Research

A former advertising copywriter, Sam Houston, is a leading British thriller writer whose books sell in their millions. He lives in luxury in Monaco. Houston estimates that he earns royalties on one out of every 25 hardcover books published in the world. In fact, Houston publishes so many best sellers, in so many different genres, that he cannot possibly write them all. So he farms many of his books out to a factory: a team of co-authors who work from Houston-supplied outlines and stick closely to the no-frills formula: short chapters, short paragraphs, short sentences, short words. But Sam has had enough of being a book factory. He wants to get back to his roots, and write something himself again - a novel that will win prizes and praise from the critics. But if the book-writing machine stops, many people stand to lose out, and Sam's extensive research has left him with some powerful secrets to keep.