Famous Writers School: A Novel - Tapa dura

In this send-up of a correspondence course for struggling writers, three students bare their souls to a dubious teacher - and their paths begin to cross in a most peculiar manner ... at The Famous Writers School.
Their instructor is one Wendell Newton, a man as rich in fantasy as he is lacking in talent. So sly that he easily deludes himself as well as his pupils about his qualifications to teach the art of writing, Wendell is quickly entangled in two mysteries: one he tries to turn to his advantage, and another he barely recognizes before it's too late.
Wendell's eccentricity is matched by that of his students: a seductive, slightly seedy torch singer named Rio; a desperate housewife named Linda Trane whose letters and stories get progressively more bizarre; and Dan, a regular guy with a talent for producing dark detective fiction that provokes the seething envy of his instructor. Dan's novel which arrives piece by piece on Wendell's desk, is a dark tale of sex, murder, kidnapping, and revenge.

Steven Carter teaches at Georgetown College in Kentucky.