lot more racy. One article claimed she was perched on the edge a romantic stardom. And then, it all went bust."
"What happened?"
"Some fella reviewed her books and said such bad things about 'em, she couldn't write no more. He said her characters were dim-witted. Her plots were half-witted. Her dialogue was dull-witted. Her prose was heavy-handed, half-baked, and -- Wait a minute. I got it written down here. Oh, yeah. And 'hebetudinous.' Isn't that a fancy word? And it's not even hyphenated. So the upshot was, Sylvia lost all her confidence, went into seclusion, came down with a case a what they call writer's block, and never wrote another word."
"All because of one reviewer?"
"All because a Gabriel Fox. He was the fella what done the reviewin'."
"Gabriel Fox? Oh, my God! He'd mentioned at lunch the other day that he'd begun his career reviewing pulp fiction. But I never dreamed that one of the authors he'd reviewed was Sylvia." No wonder she'd been carrying a grudge against him. No wonder she'd been uncivil to him from the moment they'd met. He'd ruined her writing career! She knew how vicious he could be because she'd already been victimized by him.
"The thing is, dear, Sylvia probably made more money as an agent than she ever would have as a writer, so maybe she shoulda thanked him for the review instead a holdin' a grudge."
Nana had a point, but I doubt Sylvia would have agreed. "You're a genius, Nana. Thank you."
"I'm not done yet. I didn't have no luck hackin' into Hightower's internal memos, so I done the next best thing. I stuck my nose into one a them publishin'-related chat rooms and learned plenty. Someone whose screen name was SLUSHGAL said it wasn't no secret about the bad blood between Philip Blackmore and Gabriel Fox. She said Blackmore warned Fox at the weekly staff meetin's that if he didn't start actin' like a team player, Fox could edit all the literary novels he wanted, but it wouldn't be at Hightower Books. Blackmore called him a pseudointellectual boor and said if Hightower didn't change its publishin' direction, they was gonna sink, and sink fast, but Fox couldn't see past his own elitist nose to realize the good it would do the company. So SLUSHGAL says Fox tried to form employee opposition to the move to romance, but he didn't get no support. It made Blackmore so angry, though, he gave Fox both romance divas to edit as a kind a punishment. Fox wasn't real high in Blackmore's good graces, but I guess for the tour, at least, they tried to put on a good front."
"How did SLUSHGAL know all this?"
"She wouldn't tell me, but I bet you anythin' she works at Hightower, or used to. She knew too many a them fancy publishin' words not to be in the business herself."
Philip's irritation with Gabriel made sense now. No wonder he'd fired him. No wonder he hadn't been concerned about his whereabouts. He must have thought Gabriel was trying to sabotage the whole tour. And when I thought about it, I realized his assumption wasn't far off the mark. Two deaths of aspiring writers and one of a literary agent. I hadn't been able to see the connection before, but I was beginning to see it now.
"And one last thing, dear. I found a website for that Bowles woman and links to some a the New England resorts where she was wined and dined. She spent a fair amount a time at the Mount Washington Hotel. She liked the climbin' around there and even done volunteer rescue work on weekends. Made me think her lawsuit mighta had somethin' to do with her rescue work, so I hooked into another link that listed all the climbin' accidents that ever happened on Mount Washington, but I didn't find Jeannette's name nowhere. Awful sad stories though. Forest rangers gettin' froze to death in the winter. Lightnin' strikes killin' hikers. A young honeymoon couple dyin' in a landslide."
Honeymoon couple? That was so sad. So untimely. And so like what had happened to Duncan's sister. I frowned. I supposed people died on their honeymoons all the time, but still -- "What can you tell me about the honeymoon couple?"
"There was a real long article on that one. The husband was a famous English mountain climber by the name a Robert Adcock. He'd even conquered Mount Everest. A real expert. But he went where he shouldn't and took his wife with