Dirty Tricks — Judith K. Ivie

Seventh Kate Lawrence Mystery. The amateur sleuth and her realtor partners investigate the sometimes adversarial relationship between authors and publishers and the frightening consequences of thwarted creative egos. When well-known mystery writer Maybelle Farnsworth moves to Wethersfield a few weeks before Halloween, she becomes the target of a neighborhood prankster, or so Kate and her partners believe at first. When the dirty tricks escalate from annoying to terrifying, May's secret sideline as the publisher of a line of sexy romance novels comes into play. Within the context of this cozy mystery, Ivie shines a light into the seldom acknowledged dark corners of today's ultra-competitive publishing industry, including cynical agents, clashing egos, and unethical ploys used by misguided authors to gain readers' attention, such as fraudulent claims of prize nominations and paid-for reviews.