Harper Finds Buried Treasure: Another Crichton Novel
By Therese Walsh | April 7, 2009 |
From Publishers Lunch:
An assistant to the late Michael Crichton found a complete manuscript for PIRATE LATITUDES in his computer files, an adventure story set in 17th century Jamaica about a plan by the Jamaican governor and a pirate named Hunter to raid a Spanish galleon. HarperCollins will publish that book on November 24. But the status of the thriller that Crichton was working on when he died (originally due to have been published at the end of last year, but postponed) is less clear.
Neither his agent Lynn Nesbit nor editor Jonathan Burnham has seen that manuscript yet, but they are nonetheless working together to select an author to complete the work, in conjunction with the author’s widow Sherri Crichton.
Therese Walsh (she/her) co-founded Writer Unboxed in 2006 and is the site’s editorial director. She was the editor of WU’s only book, Author in Progress, and runs the Writer Unboxed UnConference.
Her second novel, The Moon Sisters, received starred reviews and was named one of the best books of the year by Library Journal and Book Riot.
Learn more about Therese on her website, and sign up for her newsletter to be among the first to hear about any new projects.
As an author I have mixed feelings about this. From the blurb it’s very unclear how “finished” the manuscript is and what, if any, were Crichton’s wishes for it. I know I’ve got a lot of half baked bits of writing lying around and if I die I can only hope no one ever tries to publish them. It sounds just like something that the publisher wants to do in an effort to make some quick money and use the Crichton name.
Therese, I imagine anything written by Michael Crichton would be thought provoking, and lets face it people will buy it, which is why these men are in business in the first place. Wouldn’t you love to know what author they select to finish this work; I would hope it would be someone of Crichton’s caliber.