Unforced Error: A Rep and Melissa Pennyworth Mystery: 2 (Rep & Melissa Pennyworth) - Softcover

"A modern-day Nick and Nora, the quick-witted Rip and the literature-loving Melissa trade sophisticated quips that may make readers wish they had paid more attention in English class. Good fun...." --Booklist Unforced Error scintillates with witty badinage, trenchant humor, deft plotting and amusing characters. Bowen's command of Civil War arcana floored me, and his sly cultural commentary cuts like an 1840 heavy cavalry dragoon saber."" -Michael Biehl In Bowen's well-crafted, well-researched second Rep and Melissa Pennyworth misadventure (after 2001's Screenscam), the couple hook up with their good friends librarian Peter Damon and his wife Linda in Kansas City, Mo., for a reenactment of an obscure Civil War battle. Rep, a trademark and copyright lawyer, also hopes to woo as a client the book publisher Linda works for, Jackrabbit Press, whose head, John Paul Lawrence, views reenactments as a means to promote his company's line of bodice-ripping historical romances. When Rep discovers the saber-slit body of Linda's co-worker, Thomas Quinlan, just after Linda confesses to Melissa that her relationship with Quinlan has advanced from boardroom to boudoir, the mild-mannered Peter becomes the chief murder suspect. After Peter disappears, Rep uncovers an astounding plot that will certainly catch the reader by surprise. Amusing references to cultural icons both high and low punctuate the narrative (e.g., in the space of one page, Wuthering Heights, Evelyn Waugh, the Audrey Hepburn character in Charade, Kirk Douglas and Seven Days in May, both the book and the movie. A fictional reality-TV program provides the neat twist in the novel's clever opening chapter. And the Civil War stuff is a treat, too: fans of more literate mysteries have good reason to cheer. -- Publishers Weekly 3.22.2004

Praise for Unforced Error... "A modern-day Nick and Nora, the quick-witted Rep and the literature-loving Melissa trade sophisticated quips that may make readers wish they had paid more attention in English class. Good fun." -Booklist "Michael Bowen's Unforced Error scintillates with witty badinage, trenchant humor, deft plotting and amusing characters. Bowen's command of Civil War arcana floored me, and his sly cultural commentary cuts like an 1840 heavy cavalry dragoon saber." -Michael Biehl, author of Doctored Evidence Intellectual property attorneys, romance publishers, and librarians-the very last people you'd expect to be mixed up in murder! Add a pinch of authentic Civil War re-enactors and a sparkling tour of Kansas City, and voilà, a classic yet up-to-the minute crime. Rep and Melissa Pennyworth head west from Indiana to a re-enactment on a Civil War battle in Kansas City, Missouri. Rep is really in quest of a cutting-edge copyright case connected with romance publishing house Jackrabbit Press. He finds a corpse instead.... Michael Bowen, a trial lawyer practicing in Milwaukee, Wisconsin, is the author of numerous mysteries and non-fiction works. He graduated from Harvard Law School. Bowen lives with his wife and their three younger children in Milwaukee.