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Two More Crichton Novels to Be Released

Late author left behind pirate yarn, and part of techno-thriller

By Rob Quinn, Newser Staff

Posted Apr 6, 2009 7:29 AM CDT

(Newser) – Michael Crichton fans will have at least two posthumous releases to look forward to, the New York Times reports. The late author left behind a completed 17th-century adventure yarn called Pirate Latitudes that publisher HarperCollins plans to release this November, and the company is seeking an author to finish a technological thriller left one-third completed.

"We want a high-level thriller writer, somebody who understands Michael’s work," a HarperCollins exec says. “From what I gather, there are notes and indications of which direction the novel was going, so the writer has material to work from apart from the actual material that was finished." Crichton's agent said the author, who died of cancer in November, left "many, many electronic files" behind that may well contain other novels or fragments.

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Michael Crichton poses at The Peninsula Hotel in New York in this 2004 file photo. The author died Tuesday, Nov. 4, 2008, aged 66. (AP Photo/Jim Cooper, file)

Michael Crichton's agent says the intensely private author left behind a large number of electronic files that could contain more novels. (AP Photo/Jim Cooper, file)

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It’s packed through with great detail about navigation and how pirates operated, and links between the New World and the Caribbean and Spain. - Harper publisher Jonathan Burnham on Pirate Latitudes

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Two More Crichton Novels to Be Released