This is going to rock

As first reported by the esteemed Mr. Hogan:

IT used to be that every novelist had a screenplay in the drawer, just waiting for an actor to get interested. These days, it’s the actors who have novels in the drawer.

The latest is “The Shroud of the Thwacker,” a take-off on historical crime novels that comic actor Chris Elliott has just sold to Miramax Books for a healthy six figures. Set in nineteenth century New York, the novel is slated for publication next year.

“Thwacker” borrows from and spoofs the work of Caleb (“The Alienist”) Carr: it, too, has a Teddy Roosevelt character and the city’s “top cop” is named Caleb.

“Thwacker” also pokes fun at Patricia Cornwell’s “Portrait of a Killer: Jack the Ripper,” although the criminal in Elliott’s book doesn’t rip, he thwacks.

But does the killer, after an exciting, fast-paced denouement, turn out to be Ms. Cornwell? Or perhaps an antecedent to the lovely Dr. Scarpetta…

BTW, one of the reasons we like Chris Elliott so much is that he’s the son of Bob Elliot, one half of one of the best damned comedy duos ever to grace this planet, Bob & Ray. Listen to “Slow Talkers of America” and you will understand their genius (or Wally Ballou’s agricultural reports as more pressing news happens to the utter oblivion of this hapless character. So funny.)