The Glitter Murder

Film director Gunnar Svan has made many enemies in his lifetime. Even his spouse, magazine owner Ai-Ling Cooper-Svan, who calls him "Top Gun", is irate with him. It is bad enough that he has affairs with half the Hollywood starlets, but the Chinese-American woman is livid because her accountants confirmed that Gunnar embezzled, cheated and conned money out of her. Other people were also taken for a ride. So it is not surprising to anyone who knows Gunnar that he is murdered. Los Angeles homicide Lieutenant Columbo, along with other police officers and forensic experts, is at the murder scene where the corpse of the film director lies. Everyone, except for Columbo, is in agreement that this is an obvious case of a robbery gone bad. The detective starts questioning his list of suspects, hoping to trap the killer in a paradoxical lie. If Columbo fails to uncover the truth, this case will go down as an unsolved robbery-murder. William Harrington is a very good mystery writer, who in his fifth Columbo novel successfully sticks to the Columbo script of telling who the killer is early in the book and allowing Columbo to match wits with the murderer. COLUMBO: THE GLITTER MURDER is an interesting tale, but like the previous four Columbo novels, the book lacks Peter Falk who is Columbo. Though the novel is well written and enjoyable, this reviewer suggests you watch the TV re-runs if you want the true flavor of Columbo. Harriet Klausner