Ratings Are Murder

Summary

Bob Christopher, investigative reporter for Channel 3 in LosAngeles, is an old hand at ferreting out consumer fraud. He hardly feelsthat an all-out effort to reinstate Saint Christopher to the church’scalendar fits that category. Then the cleaning woman who had taken up the saint’s cause is brutally murdered.

Bob, guilty because he brushed the old woman off, iscompelled to search for her killer. He finds himself dodgingcloudbursts, raccoons, spilled blood, and his obsessed boss, who needs Bob’spresence on the six o’clock news to improve the ratings. Adding to his problemsis his elusive film editor, an entrepreneur usually too busy peddling stolenporno tapes to work on the program.

Through this hectic action wander rain-soaked fans in weird costumesvying for places and prizes on the station’s game show. They make it easy forsuspects—disguised as surgeons, nuns, and chickens—to melt into the crowd. AsBob Christopher approaches dead center of the web of murder, blackmail,chicanery, X-rated films, and station politics that infest Channel 3’s ricketybuilding, he gets closer to a killer who is out to make the reporter his nextvictim.