His leaving the company suddenly makes the manhunt moot and it is quickly terminated, without the witnesses seeing George. The building is being searched floor-by-floor and it appears inevitable that Stroud will be caught, but Earl snaps under the pressure and surrenders his company to a unfavorable merger. Eventually, witnesses are brought to the publishing house's building, because it is said that the sought-after individual (name still unknown) is inside. George sets the investigation in motion, but craftily subverts its chance for success.ĭespite the roadblocks George puts in the way of the investigation identifying him as the witness, he comes closer and closer to being found. They put George in charge of the investigation, as he is their sharpest editor. Magazine illustration of Pauline's murder by Earl.Įarl and Steve employ all of the resources of the publishing firm to find the mysterious witness-not realizing that he is right under their noses. Steve immediately begins planning a coverup and tells Earl he must be prepared to have the man who witnessed him enter the building killed. In a panic, he goes to Steve's apartment for assistance. This enrages Earl and he bludgeons her to death with a crystal decanter. In reply, she suggests that he and his close associate, Steve Hagen, are a gay couple. In Pauline's apartment, she and Earl have a violent argument in which he accuses her of being a cheat and a lesbian. Earl sees George observing him, but, crucially, he cannot make him out in the shadows. He watches her approach the entrance and sees Earl emerge from a limousine and enter the building with her. (The other customer turns out to be Patterson herself.) Later, George leaves Pauline at a corner near her Manhattan apartment. George is a collector of the artist Louise Patterson and finds one of her works in shabby condition in an antique store. After a weekend together in upstate New York, George and Pauline spend a leisurely evening in Manhattan-eating dinner, bar-hopping, and browsing antique stores. His latest affair is with Pauline, who is also the girlfriend of his boss, Earl Janoth. Stroud is a borderline alcoholic and serial adulterer. The first five chapters are told by George Stroud, who works for a New York magazine publisher not unlike Time-Life. Each of the 19 chapters adopts the perspective of a single character. The novel's innovative structure is presented from the point-of-view of seven different characters.
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