Estimated read time: 4-5 minutes
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Prepare to be amazed ...
Michael Collins' "Death of a Writer" is a stunning tour de force that does a masterful dance through many genres -- page-turning thriller, campus farce, love story, murder mystery, publishing industry satire, psychological study, black comedy, disturbing noir.
The 42-year-old Irish writer, who lives in Bellingham, has taken a huge leap past all his previous work, including "Keepers of the Truth," a finalist for Britain's Booker Prize.
"Death of a Writer" is a true risk-taking book in an era when playing it safe and formulaic repeat works too often dominate the writing trade. It seems much in keeping with Collins' continuing pursuits in the extreme sport of ultra-marathoning, a test of will, endurance and running ability over such forbidding landscapes as the North Pole and the Sahara, sites of two of his competitive triumphs this year.
Collins' new novel returns to the rust belt Midwest, a familiar American locale for the novels of an author who came to the U.S. for a track scholarship at Notre Dame. It is set at the fictional Bannockburn College, a liberal-arts oasis for middling students from families willing to fork over its high tuition.
It's homecoming weekend as the novel opens, an occasion for traditional frivolities, but also the much-awaited appearance on campus of best-selling writer Allen Horowitz. Not thrilled in the slightest, however, is English professor E. Robert Pendleton, who sees Horowitz as his "particular nightmare."
They had both been rising lit stars at one point in their lives, even good friends who shared the same editor and publisher. But Horowitz's career had a rocket's trajectory, while Pendleton's took a downward spiral, his subsequent novels all rejected, his teaching derided, with psychotic episodes that underscore the writer's hopelessness as he plummets to has-been oblivion.
Horowitz' arrival is the final straw, resulting in a booze-and-pill suicide attempt by Pendleton. But he does not succeed at that either, suffering a paralyzing stroke that turns him into an invalid with very limited mental capacities. Enter Adi Wiltshire, perennial graduate student whose thesis is still missing-in-action; she loyally assume responsibility for Pendleton's care.
Her residency in the professor's home results in the basement discovery of a self-published Pendleton novel, an unknown quantity in his sketchy résumé. Wiltshire considers it to be a work of "genius" and enlists Horowitz's aid in arranging for its release by a major publisher.
And, wonder of wonders, Pendleton's "Scream" earns raves ("Nietzsche meets Charles Manson") and climbs the best-seller lists, aided in no small part by Horowitz's laudatory introduction. It is all that Pendleton has ever hoped for in his faltering career but, in a resplendent irony, he is now is an invalid incapable of comprehending its success.
But there soon develops a problem with "Scream." This semi-autobiographical novel detailing a writer's despair includes a grisly account of a 13-year-old girl's murder, a murder that, it is soon discovered, mirrors the murder of a local girl. Could Pendleton be guilty of murder most foul in the name of art?
Jon Ryder -- a burnt-out, discredited detective on a cold-case squad -- is determined to find out. "Death of a Writer" switches gears, turns into a thriller as sudden violence erupts in the dying town, exposing a festering legacy of scandal and cover-up. And a controversy soon develops over whether "Scream" should be dropped as a finalist for the National Book Award because of its apparent link with real tragedy.
Collins juggles these many disparate plot threads and succeeds on almost all levels. Reading "Death of a Writer" is akin to watching a solo aerialist on the high wire without a net, an experience that is tense, scary and utterly riveting.
Make no mistake: This is literary fiction with serious intent, examining such important matters as the pain of artistic creation, the price of success, the isolation of academia, the hopelessness of life in a dying small town. But Collins seamlessly enfolds such meditations into a gripping novel that should leave many readers both mightily impressed and absolutely breathless.
Michael Collins discusses "Death of a Writer" at noon today at Seattle Mystery Bookshop, 117 Cherry St., and at 7:30 p.m. tonight at The Elliott Bay Book Co., 101 S. Main St.
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