The trouble was, she got fired a lot. Because what she wanted to do was tell her own stories. Finally she fought off the devil voices – those voices inside your head that tell you you’re an idiot for dumping a paying job to follow a dream—and wrote The Three Miss Margarets. It found a home at Random House and was published. It was followed by The Ladies of Garrison Gardens, and Family Acts

Louise's latest novel, Serendipity, takes Louise back to her home in the northeast.

Today a very happy Louise lives in the lower Hudson Valley with her husband of twenty eight years, her eight cats and two rescue dogs ; the regal Joshua, and Charlie. Who is not regal. Just ask the neighbors.

Reviews

[Grinning Cat · Rating 5 out of 5]

The Crime- Murder
The Detective- Angie DaVito, former child singer, current producer hired to take the place of…
The Victim- Grace Shipley, part of the team who helped…
The Star- Cee Gee, whose eponymous talk show is Number One with a Bullet….
What I liked- I just loved Angie. She’s funny and likable. And I loved the show business aspect to the book. I thought the solution to the mystery and howdunnit was clever. It was fun to have a flashback to the 1990s!

[Janet · Rating 5 out of 5]

Very enjoyable.

[Helen · Rating 3 out of 5]

I'm not sure where my period fiction begins. I didn't realise until I came across a "unless Princess Di does something really wacky" remark that this was written a while back - 1995 in fact. This accounts for the lack of smart phones, GPS, and laptops, all of which would have changed the story considerably. The author has acted in day time soaps and I think their plot arcs have influenced her writing. This story has secrets from the past, illegitimate children, the way issue programmmes can affect their interviewees' opinions, and flitting back and forth across New York and out into the country, although the bus trip certainly had the ring of reality to it.
It really was rather than like reading the plot of an overheated soap, but Angela da Vito was an attractive character and I like Teresa O'Hanlon the detective. Teresa's brother, however, was one of those impossibly good looking, perfect (almost) men that women supposedly drool over and I can live without that.

[Jessica · Rating 4 out of 5]

I've read several of Louise Shaffer's books. This one seemed different then her other mystery/love stories typical plot. I enjoyed it, but it did take me a while to get hooked and not want to put it down. The first few chapters seemed like the main character was a depressed/moody woman. It was hard to connect that same character to the strong/intelligent woman at the end of the book. I felt like suddenly Angie has a job and is a new person. It also seemed to take a bit for the love/romance side line to pop up. It seemed to work but the book would have been just as good if with out.

[Rebecca · Rating 4 out of 5]

Fun little mystery-after reading two of them I'm a bit bummed that she didn't continue the series-but since she went on to write bigger and better things can't complain too much.