# Stories halted due to death **URL:** \ **Category:** Cafe Society\ **Created:** [June 28, 2005, 2:09am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/stories-halted-due-to-death/310131 "2005-06-28T02:09:52Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 19\ **Page:** 3
**Author:** ![Ghanima](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/9e8a1a/32.png) [@Ghanima](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ghanima)\ **Post date:** [June 28, 2005, 6:14pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/stories-halted-due-to-death/310131/41 "2005-06-28T18:14:30Z")
> [@jayjay](#): > > Although you’d have to add the prequels that we’ve decided don’t exist to it as well. It’s really the only way to keep Dune fans out of jail for murder… Personally I can’t wait for Hunters and Sandworms of Dune. They are based on Herbert’s notes and will contain some of his writings, and he will be credited as one of the authors. As someone who is dying to know what happens next (Chapterhouse ended on a pretty big cliffhanger) and as a rabid Dune fan, I have to say not all of us are upset with this. ---
**Author:** ![audit1](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/ed8c4c/32.png) [@audit1](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/audit1)\ **Post date:** [June 29, 2005, 12:38am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/stories-halted-due-to-death/310131/42 "2005-06-29T00:38:09Z")
Manny Lee and Frederick Dannay left an outline for a an unfinished ELLERY QUEEN novel THE TRAGEDY OF ERRORS. in 1973l. IN 1999 the outline was published. ---
**Author:** ![C\_K\_Dexter\_Haven](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/b2d939/32.png) [@C\_K\_Dexter\_Haven](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/C_K_Dexter_Haven)\ **Post date:** [June 29, 2005, 1:35am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/stories-halted-due-to-death/310131/43 "2005-06-29T01:35:58Z")
> [@Winston Bongo](#): > > Raymond Chandler died before completing the last Philip Marlowe novel, _Poodle Springs_. It was finished, years later, by Robert B. Parker. For some reason I’ve never wanted to read it, despite being a big fan of Chandler. It just wouldn’t be the same . . . Parker actually did a fairly reasonable job of finishing it… although, IIRC, there was some “modern” sex-type scenes. ---
**Author:** ![HPL](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/h/3da27b/32.png) [@HPL](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/HPL)\ **Post date:** [June 29, 2005, 1:54am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/stories-halted-due-to-death/310131/44 "2005-06-29T01:54:51Z")
> [@adam yax](#): > > Oh, it is going to happen. [HUNTERS OF DUNE and SANDWORMS OF DUNE](http://www.dunenovels.com/timeline.html) will be based on FH’s notes for a 7th novel. NOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!!! ---
**Author:** ![HPL](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/h/3da27b/32.png) [@HPL](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/HPL)\ **Post date:** [June 29, 2005, 1:57am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/stories-halted-due-to-death/310131/45 "2005-06-29T01:57:08Z")
Speaking of which, does anyone know where Kevin Anderson lives? And Brian Herbert? And perhaps the location of any tall buildings nearby? Why? No reason… ---
**Author:** ![DataZak](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/ea666f/32.png) [@DataZak](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DataZak)\ **Post date:** [June 29, 2005, 2:09am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/stories-halted-due-to-death/310131/46 "2005-06-29T02:09:36Z")
> [@Malacandra](#): > > \ > > Rowling, on the other hand, is a one-hit wonder who got indescribably lucky, far out of all proportion to the merit of the books. An okay writer, but dollar-billionnaire okay? :dubious: There are some authors about whom I have dreamed of their writing another book in a series, but JKR doesn’t make the list. > > Besides, there’s little danger she won’t live long enough to write one more HP. Well, I’ve already invested so much time on Harry Potter, and with only two books left, it’d be like a punch in the gut if anything should happen to JKR before she finishes the series. This thread reminds me of Terry Pratchett, for some reason. How’s he doing and when’s the next Discworld book coming out? ---
**Author:** ![Ike\_Witt](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/ike_witt/32/283_2.png) [@Ike\_Witt](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ike_Witt)\ **Post date:** [June 29, 2005, 2:17am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/stories-halted-due-to-death/310131/47 "2005-06-29T02:17:09Z")
I’m sorry to be the bearer of bad tidings. However, I felt that it was best that you heard it from me, rather than having the shock of seeing it in a bookstore unforewarned. ---
