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Death Becomes the Hero by Edward Walter

Professor Lester Menkhen doubts the official verdict on the death of a cold war hero and investigates despite pressure from CIA agents and a bribe.

About the book

Professor Lester Menkhen discovers cold war hero John Kalman dead, suspects murder, relays his suspicions to investigating officers, and is soundly rebuffed. Death by natural causes is the official verdict. Menkhen sets out to establish the truth and, incidentally, vindicate his own judgement. In short order, he falls in love with Elizabeth Woodbury, the former wife of the dead hero, is accosted by two CIA field agents, and is offered a bribe to quit investigating. But Menkhen will neither be frightened off nor bought off. He flies to New York where he questions an NYU provost with secret ties to the CIA and Kalman's last mistress, Marge Johnson. The provost dissembles, but Johnson produces Kalman's secret memoir which reveals that Kalman, while supposedly standing in the first rank of freedom fighters, was backstage colluding with János Kádár to undermine the revolution. Later, Kalman conspired with CIA operative George Del Corso to overthrow Kádár's government. When the unauthorized coup collapsed, Del Corso arranged Kalman's escape to the United States, the first of many blackmail payments.

Menkhen ties up loose ends in Budapest, then returns to New York to confront Kalman's murder - Péter Kiraly, a young NYU professor, the son of a rebel artist betrayed by Kalman. Before he can act, however, Menkhen is waylaid by the two CIA agents. In the process of turning over the supposed last copy of the Kalman memoir, Menkhen escapes. Using a series of disguises, staying a step ahead of Del Corso's minions, Menkhen funnels the evidence, slightly rearranged, to an investigative journalist, and, through him, to the FBI. Two months later, arresting officers at his doorstep, Del Corso commits suicide. The two rogue CIA agents are blamed for Kalman's death and two other murders, as well. Menkhen shields Kiraly, a victim of duplicity, even thought his decision means he must forgo the recognition he originally sought. He convinces himself that his judgement has to be vindicated in his own eyes, not in anyone else's. He returns to his love, Elizabeth Woodbury.

About the author

Edward Walter grew up in New York City, earned a philosophy Ph.D at New York University and has been a professor at the University of Missouri-Kansas City for thirty-three years. He has published extensively on law, politics, environmental ethics and the arts. His work on liberal democracy earned him a spot on a 1978 international team of scholars, formed by the Club of Rome and sponsored by a NEH-NSF grant, to study irrational growth. From this study, Walter published a book, The Immorality of Limiting (Technological) Growth. Berkeley philosopher, Walter Matson, called this work, 'an exemplary piece of straight thinking in deflation of fashionable humbug,' and Presidential Medal of Honor winner Sidney Hook wrote, 'Professor Walter writes with verve and clarity and because of his avoidance of jargon is able to communicate with scholars from various disciplines.' An editor of a leading philosophical journal called his most recently published philosophical article (1996) 'perfect' and 'scintillating.' For his research, Walter was designated University of Kansas City Research Scholar for 1988.

Throughout his career, Walter has sustained a deep interest in literature, theater, opera and classical music. Indeed, he has studied (opera) and acting. In the last several years, Walter has shifted to fiction writing, an outgrowth of his natural interests.

Archived from the Harris Literary Agency website. The agency's listing is reproduced as published, with contact details removed.

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