Books about TV: "Bloody Soaps"

Recently I completed "Bloody Soaps", a mystery novel about the behind the scenes at a New York City based soap, which was written in 1989. Below are my thoughts. I don't spoil the story in this entry.

The book was written by Jacqueline Babbin, who worked at ABC daytime for many years (some of it at the network, and also with "All My Children" and "Loving".) The story is about the murder of a hated executive producer, and had the second title of "a tale of love and death in the afternoon". The book didn't have a forward, but its back cover had a write-up by Ruth Warrick (best known on "All My Children" as Phoebe Tyler). This was the second novel with former police detective Clovis Kelley solving the crime. He gets involved, as his girlfriend Yancy works at the fictional soap "The Key to Life" as an actress.

In the story, we meet characters both behind and in front of the camera, and at the network. Most "cozy" mysteries of today, (or at least many that I've found), have the POV being first person of the detective, but this was written in third person. This wasn't a very violent book, but due to the age, there are some things that would be written differently over 25 years later. One minor mention though made me laugh, the restaurant Joe Allen was in the story, and as far as I know it still exists, and there was a mini-reunion of "Another World" stars in the last decade. So that was accurate as a place people went that were in soaps.

This book feels like it is written by someone who worked in the industry at the time. There are just many things that a non-connected person would never think about sharing. There are mentions about how the sets are shipped away when not working and the day versus the night crew.

If someone wants to read something taking place on a soap set, and get an idea of what it used to be, this would be a good choice. That said it was a bit difficult for me to source, as I found a used copy that wasn't in the best condition, but at least it was readable, (library discard).