Friday's "Forgotten" Book: Final Proof
[image error]Marie R. Reno (1929-2008) started out as an assistant society editor of the Rock Island Argus before going to New York to pursue a career in publishing. From 1966 to 1973, she was editor of the Mystery Guild, and in December 1973, she edited and wrote the introduction to A Treasury of Modern Mysteries. She also became fiction editor of This Week Magazine, the Sunday supplement to the New York Herald Tribune, and eventually executive editor of Literary Guild, a position she held for many years. She was nominated in 1977 for an Edgar Award for her first novel, Final Proof.
At the beginning of the Final Proof, Marcia Richardson is found in her home office, shot twice through the head at close range by a .22 revolver and slumped over a set of galley proofs. Although her fingers had been wrapped around the gun in an attempt to make the death look like suicide, there's little doubt she's been murdered. Marcia was editorial director of the Readers' Circle, one of the Big Three book clubs along with Book-of-the-Month and the Literary Guild, and in the small, interconnected world of New York publishing, Marcia's death is talk of the town.
Marcia's friend and colleague, Karen Lindstrom, editor of the Mystery, Suspense and Intrigue line, finds herself working with, and at cross-purposes to, Lieutenant Jack Morrison of the NYPD. At first, he merely seems fascinated by Karen's endless fount of information about the publishing world and isn't particularly thrilled to have her assistance. As the case grinds on, Karen and the Lieutenant find themselves drawn to each other in personal ways that could jeopardize the investigation.
As the publishing world seems to change almost daily in our current day, it's a bit of a throwback to read about a segment of the literary establishment that's shrinking, perhaps disappearing altogether. However, some of the author's observations (speaking through the likely-autobiographical character of Lindstrom) are timeless:
We're caught up in such a tide of manuscripts and galleys that we get sort of jaded. I mean, every once in a while something comes along that I really love, but six months later I'd have a hard time remembering it.
The tough thing is dealing with author. All those fragile egos.
There's a lot of sly humor and oblique poking fun at the industry, and if you want some light entertainment with a touch of publishing nostalgia and romance thrown in, then Final Proof is right up your galley. If you're wondering about who actually won the best first novel in 1977, it was a book titled The Thomas Berryman Number by someone you may have heard of. A fellow by the name of James Patterson.
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