Read Online Queen of the Night by J. A. Jance - Free Book Online Page A

bleakly. “ Do Not Go Softly, the manuscript I just turned in. Cameron hates it and so does Edward. They’re turning it down.”
    Cameron Crowell was Diana’s longtime editor in New York. Edward Renthal was her publisher and Cameron’s boss.
    “They can’t turn it down,” Brandon objected. “They bought it. They paid for it.”
    “They paid an advance on delivery and acceptance,” Diana corrected. “If they don’t accept the book, they may want their money back.”
    Brandon had been thunderstruck. “How could that be?” he had asked. “And why?”
    “They say it’s not up to my usual standard.”
    Over the years, Brandon and Diana had developed a system that called for Brandon to read the manuscripts only when they were finished. That way, Diana had a pair of fresh eyes looking for typos in the material before sending it off to her agent and to her editor. Brandon had read Do Not Go Softly. He hadn’t liked it much, but he figured that was just one man’s opinion.
    “Can’t you fix it, rewrite it or something? What does Pam say about all this?”
    “She’s asking them to hire someone else to do the rewrite.”
    “You mean like a ghostwriter?”
    “That way they’ll still be able to use my name on the book, and we’ll be able to keep part of the advance. She’s hoping to get them to take the remaining advance from upcoming royalty checks.”
    Shadow of Death, the book Diana had written about her experience with a serial killer named Andrew Carlisle, had won her her first Pulitzer. Considered a classic now, right up there with In Cold Blood, the book was still in print and still earning royalties.
    “How do you feel about that?” he had asked.
    Diana shrugged. “It means I’m over,” she said. “Washed up. Finished. I’m going to go down to Pima College and sign up for a pottery class.”
    Brandon got it. He and Diana had lived their married lives in a world that was half Anglo and half Indian. Rita Antone, Diana’s housekeeper and nanny, had brought the Tohono O’odham people, traditions, and belief systems into their home right along with her beautifully crafted baskets. Some of those beliefs had to do with aging. Among the Desert People there came a time when old women were only good for making pots or baskets, and weaving baskets had never been Diana’s long suit.
    For the past several days, while Brandon had been grappling with the financial fallout from all this, Diana had gone into Tucson and signed up for a pottery-making class at Pima Community College.
    The idea that she would simply turn her back on the problem had jolted him. It wasn’t like her just to give up like that. That was a wake-up call for him, that things had progressed further than he’d been willing to admit.
    Financially they’d be fine. Their house was fully paid for. Thank God, their kids were both through school. Yes, the economic downturn had hurt them, but much of the money they had set aside over the years was still there. Pam was still hoping to find an acceptable ghostwriter who might allow them to finagle the deal to keep a portion of the advance and of the royalties. That idea, however, was contingent on Diana’s being willing to go out on the road to promote the book as though it were her own.
    At first hearing that idea had sounded like a good deal, but Brandon wondered if it would work. By the time the pub date rolled around, would Diana be in any condition to deal with the rigors of a national tour or go out and do signings and interviews? Especially interviews.
    Geet’s eyes blinked open. He looked around in dismay for a moment, then focused on Brandon.
    “Hey there,” he said. “I must have dozed off. How long have you been here?”
    “Not long,” Brandon replied. “Just a couple of minutes.”
    In actual fact, it had been over an hour. One silent set of auto-racing laps had morphed into another, but Brandon had been too preoccupied to pay any attention to the muted announcer’s