59. The End
BESTSELLERS & BEST FRIENDS
My book publishing blog, with murder mysteries woven through it.
If this is your first visit, be sure to start with “1. Let’s do it!”
I’m of course curious as hell about the final draft of Under the Rose that the now-under-arrest Bill Franks prominently placed at the scene of each murder.
Just what is it? Is it blank? Full of favorite recipes?
Did he actually re-write Doyle’s original Under the Rose?
Ligonier Police Chief Jim was kind enough to send me a photocopy of the one he was holding in evidence.
It arrived today. I opened it.
And although the cover of it reads…
UNDER THE ROSE
THE FINAL DRAFT
BY JAMES DOYLE
…the title page inside actually reads:
ALBERT
A BIOGRAPHY OF EINSTEIN FOR CHILDREN
BY BILL FRANKS
What the hell? I quickly scanned the pages, pausing every 30 pages or so to read a paragraph. Yep, it was a biography of Einstein. Though, to be honest, the writing was awful. Then I noticed this, its last page:
ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS
To myself, Bill Franks, who wrote this (it’s better than Brallier’s).
That son of a bitch….
Tomorrow (back to publishing): Ogden Nash
