Death of a Writer by Michael Collins

From the Publisher

From Booker Prize nominee Michael Collins comes “a wonderfully creepy murder mystery” (People), about a novelist whose last hope for fame may be the deepest secret in his past.

For E. Robert Pendleton, a professor clinging to tenure and living in the shambles of his once-bright literary career, death seems to be the only remaining option. But his suicide attempt fails, and during his long convalescence, a novel is discovered hidden in his basement: a brilliant, semi-autobiographical story with a gruesome child murder at its core.
 
The publication of Scream causes a storm of publicity and raises questions about its content—in particular, about the uncanny resemblance between Pendleton’s fictional crime and a real-life, unresolved local murder. How did Pendleton know the case so well? And why did he bury Scream in his basement? A rare blend of suspense, humor and insight, Death of a Writer is “dark, disturbing and damnably good.” (Baltimore Sun).

The New York Times - Marilyn Stasio

Michael Collins tears into literary academe with great comic gusto in Death of a Writer, using the contorted plot of a campus murder mystery to send up the circuitous thinking and laborious scheming that passes for scholarship in the fame-obsessed English department of an insular liberal arts college in Indiana.

Publishers Weekly

Collins, whose The Keepers of Truth was shortlisted for the Booker, presents a sardonic view of academia in this literary crime novel. E. Robert Pendleton's heralded first novel secures him a teaching position at exclusive Bannockburn College in the Midwest, but his career is on the skids because he hasn't published recently. When an old friend, acclaimed writer Allen Horowitz, arrives at Bannockburn for a lecture, the despondent Bob attempts suicide but fails. While helping Bob recuperate, graduate student Adi Wiltshire discovers cartons of a self-published novel, Scream, in his basement; recognizing its brilliance, she and Allen arrange its reissue without the incapacitated Bob's knowledge. The successful new edition of Scream attracts the attention of cold case detective Jon Ryder, who notices close parallels between its story and a local unsolved murder. Collins keeps the tension high as the ambitious Adi, arrogant Allen and dogged Jon work together and at cross purposes to discover the truth. The philosophical and literary digressions may annoy some readers, but all should appreciate the fully-realized characters, lyrical place descriptions and dark, circuitous plot. (Sept.) Copyright 2006 Reed Business Information.

Kirkus Reviews

Mystery, tragedy and farce converge in this engaging novel of considerable psychological depth. At the outset, the principal characters in the latest from the Irish-born, American-based Collins (Lost Souls, 2004, etc.) all seem to be academic stereotypes. Initially, the protagonist appears to be E. Robert Pendleton, an English professor at a small Midwestern college whose early promise as a novelist has dissipated and whose tenure has been threatened by psychological breakdowns as well as lack of publishing output. Pendleton's career contrasts sharply with that of Allen Horowitz, a former college classmate whose reputation as a writer has soared while Pendleton's has fizzled. When Pendleton's college invites Horowitz as a distinguished guest speaker, paying him as much for an appearance as some junior academicians earn in a year, their relationship turns even more contentious as they vie for the attention of a voluptuous grad student notorious as a literary groupie. So far, so predictable. Yet the story takes a series of sharp turns when Pendleton attempts suicide; the grad student discovers a previously unknown novel of his (and a potential thesis topic) that suggests he might be a genius, a murderer or both; and Horowitz uses his literary renown on the novel's promotional behalf. Within this small collegiate town, it ultimately appears that everyone's past interconnects for decades, and as police reopen the unsolved case that inspired Pendleton's novel (while Pendleton remains little more than a vegetable), almost everyone is at least potentially guilty of something. The story ultimately pivots on an investigator who attempts to untangle an increasingly complicated plot involving oldermen attracted to younger women and what might be a serial murder of teenaged girls (whose deaths or disappearances previously seemed unrelated). But the investigator, with the eerie parallels between his life and the crime, could well be the one who needs investigating. The suspense makes this a page-turner until the climax, as Collins's plot combines academic satire, philosophical speculation and tragedy.

Product Details

• ISBN: 1596913061
  
• ISBN-13: 9781596913066
• Format: Paperback, 320pp
• Publisher: Bloomsbury Publishing Plc
• Pub. Date: September 2007
• Edition Description: Reprint
• Sales Rank: 129,371