The Only Mystery Is How the Publisher Missed This

By Richard Amada on Nov 16, 2011 | In Literary

Okay, spy thrillers often adhere to a certain formula that might conjure up past works from which they draw inspiration.  But there's a world of difference between borrowing inspiration and practically swiping whole passages of copyright protected books.

Literary publisher Little, Brown & Co. recently had to wipe the egg off its face and announce that it was recalling Q.R. Markham's newly released novel, Assassin of Secrets, when it discovered that several passages in the book were almost identical to passages in more than a dozen other spy novels, including some James Bond stories.  (Oh, c'mon!  James Bond?  That's not exactly an obscure source from which to be lifting paragraphs.)

If you want to read a few examples of the passages in question, check out the Wall Street Journal story.

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