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Product Description
When young History of Art graduate Adam Woods takes a job in Venice as assistant to the aging, reclusive bestselling writer Gordon Crace, he becomes obsessed with the idea of writing his biography. But Adam does not expect the uncanny similarity between himself and Crace's former tenant, who died in mysterious circumstances decades earlier.When Adam discovers that there is a rival who intends to write the book of Crace's life and that another mysterious person is blackmailing Crace, he leaves the murky canals of Venice for his home in London, and the hallowed halls of a great English public school in Dorset, to try and unravel the secrets of his subject's past. It is then that we get the uncomfortable sense that Adam isn't all we think he is..."The Lying Tongue" is a deeply atmospheric story of one person's delusion and another's dark past. At once a tense thriller and gothic psychological horror, it will grip you until its shocking climax.
Amazon.com Review
Andrew Wilson has follwed Beautiful Shadow, his stunning biography about Patricia Highsmith, with his debut novel, The Lying Tongue, a book that follows in Highsmith's own tradition of plot twists and psychological conundrums.
Adam Woods arrives in Venice from England to take a job and work on his novel. The job quickly evaporates, so he finds another, as amanuensis to a reclusive old author, Gordon Crace. Things start out in a straightforward manner. The author is eccentric, to say the least, but after tidying up the place and perusing the fine art collection, Adam settles in. Crace has written one book, refuses to talk about it and tells Adam that he doesn't want his authorial life even mentioned. It is over. The only thing we know about Adam is that he just graduated from college and his love affair ended badly. We subsequently find out that when his girlfriend broke up with him he raped her to show her how much she really wanted to be with him. Enter Adam, the sinister creep. That is just the beginning of what we find out about him, about Gordon and what they are both capable of in this revelatory tale of two truly despicable people. After finding two interesting--and damning--letters among Gordon's castabout papers, Adam decides to abandon his novel and write Crace's biography. Wilson keeps us guessing as Adam leaves Gordon for a week, pleading a need to attend his grandmother's funeral. He goes back to England to head off another biographer, to snoop around to see what she has gleaned, and to do a bit of research on his own. Things do not go exactly as planned, but Adam is more than equal to whatever heinous act it takes to advance his own cause. When he returns to Venice and Gordon, the creep factor increases dramatically and ends in a crafty and perfect conclusion, one that the reader is not prepared for... which makes it that much better. --Valerie Ryan
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