Second AJ Finn novel on way despite Dan Mallory scandal, says publisher
Dan Mallory’s publisher HarperCollins has said that it intends publish a second novel by him, despite revelations that he had lied about having cancer.
Mallory, who wrote the bestselling thriller The Woman in the Window under the pseudonym AJ Finn, admitted in a statement this week in response to an extensive New Yorker investigation that “on numerous occasions in the past, I have stated, implied, or allowed others to believe that I was afflicted with a physical malady instead of a psychological one: cancer, specifically”.
The profile alleged that he had a history of fabricating stories about illness and death and of lying about his professional qualifications. Mallory’s statement said that he was “afflicted with severe bipolar II disorder” and “in my distress, I did or said or believed things I would never ordinarily say, or do, or believe”.
But despite the opprobrium, a spokesperson for HarperCollins UK confirmed on Thursday that there was no change to its publishing plans. A second novel from AJ Finn has been slated for a January 2020 release. Mallory has said that it will be set in San Francisco, “the only Hitchcockian American place that is not New York”. The New Yorker said it would be a story of revenge involving a female thriller writer and an interviewer who learns of a dark past.
Mallory worked in publishing before landing a major two-book deal on both sides of the Atlantic in 2016, with HarperCollins in the UK and US counterpart William Morrow, for whom he worked as executive editor at the time. According to the profile, the manuscript was submitted anonymously, with Mallory only revealing his name after bidding reached $750,000 (£578,000). The piece alleges that when it was revealed, “many” publishers pulled out of the bidding, with a former Morrow employee telling the magazine: “I’d wondered why this person in publishing wants to be anonymous. Then: Oh, that’s why!”
HarperCollins said it did not comment on the personal lives of its employees or its authors. “Professionally, Dan was a highly valued editor and the publication of The Woman in the Window – a Sunday Times bestseller – speaks for itself.”
When the New Yorker investigation was published, many working in the publishing industry reacted with anger, particularly at Mallory’s rapid ascent from assistant to executive editor in roughly a decade, in an industry dominated by women but with few in senior roles. On Twitter, Ruoxi Chen, editor at Tor, said Mallory’s story showed that publishers were “still hiring based on ‘I like the cut of your jib, you can have a job’ standards”, while Wei Ming Kam at Oberon Books, said: “Something that publishing in both the UK and the US should be thinking about very hard today: how many other Daniel Mallorys are working in the industry RIGHT NOW.”