Compelling, delightfully nasty satire of publishing that pulls off a neat trick rarely seen in satire: reveling in ambiguity. The protagonist is horrible and self-aggrandizing, racist and deluded and also right about some things. The wronged dead writer is wronged and dead and also an awful person, and the people on the outside investigating and commenting are right and also just as awful and self-aggrandizing as anyone else. A deeply cynical, suspenseful, and misanthropic read I'd put up with the best of Patricia Highsmith.

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