The book is dead! Well, we already know where to lay the blame for that so Vincent McCaffrey’s mystery novel Hound could be in trouble if that’s all it’s about. Publisher’s Weekly quoted McCaffrey while discussing the upcoming release:

In a “phantom interview” with himself posted on his Web site (set in Baskerville), McCaffrey says that he wrote Hound specifically to deal with the book’s demise. “I had a story in mind about the death of the book after 500 years,” he writes. “This medium has changed everything, more than any other since the invention of fire, and the world it created is dependent on the book in ways which have become subtle through the familiarity of everyday use. It seemed most odd to me that the very people who depended on the book the most are least aware of its demise.”

Fortunately, the author (and Boston bookseller) has also included a human victim to justify calling his story a mystery. And Kelly Link promises it contains, “knowledgeable asides about bookselling, the world of publishing, and life lived in the pubs, shabby apartments, penthouses and strange corners of the city of Boston.” (Perhaps, the NESFA clubhouse?)

[Thanks to Andrew Porter for the link.]