I bet there are plenty of authors reading this who’ve been stung by a bad review.  And maybe you’ve received a review that made you wonder whether the reviewer even read the same book you wrote.

Well, maybe he didn’t.

Over in Sweden, this reviewer got caught writing a nasty review of a book that was never written.  

In his review of Britt-Marie Mattsson’s thriller “The Power of Fear” :

 Kristian Lundberg claimed the book’s plot was “predictable” and said the characterisations were one-dimensional. 

There was one big whopping problem with his review.

The book didn’t exist. 

Although the book appeared in the publisher’s catalogue as an upcoming release, the author never actually got around to writing the book.  The reviewer simply made up spiteful comments about a book he assumed was actually on the market.

The reviewer’s excuse?  According to the article:

He had got worked up in advance about Britt-Marie Mattsson because “I detest her so very greatly. But let’s hope the book is published so I get the chance to say it for real.”

Doesn’t sound very apologetic does he?

The author’s publisher commented: “We’ve known for a long time that reviewers skim-read books, but now we know what really happens.”

I’d say this isn’t a case of merely skim-reading books.  This is a case of a reviewer who’s a blatant liar.

(with a hat-tip to Susan Gable and NINCLINK for this item)