The Crime Writer

by Gregg Hurwitz

A crime writer finds himself entangled in his own gruesome mystery in this fast-paced psychological thriller

Drew Danner, a crime novelist with a house off L.A.’s storied Mulholland Drive, awakens in a hospital bed with a scar on his head and no memory of being found convulsing over his ex- fiancée’s body the previous night. He was discovered holding a knife, her blood beneath his nails. He himself doesn’t know whether he’s guilty or innocent. To reconstruct the story, the writer must now become the protagonist, searching the corridors of his life and the city he loves.

Soon Drew closes in on clues he may or may not have left for himself, and as another young woman is similarly murdered he has to ask difficult questions not of others but of himself. Beautifully crafted and heartbreakingly told, The Crime Writer confronts our inherent fear of what we might truly be capable of—good or evil. Like nothing he’s written before, The Crime Writer takes Hurwitz in an exciting new direction and is sure to reach a whole new audience.

Genres: Mystery, Thriller, Fiction, Crime, Audiobook, Suspense, Mystery Thriller

320 pages, Hardcover

First published July 19, 2007

About the author

Gregg Hurwitz is the critically acclaimed, New York Times and internationally bestselling author of 20 novels, including OUT OF THE DARK (2019). His novels have been shortlisted for numerous literary awards, graced top ten lists, and have been published in 30 languages.

He is also a New York Times Bestselling comic book writer, having penned stories for Marvel (Wolverine, Punisher) and DC (Batman, Penguin). Additionally, he’s written screenplays for or sold spec scripts to many of the major studios, and written, developed, and produced television for various networks. Gregg resides in Los Angeles.

Reviews

[Diamond Cowboy · Rating 5 out of 5]

This book is so well written. The crim writer wakes up in a hospital room with a scar on his head, and blood under his finger nails. A cop is showing him a picture of his dead/murdered girl friend and claims that he is the guilty one. He is later acquitted of the crime, but in his own mind he is not sure weather he is guilty or not. He holds no memory of that night because of a brain toomer. He goes into depth trying to solve his own case to restore his sanity.
I highly recommend this book to all.

[Tim · Rating 1 out of 5]

This story is a change for Hurwitz writing much in the first person. The result is far less than thrilling. 1 of 10 stars

[Mike (the Paladin) · Rating 4 out of 5]

Thie is the second book I've read by this writer. I found I liked this one a bit better than the first I read which while aiming at sort of "action thriller" status didn't really draw me in.

I also side stepped a couple more of his books because the synopses seemed to me to show a pattern even a formula someone the protagonist cares for is threatened, held hostage, etc to add the "stress".

here we got a fairly original idea. I mean you've probably seen versions of it before but then as I have noted many times after 10,000 or so years of story-telling what plot hasn't been at least touched on?

Our hero here "wakes" next to the body of his ex-fiancée/ex-significant other who's apparently been murdered in a rather spectacular and bloody fashion...with a kitchen knife of a type she bought him, with his finger prints on it.

Sadly, he can't remember anything about what happened.

Sound fishy? Yeah the police thought so to. They never considered anyone else as a suspect. The press condemned him, the prosecutor was out for blood...it looked bad. Thankfully Drew (our protagonists is Drew Danner) has a good team of lawyers and he's found not guilty by reason of insanity.

Well...good he's out, but not good in that pretty much everyone thinks he got away with murder.

And now someone is possibly trying to frame him for another murder...or more than one...and is it a frame or is he just insane and doing the murders?


As noted good read. The plot gets constructed well one step at a time and while it's convoluted the plot is feasible. I mean you generally don't find mystery thrillers about the easy mysteries...

Recommended.

[Char · Rating 4 out of 5]

This was a fun mystery about a crime writer with a brain tumor, narrated by the superb Scott Brick.

[Bandit · Rating 3 out of 5]

I'm always on a lookout for literary stand alone thriller mysteries. This one wasn't my thing exactly, too noir, too testosterony and it did take me a while to get into, but good writing is good writing and Crime Writer offered enough of that for a solid and quite compelling read. He also didn't skimp in strong multifaceted characters, which is always nice to see since so much of this genre tends to go to two dimensional stereotypes. The final reveal was nice too, twist like. This is one of those books that I don't have to love to appreciate the quality and I can see someone who's more into the tough guy noir narrative really enjoying. Very quick read too.

