DANIEL MALLORY, THE AUTHOR WHOSE LIFE IS A LIE.

It’s the kind of plot that will make a fine film adaptation one day: the knotty tale of a charismatic, handsome young American who managed to charm and deceive everybody from Oxford dons to international executives; who propelled his meteoric rise in a notoriously closed industry by fabricating deaths in his family, faking qualifications, impersonating relatives, affecting foreign accents and even inventing his own cancer diagnoses. And it just so happens to be true.

The career trajectory of Daniel Mallory, a 39-year-old book editor-cum-bestselling author, was already interesting. A little over a year ago, eyebrows were raised in the publishing industry when word escaped that an impressive and sought-after debut thriller titled The Woman in the Window, written under the pseudonym A.J. Finn, was, in fact, his work.

Mallory went on to sell the novel in a two-book, $2-million deal with his own publishing house, William Morrow. It quickly topped the New York Times best- seller chart, sold to a recordbreaking 37 territories, and he spent much of last year charming literary festival crowds around the world. Last week, however, as the jaw-dropping truth about Mallory’s backstory was uncovered in a lengthy exposé, he became the source of fascination of a different kind.

An article by Ian Parker of The New Yorker magazine reveals Mallory as a master of fiction — though primarily when it comes to the details of his own life. More than almost 12,000 words, he is accused of spending decades spinning a web of lies both minor and major, including claiming in an essay submitted with his application to Oxford’s New College that his mother died from breast cancer and his brother by suicide (both are alive and well); boasting about having two Phds in order to impress prospective employers (he doesn’t have any); telling a job interviewer that he had worked as an editor at U.S. publisher Ballantine Books (he had been an assistant); claiming that The Cuckoo’s Calling, a thriller submitted pseudonymously by J.K. Rowling, had been published on his recommendation (it was not); and repeatedly telling colleagues on either side of the Atlantic that he had brain cancer (he did not).

In order to help the latter lie along, the article suggests Mallory sent emails impersonating another brother, Jake, to give updates on his surgery to his publishers at Little, Brown in London.

After the story went viral, Mallory released a statement confirming he never had cancer and that he’d lied in order to cover his mental health problems. “Like many afflicted with severe bipolar II disorder, I experienced crushing depressions, delusional thoughts, morbid obsessions and memory problems,” he wrote. “In my distress, I did or said or believed things I would never ordinarily say, or do, or believe — things of which, in many instances, I have absolutely no recollection. It is the case that ... I have stated, implied, or allowed others to believe that I was afflicted with a physical malady instead of a psychological one: cancer, specifically.” He added that causing anybody distress was “never the goal,” but has yet to address the myriad other accusations he’s facing.

The reaction to Mallory’s unmasking has been varied. Many people, particularly outside of the publishing world, have relished the sheer audacity of his duplicity. Inside the publishing world, not many people have been rooting for Mallory to get away with anything. Speaking anonymously, editors in London and New York confirmed that his reputation preceded him by the time The Woman in the Window was published.

Publishing enjoys a proximity to show business without its spotlight. Mallory’s story is forcing it to look in on itself. According to one editor, his is not a case of Walter Mitty syndrome, but rather of a smart, talented man who exploited long-held weaknesses in the industry: “This is a world where people get on by knowing the right people and charming the right people, and whatever else he’s guilty of, he was very, very good at that.”

Others have suggested charming (or lying) your way around an industry only works for a certain demographic: namely, privileged white men. In other words, as others struggle with impostor syndrome, a literal impostor was rewarded.

“This whole Dan Mallory situation is what we mean when we refer to the ‘glass elevator,’” tweeted Kurestin Armada, a New York literary agent. “Even though publishing is filled with women (albeit white women) at most levels, white men rocket to the top even with nothing of substance backing them up.”

Yet Harpercollins says it has not changed its plans to publish his second novel.

“Nothing will happen, nothing,” an editor said. “This is not a Metoo thing, it’s gossip. He still wrote his book and it’s still a bestseller.”

Later this year, a film of The Woman in the Window is due to be released. Starring Amy Adams and Gary Oldman, it features an agoraphobic narrator who believes she has witnessed a crime through her kitchen window.

I can think of a more gripping tale, and from the very same mind. I wonder who’ll play Mallory?

Daniel Mallory