The talk show murders
Subtitle: a Billy Blessing novel
By: Al Roker and Dick Lochte
Contributors: Lochte, Dick
Edition: 1st ed.
Publisher: Delacorte Press
Published: 2011
Place of publication: New York
Language: eng
Number of pages: 290
ISBN-13: 9780385343701; 9780345529305
Subjects: Murder; Billy Blessing (Fictitious character); Celebrity chefs; Ex-convicts; Fiction; FICTION / Thrillers; FICTION / Mystery & Detective / General; FICTION / Suspense; Television personalities; Extortion
Description: "After waking up the neighborhood with The Morning Show Murders, and keeping readers up late solving The Midnight Show Murders, Al Roker returns with his most tantalizing mystery to date. Celebrity chef turned sleuth Billy Blessing finds his plate full of danger once again, as secrets from his long-buried past threaten to make a comeback.  Before Billy had his five-star restaurant in New York, before he was tapped to co-host the morning show Wake Up, America! and travel with it for a week in the Windy City--before he even assumed the name Billy Blessing--he lived a totally different life under a very different identity: as wily con man Billy Blanchard. Caught trying to run a scam on a shady Detroit businessman, Billy did time for his crimes, reinvented himself, and has successfully kept that part of his past covered up ever since. But when he and Eddie Patton, a nosy ex-cop with a long memory, are guests on a popular Chicago TV talk show, the off-camera chat turns to blackmail. And Billy may have no choice but to pay up or see the embarrassing truth from being blogcast to the world on Patton's true crime website.  This being Chicago, secrets have a way of getting out--and getting people killed. When Patton winds up dead in his apartment only hours after trying to shake Billy down, it's just the first in a string of killings that has America's most beloved TV host scrambling for clues, unsure who his friends are, and desperate to clear his name before he becomes the media's latest poster child for celebrity scandal. Throw in a budding romance with a visiting movie star and Billy Blessing may have finally gotten himself into one sticky situation even he can't talk his way out of.  Fast-paced, funny, and bubbling over with inside scoop on the business they call show, The Talk Show Murders is Al Roker mystery fiction at its delicious, dishy best"--

"Billy Blessing wasn't always a celebrity chef. He wasn't always a TV host. He wasn't always such a nice guy. He wasn't even always Billy Blessing. He's reminded of this when an ex-cop named Pine shows up at his hotel and reminds him of Billy Blanchard, a small-time con who nearly swindled Motown from Berry Gordy before doing a year in prison. His associates, though, did a lot more time, and a few of them have ended up murdered. Pine will keep this quiet...for a fee... Billy's in a tight spot that gets even tighter when Pine turns up dead. The cops don't suspect Billy, but that doesn't mean his past can't still come back to haunt him--or even get him killed as well. With blackmail abound, bodies adding up, a budding romance, and a television audience of millions, Billy is definitely in the glare of the brightest spotlight. Keeping his name clear is one challenge, keeping his head attached to his body is another, and Billy will have to rely on the very past he's trying to put behind him if he's going to survive, and move forward one and for all"--