Name Games

Journalist Mark Manning delves into the bizarre world of miniatures . . . and finds a king-sized case of murder
Front-page news in the quiet town of Dumont, Wisconsin, where former Chicago reporter Mark Manning runs the town's Daily Register, involves the annual exhibition of the Midwest Miniatures Society and new zoning laws for an adult bookstore . But murder becomes the headline when "King of Miniatures" Carrol Cantrell, the nation's foremost expert, is found strangled in the guesthouse of a local shop owner.

It seems Cantrell was leading a double life. He was having an affair with Doug Pierce, Dumont's closeted sheriff and a good friend of Manning's. With a blackmail note pointing to his guilt, Pierce soon becomes the prime suspect. Enlisting the help of colleagues, friends, and his lover, Neil, Manning races to clear Pierce's name . . . and finds himself enmeshed in the seething rivalries and vicious back-stabbing that characterize the cutthroat worlds of miniatures and pornography. With suspects ranging from a gay-bashing feminist to a renowned French craftsman of miniatures, Manning unearths a hotbed of damning secrets someone has killed-and could kill again-to keep.

Name Games is the fourth book in Michael Craft's Mark Manning series, which begins with Flight Dreams and Eye Contact.