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KRAPP’S LAST CASSETTE by Anne Argula

KRAPP’S LAST CASSETTE

by Anne Argula

Pub Date: March 24th, 2009
ISBN: 978-0-345-49844-1
Publisher: Ballantine

A deathly ill teen inspires everyone who talks to him, but at what price?

Poor Danny. He suffers from second-stage syphilis, TB, AIDS, 36 broken bones and sexual abuse at the hands of a satanic cult. A chance call to a help line puts him in touch with caring Celeste, who with her military spouse Bob takes him into their home, arranges for Dr. Vic to move in for 24/7 care and starts him writing his bestselling memoirs. Sports stars acknowledge him in pregame interviews. Movie stars send him get-well messages at awards shows. Oprah calls. And HBO wants to air a TV movie about him authored by L.A. screenwriter Alex Krapp. Danny, who’s too ill to have visitors, talks to Alex several times a day. When Vanity Fair writer Eve Gosler threatens an exposé revealing Danny’s nonexistence, Alex hires Quinn, menopausal Seattle p.i. and premier bull detector, to prove there is a Danny. Though Eve can’t visit him or be given his phone number or address, she can listen to the hours of phone conversations Alex has recorded. They suggest not only a hoax but marked similarities to an old case of hers involving serial rapist Randy Merck. Confronting Alex with evidence that he’s been duped leads to an unexpected plot twist that suggests psychosis and delusion may not be so terrible after all.

So affecting that you’ll want to move to Seattle, share double-skim lattes with Quinn (Walla Walla Suite, 2007, etc.) and maybe tidy up her syntax a bit.