Chivers Sound Library American Collections
Sound Library
November 2000
On Sale: November 1, 2000
150 pages ISBN: 0792799542 EAN: 9780792799542 Hardcover Add to Wish List
Mystery grand master Donald Westlake (who also writes
under the name Richard Stark) is nothing if not prolific:
his publishing career includes juveniles, westerns, and
short stories. He is perhaps best known by mystery
enthusiasts for his comic crime novels (Smoke, Baby, Would
I Lie?, Trust Me on This) and his Dortmunder series
(What's the Worst That Could Happen?, Don't Ask, Drowned
Hopes). The Hook, however, moves beyond the machinations
and deduction-driven plots of traditional mystery,
following the path Westlake spearheaded with The Ax into
the twisted labyrinth of psychological suspense. The Hook
is a harrowing story, told with a crisp incisiveness, and
its riveting central characters are extraordinary: Bryce
Proctorr and Wayne Prentice are fascinating, compelling
tangles of neuroses and ambitions, both wonderfully drawn.
Bryce Proctorr has a multi-million dollar contract for his
next novel, a wife who is trying to extract the last pound
of flesh (but money will do just as well) from him in an
ugly divorce, a fast-approaching deadline, and a serious
case of writer's block. Wayne Prentice is an author
drifting ghost-like through a world that has forgotten his
novels; he's gone through two pseudonyms, has watched his
sales plummet, and is wondering whether the academic life
might be better than this, all things considered. When the
two meet by chance in the New York Library, Proctorr has a
proposition: if Prentice will give him his unsold
manuscript to publish under Proctorr's name, the two will
split the book advance fifty-fifty. But as in all Faustian
bargains, there is a significant catch: Wayne must kill
Bruce's wife. The murder itself is almost insignificant, a
small and sordid endeavor. The novel's real appeal lies in
its shadowy reflections of the links between the two
protagonists: a bond has been created that neither can
break--nor wants to. Westlake cleverly questions the
boundaries between actual and vicarious experience, fact
and fiction. The novel is strikingly self-referential as
it plays with the irony of authors trying to "compose"
their own realities: "There are moments in almost any
novel when it's necessary to move a character from one
point to another, so that you can go on with the story,
and this was like that." But what happens when the
characters, instead of dutifully obeying the wishes of
their creators, strike off on their own in unanticipated
and fearful directions? --Kelly Flynn --This text refers
to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.
© 2003-2025 off-the-edge.net
all rights reserved Privacy Policy