Making It Write, by Betty Hechtman

 

The premise behind this one intrigued me. A "writer for hire" is caught up in the murder of the woman who hired her to help her bring her book to publication. As writer Veronica discovers, the book is far from complete and, in fact, the victim, Maeve, had told her she was holding back the ending until later, hence Veronica can only rely on the very sparse and occasionally erratic manuscript to help her fill in the missing chunks. The publisher still wants the book and, well, Veronica is already driven to not just finish the book but ensure that justice is done for Maeve. Unfortunately, someone, including Maeve's celebrity artist husband, Michael Angel, famous for his paintings of a Scottie dog, doesn't want the book written. Toss in complications in Veronica's own life and, well, it makes for an interesting story.

I did find myself alternately liking and being exasperated with Veronica. To use a cliche, something she repeatedly voiced her dislike of, she tended to get on my last nerve. While initially I found her almost stream of consciousness thought patterns intriguing, offering insight into a writer's thoughts, if you will, after awhile they seemed to bog the plot down. She also needed to figure out what is going on with Ben. Ben is handy to give her the police take on certain things, like ways time of death can be determined, but he comes off as a bit of a wuss, too, regarding his ex, er, sorta ex, oh, wait, let me rephrase that. His supposedly former wife who didn't sign the divorce papers and is thus still legally his wife. Talk about relationship complications. Yet, I found myself liking both these characters and aside from the not-quite-ex, the other side characters, as well. This included some quirky members of Veronica's writing group. I had trouble rating this one as I changed my mind frequently but probably averages a solid 3.5 rounded up to a 4 star.

I'm not sure Veronica initially grasped the danger she might be in after Maeve was possibly murdered to stop the book that she insisted on completing, but her determination to live up to commitments was admirable. So, who killed Maeve? Why? Why did Suzzanna Angel take such an immediate dislike to Veronica? Why was the book such a secret? Did the publisher know how it was to end? Who profited from Michael Angel's success? How did he get famous anyway? Why do some writing group members refuse to read another member's writings? Will Veronica ever come clean about breaking that coffee cup? Wouldn't you love to see the gluey mess she made trying to fix it? Why....oh, never mind. Not sharing any more. You'll have to read the book to find out the answers to these questions, not to mention find out where the Ben and Veronica relationship seems to be headed. As many times as I rolled my eyes at her, I still wanted to know what happened and how, so it was fun.

Thanks to #NetGalley and #SevernHouse for allowing me to spend some time in Veronical's mind as she tries to both track down a murderer and finish a book.