Why John Steinbeck’s ‘lost’ werewolf murder mystery remains unpublished
A Stanford professor explains the importance of why “Murder at Full Moon” should be on bookshelves.
A Stanford professor explains the importance of why “Murder at Full Moon” should be on bookshelves.
A Stanford professor explains the importance of why “Murder at Full Moon” should be on bookshelves.
Long before he became one of America's most-well known novelists, Monterey County icon John Steinbeck wrote three books that were never published. Two of them he destroyed, but the other has remained in the archives, relatively unknown, until recently.
The unpublished novel is titled Murder at Full Moon. It’s a murder mystery involving werewolves.
“I was really surprised to discover that it wasn't some unfinished draft or some sort of just just wacky experiment. It was a complete novel,” said Stanford profession Gavin Jones.
Jones is one of the few to have ever read the novel.
“Steinbeck takes this atmosphere and turns it into detective fiction with a kind of an environmental twist to it. And it is you know, it's a potboiler. It's not something that we tend to associate with Steinbeck,” said Jones.
It may be unlike any of Steinbeck's other works, but what's the same is where it's located.
“supposedly it's set in somewhere like Castroville or Coastal Town or slightly inland town on a marsh in the kind of Monterey area, maybe north of Monterey,” explained Jones.
Jones says Steinbeck unsuccessfully tried publishing the book in his early career. Now, Jones wants the public to see Steinbeck as he's never been read before. However, Steinbeck's publisher has chosen not to publish it. They old the online publication, The Guardian, "Steinbeck wrote it under a pseudonym and did not choose to publish the work during his lifetime.”
Professor Jones says he hopes that in time the estate will change their mind.