Michael Crichton's Next Book May Be Canceled

Posted on November 12, 2008

USA Today reports that Michael Crichton's next book, which was scheduled for release in spring of 2009, has been canceled because of the author's recent death.

Before Michael Crichton died last week from cancer at age 66, he had begun writing another novel. But its status remains a mystery. Until the day his death was announced, online bookseller Amazon listed an untitled Crichton novel scheduled to be released in May. "We checked with the publisher, and that book had been canceled," Amazon's Tammy Hovey says. "So it was removed from the site." Crichton's publisher, HarperCollins, won't confirm that it has been canceled. Crichton's last novel, Next (2006), imagined a legal battle over who owns cancer-fighting cells taken from a man fighting leukemia. It peaked at No. 2 at USA TODAY's Best-Selling Books list.

If HarperCollins won't confirm that the book is canceled, that means that the publisher isn't sure how far along Crichton was in the manuscript and is most likely trying to see if there is a way to get it into a publishable state, perhaps with another author to help out. Stay tuned on this one.

---