THE STORYTELLER

Reid, a veteran publishing executive writing under a pseudonym, has penned a publishing world satire that follows the efforts of the unfortunately named young writer Steven King to get his work published. After several false starts and a long bout of writer's block, Steven believes his prayers are answered when he meets kindred spirit Ben Chambers, an older writer and barfly who gives him valuable literary advice. But his new friend suddenly dies, leaving him a wealth of unpublished manuscripts. Demoralized by too many rejections and facing unrelenting pressure from his demanding fiancée and his disappointed parents, Steven decides to exploit his role as Ben's literary executor and sell Ben's novels under his own name. The highly commercial works immediately find a publisher, and Steven is on his way to fame and fortune. Reid effectively builds the suspense as he thrusts Steven into a moral and professional quandary, compounded when people start coming out of the woodwork to blackmail him: an old associate of Ben's who typed a draft of one of his manuscripts; a pair of twins, June and Vera Bowers, who were once tutored by "Uncle B" and possess an original copy of one of his stories. As the clever plot twists and turns, Reid gleefully skewers all echelons of the book publishing industry and is equally unsparing of writers. This is an engrossing, darkly comic work that is refreshingly accessible even to those who don't follow—and didn't know they cared about—the book business. (Aug.)