Trama

When a newspaper columnist becomes the target of a crazed gunman, Jessica's advice to be careful is ignored.

Publisher Harry Mordecai, a San Francisco newspaper's new owner, is such a meddler -but doesn't insist with his ideas to make Jessica's new book spicier- that editor John Galloway quits, but accepts to stay on a month. Wall Street reporter Max Charles hears his grumpy colleague Loretta Lee -in fact a passed-on pen name for Claire Hogan-, who runs a very popular letters column, found out his game to write a glowing column about a stock till it rises enough, then cash in and talk in down again. After Loretta had an argument with Harry, a man shoots her in the arm in the lobby while she was standing next to John and Jessica. SFPD Lt. Evans, using prints from a bottle in an abandoned coat, arrests T.D. for the shooting. When John and Jessica go tell Loretta the news, they find her dead at the hotel she was hiding out at. John's name is carved into a glass table with Loretta's diamond ring, but the position on the ring on her finger means she probably didn't write it. Jessica guesses Max's problem, after journalist Alexis Hill, who was assigned by Harry to write a saucy article about 'stalker victim Loretta, told him she knew about his scam too and expects his career support. John is formally charged after his prints are found at the crime scene. Jessica guesses, however, he really was Loretta's ghost writer. When Jessica finds out Loretta had her new hearing aid delivered late by mail-boy Troy Higgins, she makes striking deductions.—KGF Vissers

Jessica Fletcher is in San Francisco to prepare her latest novel for serialization in the San Francisco Union, a local newspaper that has just recently been purchased by Australian Harry Mordecai. As the new publisher, Mordecai's preference is for the sensationalized attention-grabbing stories on page one rather than more serious news. As a result, managing editor John Galloway has given his notice and will be leaving in a month. Loretta Lee is the paper's successful advice columnist who tells Mordecai in no uncertain terms that if Galloway quits she, too, will be moving on. She is used to receiving hate mail and she has received more than her share lately. It all becomes more serious after someone takes a shot at her in the paper's lobby. For her safety, she stays at the paper's VIP hospitality suite at a nearby hotel but when she is found dead, there are several suspects. She had already told financial reporter Max Charles she was aware of his stock manipulation. She was also getting information from a street person though no one knows what that was about. Loretta's hearing aid is the clue that leads Jessica to identify the killer.—garykmcd