Speculation rages on as to the true identity of M&S’s mystery novelist Inger Ash Wolfe. Here’s a sneak preview of Q&Q’s own piece in the brand-new March issue (which went to press a couple of weeks ago) and here’s Vit Wagner’s piece in the Toronto Star.
Q&Q’s own guess is still Linda Spalding, though she tells Wagner that it’s not her. And as Wagner notes, someone has been mailing anonymous leaflets fingering Michael Redhill; Wagner writes that House of Anansi got one. So did we here at the Q&Q office, and we also know of at least one other publisher that did. We’re not buying it, though – smells like a misinformation campaign, or simply a wacky game.
“Hey, is this my petard? I wonder… oops! Dang that hurts!”
You got to hand it to M&S: they now –without a serious rival–own the well that everyone keeps trying to going back to.
I’m not understanding why I’m expected to care about this particular book and publicity gimmick. I’ve only been in the book biz for three plus decades, but I’ve always found it to be more enjoyable to avoid hype and read good literature and look at good art. I’m always up for surprises, but this is boring.
The name suggests Ingrid and the Wolf by Andre Alexis — so maybe him?
At this point I’m rooting for Margaret Atwood as I.A.W.’s alter-ego. (At-Wood…Ash Wolfe?) The backwoods Ontario element seems key; whoever it is has roots in non-urban eastern Canada, and the humour is sharper than that of Jane Urquhart. (Besides, at this point in time Atwood would surely view it as a lark to switch over to the crime genre. And what a good crime novel it is…!)