From Publishers Weekly
Red pencils draw real blood in this delightful publishing world crime spoof by Grimes, expert storyteller and bestselling author of the Richard Jury mysteries (The Man with a Load of Mischief, etc.). When Paul Giverney, a hot suspense novelist, seeks a new publisher, he decides on the house of Mackensie-Haack under the condition that they dump their highly respected and award-winning author, Ned Isaly. Ruthless president Bobby Mackensie will stop at nothing to sign Giverney, even though breaking Isaly's contract is a legal impossibility. His solution? Sign another contract-this one with two hit men, who are hired to knock off Isaly. What Mackensie doesn't know is that Candy and Karl are killers with scruples and a keen interest in literature. Isaly, meanwhile, is totally engrossed in finishing his current novel and barely notices the two men as they mingle with Isaly and his friends at popular New York City literary watering holes. Not even when a multitude of bumblers follow him on a visit to his hometown of Pittsburgh-in one of the most humorous episodes in the book-does he realize his plight. Although verging on the caricaturish, the characters are memorable, especially the hit-men duo. Insider publishing lingo, a quirky plot, atmospheric settings and Grimes's dry sense of humor make this a delectable bonbon of a book.Copyright 2003 Reed Business Information, Inc.
From Booklist
Grimes, author of the popular Richard Jury mysteries, ventures far afield from Scotland Yard, this time to examine the cutthroat world of contemporary New York book publishing. Book contracts and Mafia hit contracts collide in this caper-satire in which the publishing houses have Dickensian names such as Grunge and DrekSneed. A popular writer suffers from terminal envy--it's not enough to bank millions per book and command the best-seller lists; he wants a big-time literary reputation. The plot hinges on the envious writer's unlikely scheme to get New York's most famous literary editor all to himself by eliminating his main competition, a genuinely talented up-and-comer. Grimes is best here at delivering insider insights about the frantic profit-mongering that dominates publishing. Along the way, too, there is plenty of time for racy editorial details (the title, for example, is the publishing term used to describe authors' manuscripts before editors get their hands on them). Grimes loses her way, unfortunately, in the midst of all the satire. Her characterization--ordinarily a strong point--tends toward the comic-bookish here, and even the comedy starts huffing and puffing with effort about halfway through. Not nearly as surefooted as the Jury novels, then, but a fun read nonetheless, thanks to some grand comic moments (like the editorial meeting with hit men in a prententious New York eatery). Connie Fletcher
Copyright © American Library Association. All rights reserved
Pittsburgh Post-Gazette
A hilarious and wicked caper-adventure on the evils of the book business.
USA Today
She can kick literary butt-in more ways than one.
Cleveland Plain Dealer
Might be the most entertaining piece of fiction I've read in years.
Baltimore Sun
Foul Matter's plot hurtles ahead suspensefully, often at lightning speed.
Book Description
The bestselling author of the Richard Jury novels delivers a razor-sharp and raucously funny send-up of the cutthroat world of publishing.
About the Author
Martha Grimes, called "one of the established masters of the genre" by Newsweek, is the New York Times bestselling author of the Richard Jury mysteries and other acclaimed works of fiction.
Foul Matter FROM THE PUBLISHER
Author Paul Giverney is between publishers. Despite stratospheric sales of his books and frenzied competition to sign him up, he lives modestly in New York's East Village and nurses a secret ambition of a very different sort. In fact, he has a byzantine plan for accomplishing it: the number-one condition of his proposed contract with the literary giant Mackenzie-Haack. They must drop a brilliant but far less successful author and assign his equally gifted editor to Paul. In the hornets' next of preening egos and cutthroat career moves this stirs up, ambitious editor Clive Esterhaus covets the glossy megastar Paul for himself. Is the book contract unbreakable? Clive never dreams how a very different kind of contract will force him - and his ambition - into a very foul matter, indeed.
FROM THE CRITICS
USA Today
… this book is very funny in its own right. You don't have to know anything about Grimes or publishing to be thoroughly entertained by this strange group of characters. — Susan Kelly
The New York Times
The serpentine plot is fun to follow, once Giverney realizes the extent of the mischief he has set in motion. But it's the nasty inside stuff -- from the Dickensian names for authors and their publishing houses to the barbaric rituals of a power lunch -- that incites rolling in the aisles. A reader can only hope that Grimes made it all up.
