This time 'round the culprit was "Who P-p-p-plugged Roger Rabbit?". And I probably really should have known better ... after all, Roger Rabbit WAS murdered fairly early in the original "Who Censored Roger Rabbit?" and was still deceased at the end. But there was a potential loophole re death, and even without that there could have been a whole new tale spinning off from the consequences (there would have been several) of the events in the first book. Which was quite a nifty and unique little mystery ... VERY different from the movie (which retained a few character names from the novel but very little else in terms of plot or personalities).
Not that "Plugged" was a bad book ... it was okay. Just ... I was disappointed after being psyched for that print world I so fondly remembered.
On the plus side, I'm now reading a volume of short stories by the same author and those are wonderful! (most are not ToonTown-related ... mainly one-shots that range from sad to hilarious)