Dead Matter

Conan Flagg #7

by M.K. Wren

The celebrated author, Ravin Gould, his equally celebrated actress wife, the media, the locals, and as many tourists as can cram themselves into Conan Flagg's bookstore are all on hand for that electric moment when Cady MacGill, the sheriff's son-in-law, threatens to cut off a vital portion of Gould's anatomy with a chain saw.
Less than twenty-four hours later, Ravin Gould is dead, and Cady MacGill has been charged with his murder.
But bookstore owner and private investigator Conan Flagg doesn't read the situation that way. Not with an election for sheriff coming up. Not when a covey of hotshot New York publishing executives wings into town, lured to the quiet Oregon beach resort by word of the tell-all autobiographical novel that Gould had just finished writing. A novel worth millions, which has vanished without a trace . . .

Genres: Mystery, Mystery Thriller, Crime

283 pages, Mass Market Paperback

First published May 29, 1993

About the author

Martha Kay Renfroe was an Oregon writer, author of mystery and science fiction under the penname M.K. Wren. Her work included the "Conan Flagg" mystery series and the post-apocalyptic novel A Gift Upon the Shore, set along the Oregon coast.

Reviews

[Susan · Rating 3 out of 5]

A little dated (the main character smokes quite a bit and one of the other characters gets change to use a pay phone), but a solid mystery. I felt at times that I was missing the background story of Conan Flagg and the bookshop he owns in a small Oregon town but that didn't distract me much from the current story.

[Phil · Rating 3 out of 5]

Another fine whodunit!

[Helen Fleischer · Rating 4 out of 5]

good white-knuckle scene, so-so sex ends in betrayal