[Damo · Rating 4 out of 5]

This stand alone novel by Gregg Hurwitz is a solid, darkly twisting psychological thriller that offers a slightly unusual premise and it sits with the uncomfortable question. This being, is the protagonist a good guy or is he a killer?

Crime novelist Andrew Danner wakes up in hospital having just had a tumour removed only to find that he is also the prime suspect in the stabbing murder of his ex-fiancee. Thanks to the operation he has just undergone, his memory of the night of the murder has been erased from his mind. Given that he was found slumped over Genevieve's dead body holding the murder weapon after suffering a seizure brought on by the tumour, things are looking pretty grim.

But Drew is as sure as he can be that he didn't stab Genevieve. Everyone else thinks otherwise and the gap in his memory keeps that whisper of doubt in the back of his mind.

He is left with little alternative but to investigate the murder himself, determined to prove his innocence. The twist in this is that he is out to prove his innocence to himself as well as the rest of the world.

From a slowish start in which Drew's situation is examined in fine detail, the story builds in intensity drawing on a memorable cast of characters. Hurwitz manages to inject the occasional dig at the role and the lifestyle of trashy crime novelists ensuring there is a modicum of dry humour to go with the desperate storyline.

The Crime Writer is a story that maintains a constant fascination as we are taken ever deeper into a seemingly hopeless situation. It's a story that builds in intensity right to a shocking ending. Definitely a story to lose yourself in.

In the UK and Australia the title of this book is I See You.

[Karen · Rating 4 out of 5]

This is an interesting mystery – in that it provides us with a likable, but unreliable narrator/protagonist in the character of Drew Danner.

The setting is Los Angeles, 2007. Drew is a novelist who wakes convulsing over the body of his former fiancé. His hands are wet with blood from the handle of a boning knife buried deep in her chest. Four months later, he is released from the hospital holding a jar. Inside is his own brain tumor, which he owes a verdict of not guilty by reason of insanity.

Now, that should be enough, right?

Wrong.

In his heart, Drew doesn’t see himself as a killer. He has no memory of the night in question, but there are memory lapses which causes him to believe that he did not do this – nor does he believe himself to have it within him to do something like this to another person – especially his former fiancé.

So, who is framing him? Because this is the only possible solution, right?

The author provides quite the supporting cast as Drew plays amateur sleuth attempting to find out what really happened. Afterall, he is a crime writer character, too.

And…

The story moves along weaving quite the plot.

There are conflicts. Red herrings. Twists. Difficulties for our main protagonist Drew to overcome.

And…

A strong climax.

And…

A resolution that is satisfying, yet not too easily predicted.

In this way Hurwitz does a masterful job at writing quite a captivating story. And even though it was slow at times, it still is worth adding to one’s reading list.

[Donna · Rating 4 out of 5]

I think this is my third novel by this author. I like that he is different. I won't sugar coat the beginning though. I'm not sure if it was the story or that fact that I was really tired that made the start of this book rough. Once I downed 200 mg of caffeine, as well as 2 cokes, things got much better. I'm not sure if it was because of the caffeine or the story, but it was much more enjoyable. I really enjoyed the humor. This had me laughing out loud.

The story was a little too 'round and round' for me, and the whodunit wasn't hard to guess, but I did enjoy the journey. It was entertaining which is a word that fits this author and his work. So 4 stars.

[Tracye Quinlan · Rating 1 out of 5]

LOVED Orphan X, but OMG I've given this the better part of an hour on audio and have only gotten about 2 minutes worth of story the rest is how many adjectives and adverbs does the author know and can use to describe L.A. block by block..... It's like he either doesn't know what to write or the story in his head is so short he needs filler. I GET that the city is supposed to be part of the story but ENOUGH already! I give up. Next.

[Lata · Rating 4 out of 5]

I picked this book to get a feel of Hurwitz's writing, as I am not yet ready to commit to a new series (Orphan X). I agree with my GR friends that Hurwitz CAN write. The murder mystery was done well. Throughout we are left guessing whether Drew really killed his ex-girlfriend or if he was framed. I can't say the plot was entirely original and it had some far-fetched elements too. Though the writing was excellent, the description of the city was too descriptive. and philosophical.
As most of the reviewers said, this may not be the author's best work, but it has certainly pushed me to read more of his books.

