The Hook

THE HOOK
Donald E. Westlake
Mysterious, Mar 2000, $23.95, 288 pp.
ISBN: 0892965886

It must be over twenty years since authors Bryce Proctorr and Wayne Prentice first met. When they were both aspiring and promising they hit the same haunts, but that was years. Their careers took off in different directions with Proctorr being one of the giants and receiving millions per book while Prentice has faded into the inkwell of nothingness using pen names to hide his dismal selling record. Sales are everything and the computer maintains the history whether it is dismal or not. Now coincidentally, they run into each other doing library research.

Suffering from writer's block, which he blames on his ugly divorce, Bryce offers a lucrative deal to Wayne. Wayne writes the book using Bryce's name instead of Tim Fleet or some other alias and they split the multi-million dollar pot. However, Bryce adds one condition, namely that his ex-wife Lucie must die.

Like his previous novel THE AX, Donald Westlake HOOKS his audience from the start and never lets go until the novel is finished. The psychological suspense story line leaves Wayne stunned and questioning the Faustian deal he accepted. The two writers turn the tale into an exciting novel that will leave readers wanting Mr. Westlake to publish his next book much faster than the three-year gap between this story and his preceding work.

Harriet Klausner