Product Description

What do bestselling writers Sue Grafton, Danielle Steel, Curtis Sittenfeld ("Prep") and Tom Clancy all have in common? They've all been murdered in a manner both gruesome and appropriate to their style. An extremely paranoid Steven King is convinced that he will be the next victim, and so he must leave his heavily-barricaded fortress in Bangor, Maine, to discover" Who's Killing the Great Writers of America?" This hilarious send-up of the world of publishing by the author of "Me and Orson Welles" and "The Cat Who Killed Lilian Jackson Braun" takes us from Venice to Paris to Maine and offers cameo appearances by Steve Martin, Gerard Depardieu, plus a few surprises.

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #1510435 in Books
• Published on: 2007-09-01
• Formats: Audiobook, CD
• Original language: English
• Number of items: 1
• Binding: Audio CD

Review
"Diarrhea on the Orient Express" describes the unfortunate experience of Sue Grafton as she celebrates another series of books, starting with AA Is for Aardvark. Even more unfortunate for Grafton is her chance meeting with ramblin' guy Steve Martin. After dispatching Grafton, Kaplow, author of the Top Ten BookSense selection Me and Orson Welles, aims his satiric pen at best-selling writers Danielle Steel, Curtis Sittenfeld, and Tom Clancy. It is up to Stephen King to solve the murder mystery as he risks becoming the next victim. Along the way, Kaplow fires volleys at the likes of President George W. Bush, former shock jock Don Imus, and Deepa, a Verizon customer-service rep who prefers to be called Scarlett. In an unforgettable finale on Swan's Island off the coast of Maine, King encounters former Enron executive Ken Lay, a terrifying lizard, and Anne Bancroft, who reprises her role as Annie in The Miracle Worker. Funny. Irreverent. Fast-paced. Parody at its best. Kaplow's clever spoof will please everyone but its victims. -Anthony Pucci, Notre Dame High Sch., Elimra, NY -- Library Journal

About the Author
Robert Kaplow is a teacher and writer best known for the satirical songs and sketches he writes for NPRs "Morning Edition," where he created Moe Moskowitz and the Punsters. His award-winning young adult novels include "Alessandra in Love" and "Alex Icicle: A Romance in Ten Torrid Chapters,"

From AudioFile
By making fun of five popular writers (plus a comedian and a filmmaker), the author of this satire doesnt have to dwell on just one genre. And the overarching story links the segments nicely. Each chapter focuses on one of the writers and is written in that style. Theres the smug smarminess of Sue Grafton, the pack-in-everything-technical-no-matter-how-much-it-interferes-with-the-story style of Tom Clancy, the almost suffocating detail of Danielle Steel, and the lets-turn-the-everyday-things-of-life-into-something-sinister plotting of Stephen King. The relative shortness of the sketches and a decent mystery make for good listening. Arte Johnson is capable as the reader, but the volume level in his reading his uneven. Hes too quiet at some points and too loud in others. R.C.G. © AudioFile 2007, Portland, Maine-- Copyright © AudioFile, Portland, Maine

Customer Reviews

Dying with Laughter
OKAY, when I got this review copy I was not thrilled. A parody is fair humor at best. I disliked the last audio production done of a Robert Kaplow novel.

WELL I WAS WRONG! (hanging my head in shame). I laughed so hard I had tears in my eyes. It pokes satirical fun at the mystery genre and its authors as the world in general.

Who knew Kaplow's unabridged text was so funny? I KNOW NOW! Kaplow work hear can be compared to Weird Al of modern day mystery genre. Whereas Al points out the world in his parodies. So does Kaplow and the interesting thing about it, you love the gossip tone of this novel. The text seems like Entertainment Tonight with a laugh track for the lit set.

And you owe the wonderful audio experience to craftsmanship and vocal talents of Arte Johnson. Yes, this is the same Arte Johnson from Laugh-in Fame. As a narrator, He can do narrative magic with his voice that you assume there are a cast of thousands in the booth. If you dont laugh at his narration antics, have your doctor check to see if your funny bone is still working.

There is every style of comedy employed in the project....and if a slip on a banana peel or a slapstick gag could be done on audio, i bet it would be thrown into this production

To try to explain this multi dirrectional plot is a waste of your time, because you need to expierence this outragous farce first hand without any help. It is a five star winner!

All I will say is clear your schedules, once you start this humor fest, you wont want to stop listening until the end of the last CD.

Bennet Pomerantz AUDIOWORLD

Monty Python meets the Miracle Worker




I picked up an advance copy of this novel at the BEA last week in New
York, and I've been reading parts outloud to my friends. It's
hilarious, it's outrageous, it's beautifully written, and, in the end,
it's even strangely poignant. The novel is very hard to describe as
it's part farce, part mystery, part adventure, and part romance. Let's
just say that Kaplow has managed to do something that Anthony Shaffer
managed to do in SLEUTH, which is to parody a mystery while at the same
writing a first-rate one. But what kicks this book into infectious
overdrive is Kaplow's ferociously inventive imagination which has a
wonderfully surreal touch to it. By the time this book's done, we've
revisited THE PRISONER and THE MIRACLE WORKER and Truffaut's version of
FAHRENHEIT 451 and James Joyce's THE DEAD. Everything is ripe for
parody, and Kaplow pulls it off with great style and relentless energy.
There's love; there are celebrities; there's even a monster! The
novel rocks.

BETTER DEAD THAN READ!
It's hard to write a serious review of this wonderful little novel because the novel itself so relentlessly satirizes reviewers, publishers, writers, and critics: their jealousies and self-absorptions. In fact, there's a perfect bit in the book where Tom Clancy signs onto Amazon to write a terrible review of the new John le Carre novel. (Clancy perceives himself as being in "competition" with le Carre.) Earlier in that same chapter, we're introduced to Clancy listening to Jerry Orbach singing "Try to Remember," and Clancy suddenly breaks into tears. It's moments like that: crazy, sentimental, weirdly emotional that give this book its life and its strange Marx Brothers energy. In the end the novel is a love story between Stephen King and his wife, and it's very sweet one. This is an odd book, probably not for everybody, but it's totally original and deeply winning. "Courageous and fresh!"