[Siobhan · Rating 2 out of 5]

Having read an enjoyed Gregg Hurwitz’s Tell No Lies, I was extremely excited to dive into more of the author’s work. The Gregg Hurwitz book that begged for my attention the most was The Crime Writer, leaving me more than a little bit curious about what would happen in such a story. When flicking through books in a second-hand bookstore I found a Gregg Hurwitz book with a blurb that sounded very much like The Crime Writer. Curious, I grabbed the book – only to later find out I See You is the same book as The Crime Writer, leaving me more than a little bit please about the surprise find.

As you can imagine, I was extremely excited to dive into I See You. Having given Tell No Lies a very strong four-star rating, I was expecting another strong read with this one. In the end, I couldn’t decide what rating to give it – a two or a three. Initially I wanted to round this one up to a three-star rating, but in the end I opted to round it down to a two-star rating. The concept of this book was fun, but it was not executed as well as it could have been.

For me, this was a very slow read. We start off on a high, but things quickly go downhill. We went from being thrown straight into the action to chasing our tails. I felt as though I was constantly waiting for something interesting to happen. It felt more like the insight into the kind of people a crime writer knows rather than being a story about a crime writer who may have committed a crime. Perhaps I had set my standards too high, but for me the story didn’t really hit on any of the big aspects it could have. Even when things were happening, it felt as though things were barely moving. I was reading events, accepting that they were occurring, but I wasn’t invested in them.

Overall, I was disappointed by this one. I had high hopes only to be let down. I will give Gregg Hurwitz another read, but I’m not as excited about reading more of his work as I had been when finishing Tell No Lies. My fingers are crossed, however, that I See You is not a reflection of his usual standard.

[Nick Davies · Rating 4 out of 5]

I knew what to expect from Gregg Hurwitz, having read a couple of his novels before (and I did suspect I'd read this novel before when I started, later deciding I hadn't) so it wasn't an annoyance to find the 'ordinary Joe wrapped up in murder conspiracy forced to battle his way through adversary with help of seemingly limitless resources and luck' cliché trotted out again. Certainly for the majority of the book, I wasn't even bothered by the overly scripted and slightly unnatural wise-cracking dialogue peppered throughout. Towards the end it all got a bit silly, however, and what was a strong four-star review moved towards a three and a half.

The author protagonist is forced to try and prove his innocence of the murder of first his fiancée, and then another woman killed in the same manner. Unhelpful cops, a snarky gay side-kick, a sassy love interest with a heart of gold (so soon after he killed his fiancée), a streetwise black kid, a huge plot twist or two, and all the characters that LA has to offer.. had it not been an enjoyable ride I might've started to find it a bit much, but it just got away with it in the end- due in part to some interesting 'meta' moments. Plus I give it an extra half mark for starting with the murder of a fiancée called Genevieve, which was my ex-fiancée's name too :-)

[The Girl with the Sagittarius Tattoo · Rating 4 out of 5]

Wow, this was very, very good! Smart, darkly funny and twisty.

Drew Danner claimed to have no memory of the night his ex-fiancée was found stabbed in the stomach, although he was found weeping over her body when the police arrived. En route to the police station, a medical emergency forced Drew into immediate surgery to remove a brain tumor - on the very same night! The jury determined his medical condition in the hours leading up precluded him from murder.

Now that he's a free man again, Drew's sense of justice and his crime writing nature compel him to discover who really killed his former fiancée. Which is fine... until a second woman ends up dead with evidence pointing to Drew.

I was very pleasantly surprised by this novel. I love Gregg Hurwitz's Orphan X series, and if not for that I never would have discovered this standalone. The Crime Writer is full of interesting, likeable characters like Drew's "little brother" Junior and his best friend Chic.

My only detraction is that the pace is uneven. The plot would consistently get going then slow way down before picking up again. That was annoying, but I'm glad it didn't put me off. With that caveat, I still recommend The Crime Writer.

[John · Rating 4 out of 5]

Each time I pick up a Gregg Hurwitz novel I expect a standard page-turning thriller and find myself instead having to work a little harder than that -- in part because his writing is, albeit on occasion over-selfconsciously, a bit more literary than that of many of his peers, in part because he usually offers something to think about beyond the thrills 'n' spills.

