An Interview Reviewed

When an experienced magazine correspondent suddenly becomes ill before he can carry out his assignment, a young and comparatively inexperienced colleague is deputized to interview world-famous composer Howard Tonks in his stead, and things don't work out as planned for either of them! In fact they go from bad to worse in ways which put not only the assignment, but the reputation of the magazine in serious jeopardy, threatening the livelihoods of both correspondents. Can a resolution to the dilemma in which the magazine subsequently finds itself be found, or will it be obliged to compensate the aggrieved party in some financially or socially compromising way? The answer lies within in this far from implausible sequence to 'Cross-Purposes' (1979). Incidentally, the two attaché cases on the cover are particularly appropriate for a novel in which such cases are part of the interview requirement, bearing recording equipment, notebooks, and so on.