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Full Frontal Murder

by Barbara Paul

Full Frontal Murder is as much about police Lieutenant Marian Larch and her position over a number of male detectives in New York City as it is about the actual murders which take place there. Barbara Paul has written a very good detective story demonstrating the difficulties of a female being in a position of power while attempting to solve a very difficult case with few clues – a case that consistently edges closer and closer to Marian herself. Full Frontal Murder isn't what it sounds like. The book's story has no full frontal nudity except near the end, and even then it's not a murder. The murders committed (and there are a number of them!) aren't those of undressed corpses.

The case begins with the attempted kidnapping of four-year-old Bobby, son of a very wealthy, divorced woman, Rita Fairchild Galloway. Luckily, a policeman on his beat nearby is able to retrieve the boy, even though the kidnapper gets away. Rita blames her former husband for the attempt. The estranged husband and wife both want full custody of their son, and both are bitter about the court's judgement that each will have Bobby for only six months at a time. When Lieutenant Larch interviews her, Rita Galloway seems both frustrated and angry. Her brother, Alex Fairchild, backs Rita up in her denunciations of the Galloway family.

The Galloways are now down to Hugh, Bobby's father, and Hugh's own father, Walter. This family is among the richest of all those in New York, and young Bobby Galloway is their only heir. Marian Larch then interviews Hugh. Her final realization is that both parents lie easily, both are suspicious of the other, and that the attempted kidnapping is actually the work of a third person.

The listed suspects are all murdered, one by one, including the original man who tried to kidnap Bobby. Frustratingly for Marian, every time she tracks down someone who can possibly provide her with information, they're conveniently murdered before they can tell her anything about the shadowy individual who evidently hired them to perform for him.

Rita Galloway, tricked by a forged letter, storms into a meeting and shoots her former husband in front of a number of witnesses. With Rita in jail and Hugh dead, it becomes apparent that both contenders for control over Bobby, and thus the eventual entire Galloway fortune, have been eliminated. Bobby is now under the care of Rita's brother, Alex Fairchild.

Marian has a lover, Holland, well-off in his own right with a business composed of young computer hackers who help large corporations protect their own computer operations. Holland is lured away to Coney Island at the same time Marian is lured to Hoboken, New Jersey – with the result that Holland is captured and kept in an out-of-the-way spot as a hostage. VCR tapes are then sent to Marian showing Holland after he's been beaten and humiliated, along with demands that she close the Galloway case before discovery of who has actually instigated the murders is revealed. If she refuses to cooperate, Holland will be killed.

Holland knows and recognizes his captor. He manipulates the growing bond between captor and prisoner to his own advantage as much as possible. Meanwhile, Marian and her crew are desperately hunting for Holland, using tiny clues such as the glimpses of background in the VCR tapes to find Holland's location. Marian Larch realizes who the murderer must be, but there is no evidence – no proof, and the demands accompanying each VCR finally come down to a definite time when Holland will be killed unless the police close the case.

When the detectives find the general area where Holland might be at last, it takes a number of various groups going off in different directions to hunt for the exact spot where could be imprisoned. All are equipped with a silent way of communicating with each other. Marian eventually finds herself alone, pursuing a rat-infested path – but comes
upon both captor and prisoner at the moment when the enraged murderer is torturing Holland. She overcomes him, and rescues her beloved.


Alan Paul Curtis

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