Mystery novel intrigues Manhattan

Writing a book is easy. It's getting people to read it that's the hard part. So, big props to the author behind "Holy Crap," a mystery novel whose intrigue centers around the travails of a new parent. The author has drummed up interest by posting one page at a time on New York City light poles. And--guess what?--people are reading it.

We first learned of the story via The New York Post. Pages began mysteriously appearing on lightpoles in the city's East Village neighborhood. As of yet, nobody has come forward to claim the work. So far, eight pages in total have made their way to the public. The New York Post explains that page seven ended an on "ominous note."

"A woman walks from the bathroom, whom I still have no memory of, in this bedroom that I have no memory of, and out to some other room that I have no memory of... 'Headache. Terrible headache,' I say through my teeth. 'Killing me. I think something's wrong...'"

At the bottom of that page, readers are told to go to a different location to find the next installment. And that direction, of course, raises plenty of logistical mysteries for readers hooked on the initial installments, among them: Just how long is this book and how many pages will there be?

Nobody knows for sure, but its hard to imagine a novel being less than 200 pages. If you want to know the whole story, you'd best be prepared to traipse around the mean streets of New York for weeks, or perhaps months, to come. (And you may also be picking up a truncated form of the narrative: On a recent follow-up journey to the East Village, Yahoo gumshoes failed to turn up the initial chapters--perhaps because it's stormed recently in New York.)

Is there a method to the madness? The Village Voice, which also reported the story, suspects that the writer is posting the pages that correspond with New York streets. Page seven can be found on Seventh Street, etc.

And while the novel/stunt has drummed up interest, not everybody is fan of the author's tactics. In the New York Post, one neighborhood resident remarked: "Honestly, I don't like the idea. I hate it when people just post things everywhere ... They have the Internet, why don't they use that?"

(East Village lamp post where one chapter of "Holy Crap" surfaced. Jess Wisloski/Y! NY)