Henry: Portrait Of A Possible Killer

MY CRIMINAL WORLD (Harvill Secker), the latest novel from Henry Sutton, dropped through the post-box yesterday and bounced right to the top of Mt TBR. Why so? Well, for starters, I do like a bit of meta-fictional post-modern jiggery-pokery. Quoth the blurb elves:

In awe of his wife, hounded by his agent and ignored by his editor, mild mannered crime novelist David Slavitt finds his life is spiralling out of control. He needs to do something - but just how far is he prepared to go?
  MY CRIMINAL WORLD introduces us to struggling crime writer, David Slavitt. Living in constant fear that his editor might drop him in favour of the next new talent, David juggles house work and child care alongside plot twists and character development.
  But as his wife grows increasingly distant and his agent insists that his new book needs more violence - a lot more violence - David is getting worried. He needs to do something if he is to save his career, and his marriage. But just how far is this most mild mannered of crime writers prepared to go? And who is the person really pulling the strings in this story? In this clever literary crime novel, there is more than one mystery to be solved.

  As you may or may not know, Henry Sutton is the – possibly mild mannered – author of six crime novels to date, including GET ME OUT OF HERE. A journalist and critic specialising in crime fiction, he is currently the Senior Lecturer in Creative Writing at the University of East Anglia – again, specialising in the Crime Thriller Novel.
  Intriguingly, in his list of thanks at the end of the novel, amidst the usual nods to agents and publishers and whatnot, Henry thanks “David R. Slavitt, the original ‘Henry Sutton’”.
  MY CRIMINAL WORLD by Henry Sutton will be published in April.