A Matter of Life and Death: The Importance of Being Kane

A Matter of Life and Death: The Importance of Being Kane is the first book in a planned trilogy by Keith Ablow, author of the Frank Clevenger psychological thriller series. The trilogy follows different characters dealing with questions about identity, transformation, and whether a person can leave an old life behind.

In the first book, Alex Kane is a wealthy hedge fund manager whose marriage and business have fallen apart. Instead of ending his life, he hires former Hollywood director Hank Kline to construct another one for him. Kline creates a new identity and sends Kane to a small New England town where actors, arranged meetings, and scripted coincidences should make the reinvented self feel like a real new life.

Kane changes his name and appearance, then steps into the role Kline has designed for him. However, as the performance continues, soon she is not sure which of the people and events around him are true and which are false.

From New York Times Bestselling Author Keith AblowAlex Kane, a brilliant but deeply troubled hedge fund manager, has built a fortune predicting market movements-yet he is powerless to control the quiet collapse of his own life. Haunted by his father’s suicide, shaped by his mother’s alcoholism, and hollowed out by a success that feels increasingly meaningless, Kane reaches a breaking point. His marriage disintegrates. His partners force him out of the firm he built.

And his beloved dog Abel-his last steady source of unconditional love-is dying. Alone and unraveling, Kane contemplates ending it all. Instead, he conceives an audacious alternative: if his life feels broken beyond repair, he will rewrite it.Enter Hank Kline, a once-celebrated Hollywood director now desperate for relevance. Kane hires him to stage an elaborate rebirth-a meticulously engineered existence in a small New England town, partly populated with actors, scripted encounters, and carefully orchestrated “coincidences” designed to manufacture meaning. Armed with a new name and altered appearance, Kane steps into the role of his own reinvention.But immersion carries risks. As fabricated moments begin to feel disturbingly authentic, the boundary between performance and reality dissolves. Memories intrude. Control slips.

And Kane must confront a dangerous question: can a man truly escape his past-or will every story, no matter how carefully rewritten, bend back toward its original ending? “Keith Ablow is a spectacular writer. He has created a wonderful work of fiction.” -Matthew Modine, American Writer, Actor, Director and Producer”Keith Ablow has written a literary masterpiece that asks and answers the question, ‘Can a human being find the true self within?’ Alex Kane is a hero for all of us.” -Dr. Rock Positano, Co-author of Dinner with Dimaggio: Memories of an American Hero

Part of the A Matter of Life and Death series – see the full reading order on the Keith Ablow Books in Order page.