**Author:** ![silenus](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/silenus/32/166_2.png) [@silenus](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/silenus)\ **Post date:** [June 29, 2005, 2:43am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/stories-halted-due-to-death/310131/48 "2005-06-29T02:43:48Z")
> [@DataZak](#): > > This thread reminds me of Terry Pratchett, for some reason. How’s he doing and when’s the next Discworld book coming out? He’s doing fine, and [**Thud**](http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/tg/detail/-/0060815221/qid=1120013905/sr=8-1/ref=pd_bbs_ur_1/002-1950397-7958403?v=glance&s=books&n=507846) is due in November. 😃 ---
**Author:** ![rjk](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/ed655f/32.png) [@rjk](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/rjk)\ **Post date:** [June 29, 2005, 4:12pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/stories-halted-due-to-death/310131/49 "2005-06-29T16:12:16Z")
> [@Malacandra](#): > > Naval fiction writers must be an endangered species. To add to Forester and O’Brian, Dudley Pope, author of the _Ramage_ series, died shortly after giving his captain a new ship and ending a story with the hint that Ramage’s admiral had a special job for him. There was another series featuring an officer who took a bullet in the throat and lost his voice, so the only job he can get is as an investigator (read: spy) for the Admiralty. I liked the two or three that exist, but the author died before he could do any more. (I made a note of his name and the titles but don’t have it here. Anybody?) Back to the OP: Don’t forget [the Gormenghast trilogy](http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/0879516283/ref=pd_sxp_f/103-1376789-0881437) by Mervyn Peake. He intended at least four books, but developed Parkinson’s and barely finished the third. It’s still great stuff. ---
**Author:** ![merrily](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/ac91a4/32.png) [@merrily](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/merrily)\ **Post date:** [June 29, 2005, 4:24pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/stories-halted-due-to-death/310131/50 "2005-06-29T16:24:59Z")
A Confederacy of Dunces – the author committed suicide because he couldn’t get it published. His mom eventually got it published, and it was a best-seller. It seems set up for a sequel we will never see. I thought John D. MacDonald’s last book was meant to be the end of the Travis McGee series. That’s why the daughter was brought in, and it starts with people we know from other books being mentioned as being dead–a sort of “life goes on” theme. Just as well, really–it was one of his weakest. ---
**Author:** ![Winston\_Bongo](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/w/a9adbd/32.png) [@Winston\_Bongo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Winston_Bongo)\ **Post date:** [June 29, 2005, 5:45pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/stories-halted-due-to-death/310131/51 "2005-06-29T17:45:15Z")
I just thought of another one: Kafka’s **The Trial**. Although it does have an ending, he left some gaps and unfinished chapters that he never got around to completing before he died. IIRC, _none_ of his novels were published until after his death, and several of those were incomplete. ---
**Author:** ![Annie-Xmas](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/ecc23a/32.png) [@Annie-Xmas](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Annie-Xmas)\ **Post date:** [July 7, 2005, 5:28pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/stories-halted-due-to-death/310131/52 "2005-07-07T17:28:07Z")
> [@Annie-Xmas](#): > > The work is called “Exit.” McBain started writing a series of 87th precient novels with one word alphabetical titles back in the sixties (take that, Sue Grafton). He purposely left out “E for Exit,” the mystery to be published after his death. The series has ended. [RIP Ed McBain/Evan Hunter](http://www.edmcbain.com/) ---
