title: Columbo: The Game Show Killer
author:  William Harrington 
description: Everyman's detective is just as dogged as ever in his pursuit of justice. Grant Kellogg, the most successful defense attorney in L.A., comes to the annoying realization that a million dollars doesn't go as far as it used to. In fact, after his last acquittal, it's the defendant who inks a book contract and makes out like a bandit. So Kellogg decides to build his own trial of the century?but this time, he'll have a piece of the action. Six years earlier, game-show hostess Erika Bjorling's daughter, Tammy, was kidnapped and murdered and the culprit was never found. The glamorous Bjorling is now hurting for money. Sharklike, Kellogg tells her the killer was Tammy's father, beloved western star Tim Wylie, whose indiscretions have been one of Hollywood's best-kept secrets. Next, Kellogg tells her his plan: she kills Wylie, gets caught, goes to trial, is defended by Kellogg and acquitted, after which the two of them clean up on a book deal and some pay-per-view. As it turns out, Columbo is the steepest slope of all in this lightning-fast read. Still clad in his rumpled raincoat, still endearing and untroubled, he takes on greed and cynicism in his droopy, inimitable way. The prose is thin?Harrington doesn't waste time on complex characterizations?and there's barely a whiff of suspense, but readers will come away as satisfied as the tourists who gather to watch Old Faithful spout. <br />Copyright 1996 Reed Business Information, Inc.
zlib_text: Copyright © 1996 by MCA Publishing Rights, a Division of MCA, Inc.
  
  
  COLUMBO: THE GAME SHOW KILLER A novel by William Harrington Based on the
  Universal Television series COLUMBO Created by Richard Levinson & William Link
  
  
  All rights reserved, including the right to reproduce this book, or portions
  thereof, in any form.
  
  
  This book is printed on acid-free paper.
  
  
  A Forge Book
  
  
  Published by Tom Doherty Associates, Inc 175 Fifth Avenue New York, NY 10010
  
  
  Forge® is a registered trademark of Tom Doherty Associates, Inc.
  
  
  Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
  
  
  Harrington, William
  
  
  Columbo : the game show killer by William Harrington.— 1st ed.
  
  
  p. cm.
  
  
  “A Tom Doherty Associates book.”
  
  
  ISBN 0-312-86178-8 (acid-free paper)
  
  
  1\. Columbo, Lieutenant (Fictitious character)—Fiction.
  
  
  2\. Television personalities—California—Los Angeles— Fiction. 3.
  Police—California—Los Angeles—Fiction.
  
  
  4\. Los Angeles (Calif.)—Fiction. I. Title.
  
  
  PS3558.A63C63 199695-53097
  
  
  813'.54—dc