The Author

Plot
A woman (Audra Lindley) in a small town writes a book whose characters are actual people in the town. When it becomes a best seller, the press converge on the town to interview them, and some of them threaten the woman. When the local reverend Deluca (John O'Leary) goes to visit her, someone takes a shot at her, but kills the reverend. The police investigate and it leads them to one of the town's doctors, Dr. Phillip Eagen, who was depicted in the book as being a druggie, which he denies, and threatened the woman. Ben comes to defend him, and starts by checking some of the other people depicted in the book, but learns none of them have reason to kill her. Later, Ben discovers a different motive and suspect for the killing.

Trivia

 * This episode marks the last appearance of Eddie Quillan.
 * The computer Mary Ann Newton used is a Commodore 128.