KEAN, Rob

PERSONAL:

Male. Education: Attended Bowdoin College.

ADDRESSES:

Home—Boston, MA. Agent—c/o Author Mail, Warner Books, 1271 Avenue of the Americas, New York, NY 10020.

CAREER:

Novelist.

WRITINGS:

The Pledge, Warner Books (New York, NY), 1999.

ADAPTATIONS:

The Pledge was optioned for film.

SIDELIGHTS:

Novelist Rob Kean made his debut with The Pledge, a fast-moving thriller involving murder, cover-ups, and coercion at a small New England university. In The Pledge, the Sigma Delta Phi fraternity at Simsbury College has an esteemed two-century history. A network of former frat brothers forms an intricate and powerful network of rich alumni concerned with maintaining the fraternity's status and reputation at all costs. When freshman pledge Chad Ewing dies after a party at the house—naked, nearly poisoned by alcohol and other toxins, and crumpled at the bottom of a second-floor balcony—a hazing scandal erupts, embroiling the fraternity, the campus, and the community in a struggle between justice for a needless death and the evil of a corrupt organization with influence reaching the highest levels of the U.S. government.

Sigma senior Mark Jessy, a star athlete and former Sigma brother, is tapped to serve on the disciplinary tribunal investigating the fraternity. Mark's presence is part of his penance for an incident two years earlier in which he was accused of date rape—there was no proof of any crime, however, and he avoided expulsion by leaving the fraternity and taking a position on the disciplinary board. Along with his girlfriend, ski-champion Shawn Jakes, Mark begins to unravel the story behind Ewing's death. The investigation, however, uncovers more than a tragic and foolish death—it threatens to reveal the fraternity's other misdeeds and the depths of its alumni network's corruption. Violence erupts, and the two investigators find their lives in danger as they "battle a hopelessly corrupt college dean, an inept hired assailant, some thuggish Sigma brothers, and the dastardly billionaire alumnus behind it all," commented Jon Garelick in New York Times Book Review.

Library Journal reviewer Roland C. Person stated that The Pledge "tackles big issues of evil and injustice, but the writing is awkward and adjectival." A Publishers Weekly critic commented that Kean "loses control of his narrative as it moves forward, letting subplots proliferate." However, Person remarked that the story maintains momentum and accurately presents details of college life. Booklist reviewer Vanessa Bush made a similar assessment, also noting the novel's portrayal of "the role of rumor and gossip on a small campus, and the strained relationships between privileged college students and disadvantaged townies."