
Ramsey Campbell Secret Story
Value For Money
Ramsey Campbell Secret Story
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Value For Money
Secret Story Ramsey Campbell Tor, May 30
Secret Story
Ramsey Campbell
Tor, May 30, 2006, $25.95
ISBN: 0765316161
Civil servant Dudley Smith writes a short story based on a true crime murder that occurred on an underground train. He entered his work in a Mersey Mouth magazine contest and won. However, the parents of a real victim of an identical homicide threaten to sue Mersey Mouth and Dudley.
Instead of being upset editor Patricia Martingale is euphoric that they found a local talent and encourages Dudley to write more such tales starring "Mr. Killogram". A movie director is also interested. However, unbeknownst to Patricia or her cohorts at Mersey Mouth or perhaps they are just not interested since the bottom line is all that counts, Dudley can only write what he has performed; thus when the movie director asks for script revisions, Dudley needs real life victims to rewrite; when Patricia asks for a magazine article, Dudley needs real victims to write about. At the rate Dudley is going he might win an Oscar for screenwriting and an Agatha in the same year; that is if he is not caught for his realism.
This is a terrific crime thriller that showcases in cleverly restrained ways how Ramsey Campbell believes what the author's obligation is to his reader, his cast especially the lead character and to him or herself. Dudley keeps the tale together as a psychopath willing to exploit the avarice of the film and publications industries while symbiotically, the film director and the magazine editor are willing to exploit Dudley as they do not want to know the truth. The shock to SECRET STORY is the seemingly mundane mutual exploitation of the lead characters that leads to a great behind the scenes thriller.
Harriet Klausner
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