The Secret Life of E. Robert Pendleton by Michael Collins

Secondhand Paperback in Good Condition

It’s been over a decade since Robert Pendleton published his brilliant short-story debut and his hopes for a dazzling literary career have faded.

Barely hanging on to his tenure in literature at Bannockburn College, Pendleton feels his simmering despair boil over with the arrival on campus of his one-time friend, now nemesis, Allen Horowitz. For Pendleton, death seems to be the only remaining option, but his suicide attempt fails, halted by the intervention of Adi Wiltshire, a graduate student battling her own demons.

During Pendleton’s long convalescence, Adi discovers a novel hidden in his basement: a brilliant, quasi-autobiographical story with a gruesome child-murder at its core.The publication of Scream causes a storm of publicity: a whirlwind into which Adi, Horowitz and the still-incapacitated Pendleton are thrust.

The novel looks set to bring its author the success he’s always sought—when, ironically, he is no longer in a condition to appreciate it—until questions begin to be asked about its content. A tale of lying and literary ambition, of violence and secrecy, THE SECRET LIFE OF E. ROBERT PENDLETON is a spellbinding novel by a master of the dark side of human nature