Sweet, Savage Death, by Orania Papazoglou

Retrieved from: my library
(038519255x), 1984
Suggested by: The List
My Ratings: 3 Merit, 7 Interest, 5 Fun

Definitely a first book. Honestly, if this was the only book I'd read of hers, I'd skip the rest of her stuff. But I know she gets better.

The plot of this very formulaic mystery is that Patience Campbell McKenna is a writer of magazine articles who has written a couple of paperback romances just to make some money. The story begins with the death of her mentor, a very successful romance author, as a result of a mugging.

Then an agent for romances is found stabbed to death inside Patience's locked efficiency apartment while she is at a conference. All the clues point to Patience being the killer, especially when her mentor's will disposes her 9-bedroom apartment to Patience.

Of course, we know she didn't do it. Of course, there are many twists and turns, and other people are endangered. And, of course, the real murderer is discovered at the end of the book.

The best part of the book was a refreshingly frank confrontation between one of the older, big-name romance authors, who admits that she started life as a hooker in Times Square.

I'm giving Orania one more book to redeem herself and then I'll move on to her other series, published under a different name.