“Wayne Prentice is a midlist author who must face the hard fact that the world no longer values his work. He has watched a pseudonym, two careers, and his sales disappear and feels like it may be time to quit writing for good. On the other hand, Bryce Proctorr fires out one bestseller after the next and has a multi-million dollar deal for his next book. Unfortunately, his divorce has given him writer's block and Bryce cannot solve his dilemma as his deadline rapidly approaches. So, Bryce proposes a partnership to Wayne: give Bryce his unpublished manuscript and the two of them can split the advance 50/50. There's just one small catch -- Wayne has to put Mrs. Proctorr six feet under.”
The Westlake Reader points out, The Hook is essentially a stripped down version of Patricia Highsmith’s Stranger On A Train. While this book was released in 2000, they speculate that Westlake probably read –or reread- that tale (Highsmith had also died in 1995, so it’s fairly possible he did one or the other). Or they take another speculative stab and mention –though there is nothing to back this up- Westlake may have already been approached to write the screenplay for Ripley Under Ground, which was Highsmith’s second novel featuring the demonically complicated and murderous con artist. The thing with screenplays, though, they usually go through a longer gestation period, mostly through revisions and re-writes, so it possible between 1997 and 2000, he was also working on adapting that novel and reread Train (and eventually a movie was made, and while Westlake got a screen credit for that troubled production -it was made in 2003, but not released until 2005- most if not all, was re-written by William Blake Herron).
As I read The Hook, I could not get over the feeling this book and The Ax are connected. Yeah, they have similar titles and (theoretically) take place near enough to each other that they could share a related universe, but more so that Burke Devore in The Ax and Bryce and Wayne here are all desperate people doing terrible things because the world around them regards them and their fortunes with complete, and very brutal, indifference.
And while The Hook is not as a vicious take down on publishing industry that was the more humorous A Likely Story, it was decided that a follow-up book to The Ax (which was well received and well reviewed) could not go back to what he was more well-known for - a humorous capers. As the Westlake Reader adds, “his editors, publishers, agents, spouse, etc, all told him that whatever book came out after The Ax under his own name had to be special, couldn’t be humorous, couldn’t be Dortmunder, couldn’t be some sexy tropical romp. It had to be bloody, hard-edged, suspenseful, and thought-provoking. In other words, they wanted him to prove The Ax wasn’t a fluke. The general sentiment was something along the lines of ‘This was your greatest commercial and critical successes ever; now go do it again.’”
Now that was something typical with the publishing industry – just rework what worked before.
What works here is not the murder itself –which becomes almost insignificant, with only brief mentions and police detectives investigating it here and there –but the relationship between Bryce and Wayne and psychological toll that it has on both men's lives. They are two men connected by a bond that neither wants to break (but probably should). The ending I sort of saw, but I’m not happy with it. But then again, that may be the point. The books themes of desperation, jealousy and the morality within the book industry abound here. You end up not really rooting for anyone here; even the secondary character will evoke little sympathy.
But it also just another example of the gifts that Westlake was – that despite the cruelness and darkness, the fact that a murderer with go unpunished- I had to see how it all played out.
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