Writing a Wrong

February 15, 2021
Veronica Blackstone is a writer working on her second novel. To make ends meet, she also writes business brochures, r�sum�s, or anything a client needs--as long as it's legal. In this first in a new series, Blackstone takes on two assignments on the same day. One is writing love letters for Evan, an IT guy mooning for one of his clients; the other is a memorial book for Rachel, daughter of a socially prominent family, who died in a fall from a high-rise balcony off Chicago's Magnificent Mile. Veronica had written the wedding vows for Rachel and her husband just a year earlier and is now called to write the memorial without referring to the manner of death or interviewing Rachel's father. The two assignments become intertwined as Veronica interviews those who knew Rachel, so much so that Veronica is grateful for the support of the policeman in her writer's workshop. Hechtman vividly captures the pre-pandemic bustle of Chicago's Michigan Avenue in this engaging series debut.

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July 1, 2021
Hechtman follows up her sterling debut, Murder Ink (2021), with another case for her erudite heroine. Mystery author Veronica Blackstone may be hard at work on her second book, but her side hustles are what pay the rent. She runs a writers workshop and produces copy of all kinds for various businesses, with a specialty in love letters for the writing challenged. Her newest client, charismatic Tony Richards, claims to travel a lot and need love notes to keep his romance afloat. One of the members of her writers group is Ben, a cop who, like her, has been divorced and is gun-shy about relationships even after his sister, Veronica's neighbor, pushes them together. Veronica's just picked up several prospective clients: a young woman specializing in exotic ice cream, a well-known bakery and cafe seeking to expand, a family-run shoe store for children, and another young woman with an outdoor coffee stand. When a detective shows up asking her how she knows Ted Roberts, she's at a loss until she realizes that he's Tony Richards, who's been found stabbed in a girlfriend's apartment, and that he was a con man romancing women out of their money. Veronica's not sure whether the sleuthing she can't resist or her attempt to get closer to Ben is the more dangerous occupation. Another convoluted puzzle with a side of romance.

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