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?
鈥淎 wonderfully creepy murder mystery . . . an intellectually vigorous, emotionally bracing read.鈥濃People
鈥淢ichael Collins tears into literary academe with great comic gusto.鈥濃The New York Times Book Review
鈥淸Michael Collins] is one of Ireland鈥檚 major talents abroad. . . . Readers can turn the pages of E. Robert Pendleton鈥檚 secret life in equal anticipation of well-plotted thrills, of the accessible seriousness Collins鈥檚 fiction has always displayed, and of a good hoot at the literary world鈥檚 wrangles.鈥濃Irish Times
鈥淭his combination of Michael Chabon and Harlan Coben is head and shoulders above everything else I read for consideration this month, and indeed so far this year. Superb and . . . hilariously accurate.鈥濃Bookseller (London)
鈥淢ystery, tragedy, and farce converge in this engaging novel of considerable psychological depth. . . . The suspense makes this a page-turner until the climax, as Collins鈥檚 plot combines academic satire, philosophical speculation, and tragedy.鈥濃Kirkus Reviews
