BESTSELLERS & BEST FRIENDS
My book publishing blog, with murder mysteries woven through it.
If this is your first visit, be sure to start with “1. Let’s do it!”
______________________________________________________________
I’m of course curious as hell about the final draft of Under the Rose that the now-under-arrest Bill Franks prominently placed at the scene of each murder.
Just what is it? Is it blank? Full of favorite recipes?
Did he actually re-write Doyle’s original Under the Rose?
Ligonier Police Chief Jim was kind enough to send me a photocopy of the one he was holding in evidence.
It arrived today. I opened it.
And although the cover of it reads...
UNDER THE ROSE
THE FINAL DRAFT
BY JAMES DOYLE
...the title page inside actually reads:
ALBERT
A BIOGRAPHY OF EINSTEIN FOR CHILDREN
BY BILL FRANKS
What the hell? I quickly scanned the pages, pausing every 30 pages or so to read a paragraph. Yep, it was a biography of Einstein. Though, to be honest, the writing was awful. Then I noticed this, its last page:
ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS
To myself, Bill Franks, who wrote this (it’s better than Brallier’s).
That son of a bitch....
Tomorrow (back to publishing): Ogden Nash