MEL ARRIGHI – Alter Ego. St. Martin’s Press, hardcover, 1983. No paperback edition. TV movie: CBS, 1987, as Murder by the Book (with Robert Hays and Catherine Mary Stewart).

   There is reason to believe that Alter Ego was the projected start of a series, curtailed by the author’s death [in 1986].

   It fits into the small subgenre of mysteries in which fictional characters come to life. Arrighi’s Hank Mercer writes about a tough private eye, Biff Deegan, but wants to replace him with a professor who solves his cases by cerebral methods.

   Mercer attempts to convince his reluctant publisher by solving a mystery that presents itself while they are dining; a woman has dropped a matchbook on their table with a scribbled message, “Help Me!”

   Aided by Biff, about whom he hallucinates, Hank gets involved in a case of art smuggling. The premise is more imaginative than its resolution, but Arrighi makes the narrative move at a brisk pace.