The Thieves of Manhattan

by Adam Langer

Ian Minot is a struggling writer with great aspirations. He moved from Indiana to NYC and is schlepping coffee until he gets his big break. With a solid Midwestern upbringing, Ian is sick and tired of the publishing world and all of the phonies who have book deals, including the dude who steals his girlfriend.

Ian’s luck changes when he meets Jed Roth, someone equally repulsed by the current trend in publishing. He, too, wonders why all of these phony memoirs are being published. But Jed has a plan: publish a phony memoir of his own. Here’s the deal: he has a novel that he will give to Ian to publish under Ian’s name. Ian will claim is a memoir and snag a fabulous publishing deal and only later reveal the truth. That sounds like delicious revenge for all of those rude rejection letters.

And then our story truly begins. . .

While the plotting of this novel is extremely clever, I think I’d rather recommend his other novels to readers. This one just doesn’t measure up to his previous efforts.

12/3/10