Domino
Island – published in 2019 by HarperCollins – is Desmond Bagley’s
“lost” novel. The manuscript (ms) was discovered by the researcher Philip
Eastwood at Boston University’s Howard Gotlieb Archival Research Center where
Bagley’s papers are housed. Along with the ms – titled Because Salton Died
by Bagley – were letters between Bagley and his editor at Collins, Bob Knittel,
and handwritten notes on the ms, identifying planned changes for publication,
but Bagley pulled Because Salton Died back from Collins and the changes
were never made. There are a couple hypotheses about why Bagley stopped work on
the book. The first and most obvious is perhaps Bagley decided it was a
hopeless project and there is some evidence supporting this. In the letter to
his editor accompanying the ms, Bagley wrote, “I had a bad case of ‘writer’s
block’[.]” He had started and abandoned four “standard Bagleys” – adventure
thrillers – and he decided to try something entirely new to get his creative
energy going....[For the
rest of the article/review click here to go to Dark City Underground...]
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