Clue: A Novel by Michael McDowell
The movie Clue wasn’t a great hit when it came out – in fact it was pretty well panned by the critics and it was one of the last movies to use multiple endings. It wasn’t until much later that the movie became popular with a strong cult following. The initial flop, however, had unfortunate side effects on the other items that came out with the movie – especially the books which were quickly discontinued and forgotten.
Two books that came out with the movie were Clue by Michael McDowell, and Clue: The Storybook. I got a copy of the storybook via inter-library loan a few years back and uploaded a copy here. It’s a fairly short picture book, but does reveal a much-hinted at secret 4th ending that was never filmed. The Clue novelization by Michael McDowell, however, is much more of a standard length paperback.
While I have a lot of nostalgia for the movie, watching and quoting it endlessly, the McDowell book …. well…. leaves a lot to be desired. For a die-hard fan like me it’s worth the read but the writing isn’t very good and it certainly doesn’t capture the fun of the movie. You won’t learn anything new. It does pretty much follows the movie shot-for-shot.
I have a copy of the novelization, but prices have been getting stratospheric lately. Running as much as $200-$400. I have considered scanning my book for posterity, just like I did for Clue: The Storybook.
But until I get to that stage, you can actually listen to an amature reading of the un-abridged version via the above YouTube video. Read by Austin Curry (sp?), he does mispronounce words on occasion, but it’s more than good enough to give a listen. You can also download a mirrored copy of the audiobook version here if the YouTube link breaks (again).
2023 UPDATE!: you can now read and download the McDowell Clue book from the Internet Archive!! If you’d like to download McDowell’s Clue book, I also put a PDF copy locally here for posterity.
Title : Clue
Author : Michael McDowell
ISBN : 9780449130490
ISBN10: 0449130495
LCCN : 85091213
Publisher: New York : Fawcett Gold Medal
Publication date: November 12, 1985 by Fawcett
188 pages, Mass Market Paperback
4 thoughts on “Clue: A Novel by Michael McDowell”
Do you know who many copies of the book are in circulation or how many were printed?
I sadly have no idea. It was probably a decent number because they are copies for sale on various used book sites and ebay all the time. I would guess it was probably a standard printing of 20,000-60,000. It’s definitely not a rare book, just a bit collectable on the copies that are still around.
I can’t believe that someone recorded an audiobook of Clue, mainly because I just recorded one myself! When I met my wife, one of the things we bonded over was our love for the movie Clue. A couple years ago, I wanted to give it to her for her birthday. I searched for a copy online, only to discover that it’s long out of print, and used copies were selling for hundreds of dollars (and I moved several times and I no longer have a copy). So I found a PDF on the amazing Archive.org and recorded an audiobook for my wife. I’m a musician, so I’m used to recording my voice, but it was quite an undertaking to convincingly perform all of the voices. I finally finished it and gave it to her for Christmas. I’d imagine that others would enjoy listening to it, but I don’t know how to go about releasing it. Michael McDowell is deceased and the publishing company, Gold Medal Books/Fawcett Publications, is no longer in business. The Fawcett imprint is still a common law trademark using the domain name, FawcettBooks.com, which directs to the Penguin corporate webpage. I just signed up for the ACX, the Audible “marketplace for independent creators to produce, distribute, and market audiobooks”. Hopefully, that could lead to a release, or at least some work as a narrator for other books. Anyway, mad props for promoting Clue!
That’s awesome! I’d be glad to host an audio file here if you like. There’s lots of folks that read old stories on YouTube like Simon Stanhope on his Bitesized Audio Classics, or Tony Walker as part of Classic Ghost Stories Youtube channels (https://www.youtube.com/@BitesizedAudio and https://www.youtube.com/@ClassicGhost)
They’re both actors/narrators and have been doing this as a side thing for a while. He might have some tips for you about copyright and other matters. I think you may find that performances of narrated books is fair use. You might check with them since I know they had to look into that.