No Rest for the Dead, a serial mystery novel edited by Andrew and Lamia Gulli, does not fit into the usual definition of a mystery series. Instead of being many related books by a single author, it is instead a single book by many authors – twenty-six in all.
Andrew Gulli, who is Managing Editor of The Strand Magazine, described the development of No Rest for the Dead in a July 4, 2011 Reuter’s article. "I had an idea about a woman who was executed for a crime she didn't commit,” he said. “So I wrote a prologue and handed it to the first author and he and the others started to write."
No Rest for the Dead centers on Jon Nunn. Twelve years earlier, Nunn had been the San Francisco police detective whose investigation into the murder of McFall Art Museum curator Christopher Thomas led to the conviction and subsequent execution of Christopher’s wife, Rosemary. Christopher’s repeated affairs with other women, Nunn believed, provided Rosemary’s motive.
The intervening years have convinced Nunn of Rosemary’s innocence. He has discovered that Christopher had a pattern of shady financial dealings that has widened the pool of suspects in his death.
With the help of Rosemary’s friend Tony Olsen, Nunn devises a plan to bring all of Christopher’s associates together on the tenth anniversary of Rosemary’s execution. He intends to confront them with his new knowledge about the case and observe their responses.
With 26 distinct writing styles involved in the creation of No Rest for the Dead, the result of such a collaborative approach could easily have been chaotic. But such was not the case. As David Baldacci comments in the introduction to the novel, "While they each deliver their own signature brand of storytelling to the novel, it is startling how these writers ... have woven a yarn that seems to be the product of one mind."
The authors of No Rest for the Dead include David Baldacci, Sandra Brown, R.L. Stine, Alexander McCall Smith, J.A. Jance, Diana Gabaldon, Jeffrey Deaver, Lisa Scottoline, John Lescroart, Kathy Reichs, Tess Gerritsen, Faye Kellerman, Phillip Margolin, Michael Palmer, T. Jefferson Parker, Matthew Pearl, Raymond Khoury, Jeff Lindsay, Thomas Cook, Gayle Lynds, Jeff Abbott, Peter James, Jonathan Santlofer, Marcus Sakey, Marcia Talley and Lori Armstrong. Andrew Gulli contributed several chapters also.
No Rest for the Dead is unique for more than just its collaborative origin. The book’s editors have dedicated their profits to the Leukemia and Lymphoma Society in honor of their mother, who died from that disease in 1997.
FTC disclosure: A review copy of this book was provided by its editor.
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