— Marilyn Stasio
Publishers Weekly
Red pencils draw real blood in this delightful publishing world crime spoof by Grimes, expert storyteller and bestselling author of the Richard Jury mysteries (The Man with a Load of Mischief, etc.). When Paul Giverney, a hot suspense novelist, seeks a new publisher, he decides on the house of Mackensie-Haack under the condition that they dump their highly respected and award-winning author, Ned Isaly. Ruthless president Bobby Mackensie will stop at nothing to sign Giverney, even though breaking Isaly's contract is a legal impossibility. His solution? Sign another contract-this one with two hit men, who are hired to knock off Isaly. What Mackensie doesn't know is that Candy and Karl are killers with scruples and a keen interest in literature. Isaly, meanwhile, is totally engrossed in finishing his current novel and barely notices the two men as they mingle with Isaly and his friends at popular New York City literary watering holes. Not even when a multitude of bumblers follow him on a visit to his hometown of Pittsburgh-in one of the most humorous episodes in the book-does he realize his plight. Although verging on the caricaturish, the characters are memorable, especially the hit-men duo. Insider publishing lingo, a quirky plot, atmospheric settings and Grimes's dry sense of humor make this a delectable bonbon of a book. (Aug. 18) Forecast: The publicity material states clearly that this is not a roman clef, but hints coyly at the possibility that some of the characters may bear a resemblance to people in the business. Anyone curious about the publishing world will enjoy the backstage feel. Copyright 2003 Reed Business Information.
Library Journal
Will a publisher resort to murder to get an author it wants? The answer seems to be yes in this latest standalone novel by Grimes, best known for her Richard Jury mysteries (The Grave Maurice). Best-selling author Paul Giverney will sign with publisher Mackenzie-Haack only if it drops literary author Ned Isaly and assigns Isaly's talented editor to Paul. Ambitious editor Clive Esterhaus wants Giverney for himself but isn't comfortable with the solution proposed by Bobby Mackenzie, owner of Mackenzie-Haack-hiring hit men. Luckily for Isaly, the hit men won't kill until they've made sure that their target deserves to die. This gives Giverney and Isaly's friends a chance to protect the oblivious author. Grimes is spot on with her humor, her digs at the publishing industry, and the self-involved authors in the system. Highly recommended. [For more literary takes on the cutthroat world of publishing, see also Terence Blacker's Kill Your Darlings, Kurt Wenzel's Lit Life, and John Colapinto's About the Author.-Ed.]-Deborah Shippy, Moline P.L., IL Copyright 2003 Reed Business Information.
Kirkus Reviews
Grimes forsakes Supt. Richard Jury's British haunts (The Grave Maurice, 2002, etc.) for a criminal farce played out in the cutthroat world of New York publishers. When you're a wealthy, successful author, with two million copies of your last book sold, who lives modestly in the East Village and watches publishers lining up like trained seals to compete for your next manuscript, you have pretty much whatever you want, and what Paul Giverney wants is Tom Kidd as his editor. More specifically, he wants Mackenzie-Haack, the house Kidd works for, to break its contract with Ned Isaly, a gifted but deeply noncommercial author Kidd works with so that Kidd won't be encumbered by a more talented writer than Paul. Clive Esterhaus, the senior editor at Mackenzie and Haack that Paul offers this deal to, recoils from the prospect of losing not only Ned Isaly but other Kidd authors who'd surely follow their indignant editor out the door, and so does his equally venal publisher, Bobby Mackenzie. But there is a solution to this mass exodus: hire a hit man to kill Ned, freeing up Kidd without collateral damage. So Clive puts in a call to Danny Zito, a Mackenzie-Haack author now in the Witness Protection Program, who delivers not one but two button men, Candy and Karl, who'll be only too happy to take care of Mackenzie-Haack's problem once they've gotten to know their target-by trailing him, reading his books, and hanging around the literary set. By the time Clive realizes this genie is never going back into the bottle, the stage is set for a surrealistic showdown on the streets of Pittsburgh, whither everyone in the cast has adjourned to stalk everyone else. Publishing's archly amusing answer to GetShorty-except that since it's books rather than movies, instead of crazy things happening very fast, crazy things get talked about at length and not all that much happens in the end.
Art & Photography
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