Street Lit, Gossip about

A patron wants Deadly Reigns III, a book he imagined would be by Teri Woods, as she wrote I and II. He had asked for it last week and wanted to know if we bought it yet(!). In an effort to give a nicer answer than "Ha, with what money?" or "You're gonna have to wait more than a week," I looked at B&T and didn't find it; he mentioned that maybe it's "by another author" and things suddenly felt complicated. I told him I'd call him back. Here's what I learned (I gave him a briefer version):

It seems that Teri Woods has ghostwriters work for her. Those staff who catalog paperbacks have probably noticed things like "Teri Woods Presents" on the cover, with or without another author's name; and sometimes books were just flat out written by someone else for her.

Last year, one of these ghostwriters made public that he wrote several books published under her name, and he seems to have sued. His name is Caleb Alexander. Here's his blog (that hasn't been updated in a year) with some of the details. Many readers are now aware of this scandal and write about it on discussion boards, for instance PJ about halfway down on this site, and several folks here.

Meanwhile, Deadly Games III can be purchased online at blackbookplus.com and Amazon -- but I am not sure we can get it that way.

If you find out more about this (or any other book gossip!), add it in the comments field!