Julie Smith: True-Life Adventure (USA 1986)

From the Publisher:
"THAT STUFF'LL KILL YOU"
That's what Paul MacDonald said to his boss just before Jack dumped the saccharine into his coffee. Then Jack dropped dead in Paul's living room.

Jack Birnbaum had been a private investigator in San Francisco until his untimely demise; Paul MacDonald wrote reports for him. What Paul wanted to do was write mystery novels; what he had to do, now, was find out who killed Jack and why.

Because whoever it was, was now trying to kill Paul.

Julie Smith: True-Life Adventure. The Mysterious Press, ISBN: 0445405058 (November, 1986), 249 p., $3.95.

Julie Smith: True-Life Adventure (USA 1985)

From the Publisher:
Paul McDonald was upset: first his boss, San Francisco private investiga-tor Jack Birnbaum, dropped dead in Paul's living room. Then, his home was broken into and later set afire. Someone was on McDonald's case -- hard.

Paul wasn't a p.i.; a former news-paperman and struggling novelist, he just ghosted Birnbaum's reports. Obviously, though, something big was going on, and McDonald was in the middle of it. He just had to find out what it was before he joined Birn-baum in a grave.

Using skills learned as an investi-gative reporter, McDonald begins to put the pieces together: the last item he had worked on concerned a kid-napped child, so that is where the search must begin. The trail he is forced to follow leads him to the laboratory of a Nobel laureate genet-icist and then to City Hall where a nasty surprise awaits. The only nice thing that happens is meeting the lovely Sardis. She is everything Paul could want... but why is she kiss-ing one of the prime suspects?

Julie Smith's ability to mix tension, clues, and wit results in the creation of a very contemporary and exciting new investigator.

Julie Smith: True-Life Adventure. A Novel. The Mysterious Press, ISBN: 0892961201 (May, 1985), 249 p., $15.95.