Dear Pete,
        Although it's not fiction, and thus doesn't fit your query
precisely, a new book that you and other Mark Twain Forum members might
enjoy checking out is Ralph Wiley's __Dark Witness: When Black People
Should Be Sacrificed (Again)__, published April 16th by One
World/Ballantine (a division of Random House). Wiley is a former senior
writer at __Sports Illustrated__and author of __Why Black People Tend to
Shout__ and __What Black People Should Do Now_.  His new book is packed
with appreciative paeans to Twain.  Wiley doesn't always get things quite
right, and he's less conscientious than he should be about crediting
sources--but his enthusiasm for Twain knows no bounds. (He even quotes six
pages from __Tom Sawyer Abroad__in his appendix, and includes a list of his
ten favorite books by Twain, and his second ten favorite books by Twain!)
Although his past books have been nonfiction, the author's blurb says he's
working on a novel. Twain seems to be so central to everything he does,
that I can't imagine his NOT being key to whatever fiction Wiley produces.

Shelley Fisher Fishkin