DIVINING ROD **SIGNED COPY** by Knight, mICHAEL - 1998

N.Y.: Dutton, 1998. 1st edition, October 1998, so stated with complete number line beginning with 1. Fine in fine dust jacket, not price clipped, in protective mylar cover. Author's first novel, published simultaneously with a collection of short stories in wraps. Author has been highly praised. SIGNED COPY, signature only, by the author on the title page.. "Knight's assured first novel paints a touching picture of a quiet Alabama suburban neighborhood disrupted by tragedy. In contrast to the short stories in Dogfight (reviewed below), in which Knight carefully builds to a climactic one-two punch, here he opens with the knockout: 63-year-old Sam Halladay walks over to the house next door and pulls the trigger of a .38 revolver, killing 28-year-old Simon Bell. The motive: Bell's affair with Halladay's young, beautiful bride, Delia. Sketching the events leading up to Bell's death, Knight alternates Simon's flashback narration with third-person accounts centered around Sam and Delia Halladay, Sheriff Nightingale and Betty Fowler, an eccentric neighbor whose divining rod leads her to witness the crime. Knight's expert re-creation of the quotidian makes the bizarre events of his narrative all the more haunting. The questions he raises about what drives someone to adultery or murder remain rhetorical, even as he plants clues to their answers..," -- Publishers Weekly. Signed by Author. First Edition. Hard Cover. New/As New. Book.