In The Crime Writer moderately successful crime writer Drew Danning tells us how he was found sprawled across the brutally slain body of his ex-fiancee, tried for her murder and deemed innocent by reason of insanity: he had been suffering a malignant brain tumor that made it all too possible he'd suddenly and violently lose control. But then, after his release, when another young woman is found slaughtered in very similar circumstances, Drew finds himself back in the cops' crosshairs again.

He decides, therefore, to try to solve the crimes as if he were writing them as one of his own mystery novels. He knows, and is soon able to prove, that he was innocent of the second crime; but he's well aware that he might eventually find himself guilty of the first during those few hours of his life he lost to the now-extracted tumor.

The plot's far-fetched in its premise and if anything even more so in its development -- this is a novel where you need not so much to suspend your disbelief as leave it at the door -- but after a start that was rather slow (which I didn't mind) The Crime Writer gets up a good speed, and there's always the fascination that the narrator is unreliable for the very good reason that he himself isn't sure what happened. I don't think Hurwitz really pulls off the artifice of Drew writing this as well as living it, but the occasional manuscript extracts are fun, and even more so the annotations of Drew's snarky editor/copyeditor. The solution, when it comes, is in part a tad predictable, in part so out of left field that it adds a whole new dimension to the overall far-fetchedness. (It also requires some special pleading on the part of the author, who has to bat away anticipated objections to it in a not wholly convincing manner.)

Where the book really scores, though, is in some of the writing. Late on, there's a wonderfully evocative, neo-Chandlerian description of evening social life in La-La Land that runs on for several pages and that I'm sure Hurwitz's editor must have threatened with the Red Pencil of Doom. Luckily it survived, as did many other Chandlerian touches. The text is also surprisingly full of a humor that is Hurwitz's own rather than Chandleresque and that occasionally had me chuckling aloud.

As an entertainment, then, The Crime Writer is much to be recommended -- assuming, as noted, you're not too persnickety about the plot's plausibility. As a metafiction, it's far less successful, but, with enough else to enjoy -- including a surprisingly strong roster of supporting characters -- I found myself able to swallow my disappointment bravely.

[Kelly · Rating 2 out of 5]

The writing style in this book was quite difficult to get used to, but once I got a few chapters into the novel it was easier to follow.
I didn't really like the lead character Drew, though I can't pin down the reason.
The plot should have been really gripping but I found that by the middle it was basically a repitition of events, find clue, no one believes him, someone may be stalking him, find another clue... etc etc
Then at the end the killer turns out to be someone entirely unexpected, not because it was a genius plot twist by the author but because the real killer had no real connection to anything else that had happened in the book.
Other plot devices only made it feel a bit too forced for me. The killer sneaking in and cutting Drew's toe so that he can frame him... I mean, really...
I would have been more surprised if Drew had been the killer after all to be honest.

[Jan · Rating 5 out of 5]

A well written psychological thriller with an interesting premise - a noted crime writer awakes in a hospital room and is told his ex-girlfriend was murdered and he was found over the body having had a seizure. The crime writer is determined to find who killed her -- himself or somebody else. Although it was a little slow in places, the plot was totally believable.

[Jason Parent · Rating 4 out of 5]

This was a very entertaining thriller, and I almost gave it five stars, the reveal being just a touch too implausible (so no, I did not see it coming, which in a way, is a good thing). Still, very pleased with the read as a whole and would recommend.

[P.D. Workman]

A gripping mystery that delves into the mind of a crime writer who finds himself at the center of a real-life investigation. This was a great, unique mystery. As a crime writer myself, I have often imagined what would happen if I was to find myself int he middle of a real crime investigator. It would be nothing like a cozy mystery, of course!

Drew Danner is thrust into a waking nightmare when he is found at the scene of his ex-girlfriend’s murder. What makes this mystery unique is the fact that Danner had a tumor in his brain that causes him to have a seizure at the murder scene, and its removal leads to the loss of his memory of events surrounding the murder.

As Danner struggles to piece together what happened that fateful night, the reader is taken on a rollercoaster ride of unexpected twists and turns. Hurwitz does a nice job of weaving forensic details into the story. The question of whether Danner is being set up or if he is truly guilty will keep the reader guessing until the very end.

