In February 2009, Hard Case Crime will publish Roger Zelazny‘s previously lost and recently discovered unpublished noir novel The Dead Man’s Brother. It will be the first publication of a new Zelazny novel since his death. The cover art (pictured here) is by Chuck Pyle. Hard Case has posted a sample chapter on their web site.
Publisher Charles Ardai tells SFScope “There’s no actual sf/f element in the book, but still, it’s Zelazny.”
The write-up describing the book says: “Once an art smuggler, now a respectable art dealer, Ovid Wiley awoke to find his former partner stabbed to death on his gallery floor. That was strange enough—but when a CIA agent showed up to spring him from NYPD custody, things got a lot stranger.
“Now the CIA is offering to clear up the murder charge, but only in return for a favor: They want Ovid to fly to Vatican City and trace the trail of a renegade priest who has gone missing with millions in church funds. What’s the connection? The priest’s lover, a woman Ovid knew in his smuggling days&#8230”
Roger Zelazny may be best known as the author of the Amber series: five novels about Prince Corwin of Amber, five about his son Merlin (Merle), and seven other stories set in the Amber multiverse. Zelazny won six Hugo Awards, three Nebulas, two Seiuns, and two Balrogs (he was nominated 14 times each for the Hugo and the Nebula). He died of cancer in 1995 at the age of 58.