Murder: Take Two

by April Kelly, Marsha Lyons

What has six legs, black stripes and kills people? A homicidal magician and the biggest tiger in hisworld-famous show. Murder will be hard to prove,though, because the dead guy never existed, all theevidence seems to have been eaten, and the victim’s corpse isn’t the only thing that has disappeared.When Maureen O’Brien suddenly vanishes, P.I. Blake Ervansky learns about her shocking former life, a past he doesn’t think he can live with. Then, before he can tell her their partnership is over, a call from a client in hysterics reveals that a recently solved case has come messily unsolved.Putting aside their own differences, Maureen and Blake circumvent a corrupt sheriff and draw closer to the truth, until Blake winds up in a deadly game of cat-and-mouse in which he’s the mouse, and the cat outweighs him by 400 pounds. It’s a cage match he won’t survive unless the skills Maureen learned in her dark past can neutralize the killer before Blake becomes cat chow.

398 pages, Kindle Edition

First published April 1, 2012

About the author

I was born on Long Island to military parents who would have much preferred a new dining room set. After a peripatetic childhood I did hard time at the University of South Florida before moving to Los Angeles to be either a stand-up comic or a writer.

Since writing paid actual money while stand-up did not, I signed onto the original writing staff of MORK AND MINDY, leaving two seasons later after having written 15 of the initial 52 episodes, one of which was a finalist for the Humanitas Prize.

I then relocated to New York to write and produce the premier season of LOVE, SIDNEY, starring Tony Randall and Swoosie Kurtz, the first prime-time comedy featuring an openly gay lead character (many years before WILL AND GRACE) and the show for which I received my second Emmy nomination.

Back to the west coast, I wrote and produced series such as 9 to 5 (the TV version of the feature film), TEACHERS ONLY, starring Lynn Redgrave, and WEBSTER, before co-creating the first half-hour comedy specifically made for cable, SANCHEZ OF BEL AIR.

From 1987 to 1991 I stopped doing TV staff work so I could take a four-year course at the oldest homeopathic medical school in England. During that time I worked strictly freelance, supporting myself by writing made-for-television movies and mini-series.

After graduating from The College of Homeopathy in London, I returned to television, co-creating the series BOY MEETS WORLD which ran on ABC from 1993 to 2000.

In 2000 I moved to a farm in Tennessee, where I now write less soul-sucking material than TV scripts. I have two dogs who stay with me more from Stockholm syndrome than any genuine feeling of affection.