The Los Angeles Times
WRITER’S BODY FOUND
Novelist Was Plagued by Problems
Former bestselling, critically lauded suspense novelist Bill Wiley was found dead in his North Hollywood home Tuesday morning. His badly mutilated body, which police investigators said was missing an eye, arm, and legs, was discovered by shocked neighbors. Investigators reported Wiley had used pliers and a jigsaw on himself and bled to death. A final article he wrote about editing was found in his blood-spattered office.
Wiley’s last two years were riddled with tragedy. Bad sales, poor reviews, and a terminal cancer diagnosis beleaguered him, and in June, his wife of thirty years, Linda, hanged herself in their home. Wiley was not a suspect in her death but remained a person of interest in the ongoing investigation of two young girls who vanished from a coffee shop in which he often wrote.
His longtime agent said Wiley’s new novel, Small Print, an avant-garde work in which each chapter is one sentence, was purchased, after his death, by his former publisher.
The novel is seven pages long.