[Carol · Rating 4 out of 5]

Good L.A. based crime thriller, slightly marred by some strange and convoluted plot twist. This is a familiar story. A guy is found convulsing next to the dead body of his ex-girlfriend. His fingerprints and blood are on the murder weapon. He wakes up in the hospital after having a brain tumor removed from his head and no memory of what happened. Wait, did I not just read a similar story in Ed McBain's "So Nude, So Dead"? Very similar plot line where the accused with memory loss has to search for the killer or at least find out if he was guilty after all. All told in first person, as most good noir should be with a few beat downs of our main character tossed in for good measure. He is not the most likable guy but that is OK. Maybe he should not be. He has his good points. He likes animals. He is a writer of crime fiction looking for a story and he lands in the middle of one that is a nightmare. With the help of his friends he gathers evidence that will either exonerate him or land him in jail.

[William · Rating 3 out of 5]

Audio Scott Brick
First part was awkward and Brick's narration was too much. Second half was much better and I am glad that I stuck with it.
I enjoyed the negative critic of LA and the entertainment industry. *** I rarely go south to SoCal and haven't watched Academy Awards other clips on news.

[Tory Wagner · Rating 3 out of 5]

The Crime Writer by Greg Hurwitz started rather slow, but then the action picked up. The main character is a mystery writer who becomes involved in his own mystery. A former girlfriend is murdered and he becomes the main suspect.

[msleighm · Rating 5 out of 5]

Audiobook. 5 stars.

I love Gregg Hurwitz; this book was un-put down-able.

[Jesus Velasco · Rating 5 out of 5]

Crimen de autor es una novela negra del escritor estadounidense Gregg Hurwitz, publicada en 2010. La historia sigue a Drew Danner, un escritor de novela negra que despierta en un hospital con amnesia. Es acusado de asesinar a su ex novia, Genevieve, pero no recuerda nada de lo sucedido. Con la ayuda de Chic, un jugador de béisbol fracasado, Preston, su editor, y Lloyd, un perito criminalista que le asesoraba con sus novelas, Drew intentará reconstruir los hechos y demostrar su inocencia.

La trama de Crimen de autor es ágil y absorbente. Hurwitz mantiene al lector en vilo hasta el final, con un ritmo que no decae en ningún momento. La historia es un buen ejemplo de novela negra, con todos los elementos característicos del género: un asesinato, un detective privado, una investigación y un final inesperado.

[Sarah Funke · Rating 4 out of 5]

Books with plot! Who knew? Really loved this contemporary take on hard-boiled LA fiction, which kept me up late, guessing (wrong) till the final moments. 300 pages and plenty of checkmarks, most for nostalgic humor ("He looked like someone Fat Albert had sat on") and meta-remarks ("A coyote trotted down the slope ahead of me, an escapee from a moir novel") but some for short bits and occasional paragraphs that suggest a thoughtful, incisive mind at work observing and assessing small and large cultural phenomena around him (from a line describing the silence of a house at the moment the tv is turned off, to a paragraph commenting on the make-up of LA). I wouldn't mind reading a non-thriller by GH; I don't know that he'll ever write one, but he could.

[Gina · Rating 4 out of 5]

This book was so unique in it's plot that IMHO I thought it was awesome. I can't think of any book that I have ever read with a story line that read like the one in The Crime Writer. However, it wasn't a crazy story. The story was completely believable and in no way did reality/not reality get in the way of reading the story. There were some slow spots, hence the rating, but all in all it really was a great novel! 4 stars!

Full review in progress.

[Jennifer · Rating 4 out of 5]

The author gets a little overly wordy in the beginning of this novel, but I think the premise is really interesting. The main character wakes up in the hospital after he's had emergency surgery to have a brain tumor. There's blood under his fingernails and the cops found him at the scene of his ex-girlfriend's murder. He doesn't think he did it, but his memory has holes. As he's a crime writer he wants to solve the mystery. Very funny minor characters.

[Helen Campbell · Rating 1 out of 5]

This book has 2 memorable characters: a 14-year old juvenile delinquent and a dog named Xena. The rest of the book is negligible. It isn't the plot that's defective, it's the author's writing style. His descriptions of Los Angeles, more than necessary, are lengthy and "over-ripe"- more in the style of a Shakespeare sonnet than a crime novel. I confess to having skipped about a third of the book.

[Mike · Rating 1 out of 5]

I thought it started off really boring. I kept reading because I thought it would get better. I was wrong.

[Joe · Rating 1 out of 5]

I quit reading this about half way through. A cute idea becomes convoluted and very hard to follow. There are flashes of brilliance, but I lost track of the plot.

[John (JC) · Rating 5 out of 5]

Great ending