**Author:** ![Exapno\_Mapcase](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/exapno_mapcase/32/1051_2.png) [@Exapno\_Mapcase](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Exapno_Mapcase)\ **Post date:** [July 7, 2005, 9:17pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/stories-halted-due-to-death/310131/53 "2005-07-07T21:17:43Z")
Ed McBain finished Craig Rice’s _The April Robin Murders_ after she (yes, she) died. Rice and Stuart Palmer had written a series of short stories about their characters, John J. Malone and Hildegarde Withers. They plotted them together, actually, and Palmer did the writing. After Rice died Palmer continued the series from notes and outlines that Rice had left. Then after Palmer died, Fletcher Flora finished _Hildegarde Withers Makes the Scene_. The mystery world used to be a very small one. BTW, Arthur Byron Cover is his real name. We went to Clarion together about a million years ago. He was alive last time I heard, not that we’ve talked in a while, and I’m going to assume that it was the publisher’s decision, not his, to not bother with the third book in that series. Because 99% of the time, that’s the way it works. ---
**Author:** ![Chairman\_Pow](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/838e76/32.png) [@Chairman\_Pow](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Chairman_Pow)\ **Post date:** [July 7, 2005, 11:05pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/stories-halted-due-to-death/310131/54 "2005-07-07T23:05:45Z")
\*Dobrou Vojak Svejk \* which is one of the foundational texts of Czech literature (and some would say of the Czech psyche) was only 2/3 complete (IIRC) when Jaroslav Hasek, the author died. Of course, in English, there’s only one terrible translation of the entire work. ---
**Author:** ![parthenokinesis](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/cc9497/32.png) [@parthenokinesis](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/parthenokinesis)\ **Post date:** [July 7, 2005, 11:16pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/stories-halted-due-to-death/310131/55 "2005-07-07T23:16:46Z")
IIRC, Christopher Marlowe’s _The Massacre at Paris_ was incomplete when he was killed. What there is of it has been published anyway. And any play about the murder of thousands of Frenchmen can’t be bad. 🙂 Jack ---
**Author:** ![Peter\_Morris](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/peter_morris/32/359_2.png) [@Peter\_Morris](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Peter_Morris)\ **Post date:** [July 8, 2005, 3:08am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/stories-halted-due-to-death/310131/56 "2005-07-08T03:08:32Z")
Darn it, I was intending to name Edwin Drood, Hornblower, and Salmon of Doubt, but they were all done within the first ten posts. So instead I’ll just complain about Darcy Sarto leaving his last detective novel incomplete, with just _one page_ left to go. Of course, it’s the important page, the one where Johnny Oxford reveals the murder’s name. Of course the books are formulaic. We know the guilty party will try to escape through the window. Johnny will always puff on his cigar and say that ‘New York is now a safer place’ but who done it? This has been bugging me for years. ☹☹☹ ---
**Author:** ![boofuu](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/f4b2a3/32.png) [@boofuu](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/boofuu)\ **Post date:** [July 8, 2005, 3:29am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/stories-halted-due-to-death/310131/57 "2005-07-08T03:29:06Z")
I’ve always been really sad that Olive Ann Burns died while writing “Leaving Cold Sassy Tree.” “Cold Sassy Tree” is one of my favorite books. They published the extant chapters of the sequel (I think about 15) and left them in their “crude” form, no rewriting. It always makes me cry to read them and her friend and editor’s reminiscences. Good stuff. ---
**Author:** ![MackoUr](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/eada6e/32.png) [@MackoUr](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/MackoUr)\ **Post date:** [July 8, 2005, 3:58am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/stories-halted-due-to-death/310131/58 "2005-07-08T03:58:43Z")
I was going to submit the comic book / soap opera _Omaha the Cat Dancer_, which I thought died for good with Kate Worley, but I just checked Reed Waller’s blog ([http://rwaller.blogspot.com/](http://rwaller.blogspot.com/) ) and it seems he and Kate’s husband have gone on with the project working from her notes; so never mind. ---
**Author:** ![MackoUr](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/eada6e/32.png) [@MackoUr](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/MackoUr)\ **Post date:** [July 8, 2005, 4:13am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/stories-halted-due-to-death/310131/59 "2005-07-08T04:13:39Z")
I was going to submit the comic book / soap opera _Omaha the Cat Dancer_, which I thought died for good with Kate Worley, but I just checked Reed Waller’s blog ([http://rwaller.blogspot.com/](http://rwaller.blogspot.com/) ) and it seems he and Kate’s husband have gone on with the project working from her notes; so never mind. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/stories-halted-due-to-death/310131.md?page=2)