For 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, halted at the last moment by the intervention of Adi Wiltshire, a graduate student battling her own demons of failure and thwarted ambition. During Pendleton's long convalescence, Adi discovers a novel hidden in his basement: a brilliant, semi-autobiographical story with a gruesome child-murder at its core. The publication of Scream ...
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For 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, halted at the last moment by the intervention of Adi Wiltshire, a graduate student battling her own demons of failure and thwarted ambition. During Pendleton's long convalescence, Adi discovers a novel 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: a whirlwind into which Adi, Horowitz and the still-incapacitated Pendleton are thrust. The novel is treated as an existential masterpiece and looks set to bring its author the success he's always sought - when, ironically, he is no longer in a condition to appreciate it - until questions begin to be asked about its content: in particular about the uncanny resemblance between Pendleton's fictional crime and a real-life, unresolved local murder. Enter Jon Ryder, a world-weary detective who could have walked off the pages of a police thriller, and the hunt for the murderer is on.
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'Death of A Writer' starts out brilliantly -- the premise is so good that I told several people about it, talking up the book. That premise is this -- a professor at a small Midwestern college attempts to commit suicide, and the student who rescues him and anoints herself as his caretaker discovers a self-published novel that professor released 30 years prior to no acclaim. She helps get it re-issued, and it becomes a critical masterpiece -- and also reopens a 30-year old murder case that bears far too much resemblance the novel. The professor - now a hobbled, almost catatonic version of his former self, becomes the prime suspect.
OK, great premise - right? Except then it tries to become a few different things - the murder story (which includes more about the detective than I cared to learn about), a sarcastic look at academia, and an odd character analysis of his graduate student caretaker. The last part is particularly unwelcome and unnecessary, and it creates a detour that really detracts from the overall novel.
Collins is clearly a good writer, and there is a lot to say here - overall, it's a good novel but falls well short of its potential.
