Trama

Jessica's niece, an actress in a daytime drama, becomes a suspect when the head writer for the show is murdered.

Joyce Holleran, the new producer and head writer of a New York soap, makes enemies by having many recurrent characters written out, belittling her husband Larry and refusing to let Todd Worthy go when he gets a far better Hollywood series offer. Jessica visits her niece Nita Cochran, one of the actresses fearing the ax. Then Joyce is shot, believing by Nita as the killer wears her masking Avenger costume. NYPD Lieutenant Antonelli thinks it's a shut case and arrests her by following Jessica, who is determined to prove her niece's innocence. When Joyce's successor as director, Gordon LaMonica, who has network instructions to continue the cast pruning, is shot in the arm by someone in Avenger costume but with a non-matching police gun, proven to be the murder weapon, Jessica starts untangling a web of false appearances.—KGF Vissers

Jessica is visiting her niece Nita Cochran, an actress in a daytime soap opera. There's a good deal of turmoil on the set as the woman responsible for the show, Joyce Holleran, is in the process of killing off many of the long standing characters. Neither the identify of the killer or the next victims are known to the actors so they are constantly on pins and needles. It's no surprise therefore when Holleran is found murdered in her study where she writes the scripts for the show. When Jessica's niece is arrested, she throws herself into the case convinced that the truth lies elsewhere.—garykmcd

Jessica's actress niece, Nita Cochran, is the prime suspect in the murder of a daytime-drama writer.