In Death Likes it Hot, dashing P.R. man Peter Sargeant travels out to a posh beach community to help a wealthy socialite plan an end-of-summer party. His enjoyment of the sun, the surf, and the company of a lovely young fashion reporter is interrupted by the death of the socialite's niece: she mysteriously drowns while swimming on a crowded beach. No one suspects murder until the police find a lethal dose of sleeping pills in her system. As Sargeant watches the police's investigation unfold, he keeps an eye on the grieving socialite; the victim's famous painter husband; a suspiciously cheery brother and sister; and a garrulous tabloid columnist. Now, instead of planning guest lists, wine choices, and menus, Sargeant is faced with a killer unlike he's ever faced: highly sophisticated, devilishly clever, and just as smooth as he is.

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"A first-rate comedy of manners" —Anthony Boucher, Los Angeles Times

“The case of the missing author is over.  Gore Vidal has emerged from behind the facade of Edgar Box.” —The New Republic


From the Trade Paperback edition.

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Gore Vidal is the author of twenty-three novels, five plays, two memoirs, numerous screenplays and short stories, and well over two hundred essays. His United States: Essays, 1952–1992 received the National Book Award.


From the Trade Paperback edition.

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