Rep and Melissa Pennyworth go to a re-enactment of a Civil War battle in Kansas City, Missouri in search of a cutting-edge copyright case for Rep and find a corpse instead. Linda Damon, Melissa's best girlhood friend, worked for the victim before his death, and on one regrettable occasion got a bit too intimately involved in her job. Her husband, Peter, an enthusiastic Civil War hobbyist, had a motive, an opportunity, and a Civil War saber that turns out to have been drenched in the victim's blood. Logically, Rep's knowledge of trademark and copyright law, Melissa's Ph.D in Literature, and the passionate Anglomania of Peter's boss, librarian Diane Klimchock, should be no help in what is clearly a job for the police. When Rep and Melissa are involved, however, logic is seldom a reliable guide. Their contribution ends up being essential to the solution of a crime whose roots go back to an execution during World War II and a contemporary hatred much more dangerous than one husband's jealousy.

Reviews

"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

• • •

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

• • •

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