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Wreckage / What Happens in Hello Jack
Before his death in 2022, Peter Straub had been working on an ambitious novel which he called Hello, Jack. Jack is Jack the Ripper, whose notorious murders provide a fulcrum—but not the real focus—of a tale that ranges from Victorian England to 1950s Wisconsin, and that features a vivid cast of classically Straubian characters. At its center, we meet the Hayward family: Tilly, a serial murderer in Milwaukee haunted by the ghost of one of his victims; his sister Margot, who becomes a shrewd society maven after her husband’s mysterious death; and Tilly’s nephew Keith, who learns terrifying lessons from his uncle (and who we met briefly in A Dark Matter in 2010). But we also encounter their Victorian ancestors, who left behind a strange painting that seems to change with each successive viewing. Even the novelist Henry James falls into their orbit, visiting the Hayward country home and hearing a strange tale there.
Wreckage, the title that Straub finally settled on, remains unfinished, but most of its key scenes are intact, and Straub’s elegant prose and profound insights into the darker side of human nature are as powerful as we expect from classics like Ghost Story, The Talisman, and The Throat.
Wreckage, Peter Straub’s unfinished final novel, underwent numerous rewrites and revisions over the twelve or so years he worked on it. For most of that time, the working title was Hello Jack, referring not only to Jack the Ripper, but to the efforts of the vicious serial killer Tilly Hayward to reproduce them in 1958 Milwaukee. The story focuses not only on Tilly, but on the entire Hayward family—his wealthy sister Margot, his nephew and protegé Keith, even their Victorian ancestor Holton Hayward, who commissions a strange family portrait that will haunt the Haywards for generations.
What Happens in Hello Jack offers a rare insight into Straub’s creative process—how he planned and constructed scenes from individual sketches and outlines, some developed into full chapters, others eventually omitted as extraneous, even though fascinating in their own right—such as a darkly comic passage about time-traveling Victorian occultists finding themselves in rural Indiana in 1958. Since Straub continued working on the novel for nearly a decade after this 2013 prospectus, What Happens in Hello Jack is not quite the novel that Wreckage became, but it provides an invaluable over-the-shoulder glimpse of the working methods of the novelist the New York Times called a “literary master of the supernatural.”
Wreckage, the title that Straub finally settled on, remains unfinished, but most of its key scenes are intact, and Straub’s elegant prose and profound insights into the darker side of human nature are as powerful as we expect from classics like Ghost Story, The Talisman, and The Throat.
Wreckage, Peter Straub’s unfinished final novel, underwent numerous rewrites and revisions over the twelve or so years he worked on it. For most of that time, the working title was Hello Jack, referring not only to Jack the Ripper, but to the efforts of the vicious serial killer Tilly Hayward to reproduce them in 1958 Milwaukee. The story focuses not only on Tilly, but on the entire Hayward family—his wealthy sister Margot, his nephew and protegé Keith, even their Victorian ancestor Holton Hayward, who commissions a strange family portrait that will haunt the Haywards for generations.
What Happens in Hello Jack offers a rare insight into Straub’s creative process—how he planned and constructed scenes from individual sketches and outlines, some developed into full chapters, others eventually omitted as extraneous, even though fascinating in their own right—such as a darkly comic passage about time-traveling Victorian occultists finding themselves in rural Indiana in 1958. Since Straub continued working on the novel for nearly a decade after this 2013 prospectus, What Happens in Hello Jack is not quite the novel that Wreckage became, but it provides an invaluable over-the-shoulder glimpse of the working methods of the novelist the New York Times called a “literary master of the supernatural.”
- GenresHorror
592 pages, Hardcover
First published August 1, 2025
15 people want to read
About the author
Peter Straub
260 books4,193 followersPeter Straub was born in Milwaukee, Wisconsin, the son of Gordon Anthony Straub and Elvena (Nilsestuen) Straub.
Straub read voraciously from an early age, but his literary interests did not please his parents; his father hoped that he would grow up to be a professional athlete, while his mother wanted him to be a Lutheran minister. He attended Milwaukee Country Day School on a scholarship, and, during his time there, began writing.
Straub earned an honors BA in English at the University of Wisconsin–Madison in 1965, and an MA at Columbia University a year later. He briefly taught English at Milwaukee Country Day, then moved to Dublin, Ireland, in 1969 to work on a PhD, and to start writing professionally
After mixed success with two attempts at literary mainstream novels in the mid-1970s ("Marriages" and "Under Venus"), Straub dabbled in the supernatural for the first time with "Julia" (1975). He then wrote "If You Could See Me Now" (1977), and came to widespread public attention with his fifth novel, "Ghost Story" (1979), which was a critical success and was later adapted into a 1981 film. Several horror novels followed, with growing success, including "The Talisman" and "Black House", two fantasy-horror collaborations with Straub's long-time friend and fellow author Stephen King.
In addition to his many novels, he published several works of poetry during his lifetime.
In 1966, Straub married Susan Bitker.They had two children; their daughter, Emma Straub, is also a novelist. The family lived in Dublin from 1969 to 1972, in London from 1972 to 1979, and in the New York City area from 1979 onwards.
Straub died on September 4, 2022, aged 79, from complications of a broken hip. At the time of his death, he and his wife lived in Brooklyn (New York City).
Straub read voraciously from an early age, but his literary interests did not please his parents; his father hoped that he would grow up to be a professional athlete, while his mother wanted him to be a Lutheran minister. He attended Milwaukee Country Day School on a scholarship, and, during his time there, began writing.
Straub earned an honors BA in English at the University of Wisconsin–Madison in 1965, and an MA at Columbia University a year later. He briefly taught English at Milwaukee Country Day, then moved to Dublin, Ireland, in 1969 to work on a PhD, and to start writing professionally
After mixed success with two attempts at literary mainstream novels in the mid-1970s ("Marriages" and "Under Venus"), Straub dabbled in the supernatural for the first time with "Julia" (1975). He then wrote "If You Could See Me Now" (1977), and came to widespread public attention with his fifth novel, "Ghost Story" (1979), which was a critical success and was later adapted into a 1981 film. Several horror novels followed, with growing success, including "The Talisman" and "Black House", two fantasy-horror collaborations with Straub's long-time friend and fellow author Stephen King.
In addition to his many novels, he published several works of poetry during his lifetime.
In 1966, Straub married Susan Bitker.They had two children; their daughter, Emma Straub, is also a novelist. The family lived in Dublin from 1969 to 1972, in London from 1972 to 1979, and in the New York City area from 1979 onwards.
Straub died on September 4, 2022, aged 79, from complications of a broken hip. At the time of his death, he and his wife lived in Brooklyn (New York City).
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