The man has skills his conversational style makes his various points easy to agree with and he never comes across as hectoring. Fowler is a highly successful author himself and one can see why. Very enjoyable as both a resource and a fun whirl through the mind of an ardent book-lover. It is for book lovers and is written by one who could not be a more enthusiastic, enlightening, and entertaining guide. This is a book about books and their authors. These 99 journeys are punctuated by 12 short essays about faded once-favorites, including the now-vanished novels Walt Disney brought to the screen, the contemporary rivals of Sherlock Holmes and Agatha Christie who did not stand the test of time, and the women who introduced psychological suspense many decades before it conquered the world. Whether male or female, flash-in-the-pan or prolific, mega-seller or prize-winner, no author, it seems, can ever be fully immune from the fate of being forgotten. We are fondly introduced to each potential rediscovery from lost Victorian voices to the twentieth century writers who could well become the next John Williams, Hans Fallada, or Lionel Davidson. So begins Christopher Fowler's foray into the back catalogues and backstories of 99 authors who, once hugely popular, have all but disappeared from shelves. Absence doesn't make the heart grow fonder.
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