In April 2005, Dominic Dunne was sent the bound galleys of Jane Stanton Hitchcock's new novel, One Dangerous Lady: "It's set in the highest echelons of New York's billionaire society set -- the kind of people who give wings in their name to the Metropolitan Museum. Many of the characters seem to be based on real people who will be recognizable to the social cognoscenti. I was having a wonderful time reading the galleys and figuring out who was who on a Sunday afternoon at my house in Connecticut when suddenly I came upon a character called Larry Locket, a writer who covers murder cases involving famous people for a magazine called Vanitas. It didn't take me long to figure out who that was, and I was riveted, because it is an eerie and exciting feeling to find yourself as a character in a novel. Locket is described in this manner: 'Larry was known for taking on the rich and powerful, many of whom had publicly vowed to get even with him one day. He'd had many threats against his life.' I'm not going to give away the plot of Hitchcock's book, but I was taken aback when Larry -- me -- is bludgeoned to death, on the orders of an enormously rich widow with the largest apartment in New York, about whom my character is writing a story for Vanitas."

[Larry's memorial service takes place at St. Patrick's Cathedral, which Dunne was pleased to report "is packed for the occasion. Even Mayor Bloomberg attends." Moreover, Dawson Lane (a foil for Vanity Fair editor Wayne Lawson) delivered a wonderful eulogy. "I was really quite moved by the scene," said Dunne. "I hope I do as well in real life when my time comes."]