Dear Mr. M

July 25, 2016
The Dutch author of The Dinner keeps the reader pleasantly off balance in a tale about a fading novelist and the crime that inspired the book that brought him fame. At first, the aging Mr. M, who lives with his “lovely, young” and “self-effacing” wife and three-year-old daughter, is observed only through the cool eyes of his younger downstairs neighbor, whom M consistently fails to recognize outside of the apartment building. Later, the misanthropic M gets his own chapters in the spotlight as he considers disposing of the middle-aged housewives attending a library book-signing or engages in fisticuffs with a rival at an authors’ dinner. Other characters taking their moment in the spotlight include M’s wife, Ana, and the two young inspirations for M’s novel, Herman and Laura, who may or may not have done away with their high school history teacher. All have motives and feelings that are more twisted than one first suspects. Koch cleverly lays out the pieces of his puzzle, letting first one pattern and then another emerge, and leaving the final piece in reserve until the last few pages. His sardonic sense of humor and dark perspective on human failings give the novel a greater, more satisfying depth than the usual thriller.

July 1, 2016
A man contemplates getting back at the novelist who exploited his life in fiction.Koch's third novel translated into English (Summer House with Swimming Pool, 2015, etc.) is partly a satire of the petty grievances of the literary world, partly a vision of sociopathic cruelty, though ultimately a little too much of both. The "Mr. M" of the title has had a long career writing novels that have garnered heaps of acclaim but modest sales--with the exception of Payback, his bestselling fictionalization of a much-discussed news story about a pair of teens who were accused of killing a teacher who'd had an affair with one of them. Herman, one of the students allegedly involved, hasn't been able to let go of the experience decades later; indeed, he lives in the same building as the writer, and as M makes the publicity rounds for a new novel, Herman is increasingly invasive of his personal space, stalking his wife and posing as a journalist to ask some pointed questions of him. Koch (via Garrett's translation) does a fine job of capturing Herman's arrogant, narcissistic swagger ("I have certain plans for you..."; "Who are you trying to impress...?"), but he wisely pivots away from Herman's narration to include multiple perspectives--Mr. M, the troubled teacher, and the classmates who witnessed Herman's high school antics. (He enjoyed taunting a classmate whose mother was dying, for instance.) Koch suggests that in some ways Herman and M are similar--both exploit others' pasts, have mean streaks (M fantasizes about mass-murdering his readers), and have troubled pasts to cover up. But that argument isn't wholly persuasive--Herman's adolescence was crueler--and the layering of Herman's back story overwhelms the core mystery story of what truly happened with that teacher. Koch is consistently attuned to our hidden foibles and fakery, which makes for deliberately discomfiting reading. Sleeker writing would enhance its impact.

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August 1, 2016
Trust no one. Certainly not the narratorsthis story is told from alternating points of viewand perhaps not even yourself. Koch's totally engrossing blend of thriller and literary fiction will take you into that Twilight Zone middle ground between light and shadow and hold you there for awhile afterward. There is much examination of the writing process, artistic license, and literary merit built into the story of a writer whose greatest success came with a thriller based on a real-life disappearance. The author known to us merely as M now finds his career in decline, and he seems to have become the obsession of his bizarre downstairs neighbor. You have to really like this kind of thingit is not the kind of story that you can read on and off. It requires your complete attention, but when you give it, you will be absorbed by the clever prose. Based on the phenomenal success of the Amsterdam author's previous novels, especially The Dinner (2013), Dear Mr. M is bound to find a strong audience, especially amongfans of Lionel Shriver and Megan Abbott.(Reprinted with permission of Booklist, copyright 2016, American Library Association.)

Starred review from September 1, 2016

This third novel to be translated into English from Koch's native Dutch may change the way readers think about the publishing realm forever. The main protagonist, "H," begins the tale by writing a letter to an author, referred to as Mr. M. In this letter, H lets Mr. M know that H is a neighbor and wishes to interview him. He then describes, in haunting detail, Mr. M's movements and those of his much younger wife and three-year-old daughter. The story then continues from the perspective of different characters. Forty years ago, Mr. M wrote a book called Payback, which he based loosely on a true event involving two high schoolers who apparently killed their teacher at a vacation town, although a body was never recovered. As Koch unfolds events up to the present, he has his characters use similar phrases and descriptions to convey their sense of connection, giving the entire narrative coherence. VERDICT Perfect for fans of Koch's previous best sellers, The Dinner and Summer House with Swimming Pool, and of the sociopathic story line in fiction. [See Prepub Alert, 3/21/16.]--Jason L. Steagall, Gateway Technical Coll. Lib., Elkhorn, WI

Copyright 2016 Library Journal, LLC Used with permission.

April 15, 2016

After blasting scathingly onto the American scene with The Dinner and then Summer House with Swimming Pool, Koch returns with a high-end shocker about M, himself the author of a high-end shocker but now all washed up. Why does his deferential neighbor seem almost creepily interested in him? With a 100,000-copy first printing.

Copyright 2016 Library Journal, LLC Used with permission.

September 1, 2016

This third novel to be translated into English from Koch's native Dutch may change the way readers think about the publishing realm forever. The main protagonist, "H," begins the tale by writing a letter to an author, referred to as Mr. M. In this letter, H lets Mr. M know that H is a neighbor and wishes to interview him. He then describes, in haunting detail, Mr. M's movements and those of his much younger wife and three-year-old daughter. The story then continues from the perspective of different characters. Forty years ago, Mr. M wrote a book called Payback, which he based loosely on a true event involving two high schoolers who apparently killed their teacher at a vacation town, although a body was never recovered. As Koch unfolds events up to the present, he has his characters use similar phrases and descriptions to convey their sense of connection, giving the entire narrative coherence. VERDICT Perfect for fans of Koch's previous best sellers, The Dinner and Summer House with Swimming Pool, and of the sociopathic story line in fiction. [See Prepub Alert, 3/21/16.]--Jason L. Steagall, Gateway Technical Coll. Lib., Elkhorn, WI

Copyright 2016 Library Journal, LLC Used with permission.