Book description
A tale of murder and literary ambition set on an American university
campus from a master of the dark side of human nature. It's been over a
decade since Robert Pendleton published his brilliant short story debut,
and his hopes for a dazzling literary career now lie in tatters. Hanging
on to his tenure in literature at Bannockburn college by the slimmest of
threads, Pendleton's simmering despair boils over with the arrival on
campus of his one-time friend, now nemesis, the bestselling author and
king of the coffee-table book, David Horowitz. For Pendleton, death
seems to be the only remaining option, but his attempt to kill himself
is wrecked by the intervention of Adi Wiltshire, a graduate student
battling her own demons of failure and thwarted ambition. Whilst
Pendleton recovers from his suicide attempt, Adi discovers a novel
hidden in his basement: a brilliant, bitter story with a gruesome murder
at its core. The publication of Scream causes a storm of publicity, a
whirlwind into which Adi and Horowitz are thrust - along with the sister
of a young girl whose real-life, unsolved murder bears an uncanny
resemblance to the crime in Pendleton's novel and a burnt-out cop with
secrets of his own, who is determined to prove that in this case fact
and fiction are one and the same.
