Lynn Kostoff is very mindful of F. Scott Fitzgerald's famous line, "There are no second acts in American literature."

In 1991, Kostoff's first novel, "A Choice of Nightmares," was released. While not a best seller, it did well enough to break even for Crown Publishers, a rarity for a first novel.

But Kostoff, a Hartford native, got caught up in the wave of downsizing and mergers in the publishing industry. His editor was fired after 17 successful years, and Kostoff was without an ally.

He looked for a new publisher but found they were more interested in signing big names who could insure large first printings and keeping franchise writers happy than cultivating new and young authors.

"I thought my career was dead," said the 49-year-old resident of Florence, S.C.

But while he went into "retreat," he never ceded to the notion he would be a one-time author.

"I wrote every day," he said. "I was too stubborn to give up."

That persistence paid off with the release this spring of "The Long Fall."

The road that "The Long Fall," took to publication was paved with concerns that turned out to be unfounded. Some editors thought it too dark, others too humorous, and still others didn't like the mix of the two.

"My book doesn't fit easy niches," said the 1972 Badger High School graduate.

He finally found a publisher unperturbed by that: Carroll and Graf.

"They are the last of the independent publishers," he said.

The story arose from Kostoff's thoughts after church one day on the biblical parable of the prodigal son. The key to that story is the father was able to forgive, said the married father of a 10th-grade son.

"What if the prodigal son came home and the father was dead?" he said he asked himself. "What would these two brothers do to each other?"

Jimmy Coates is a small-time crook in Arizona, just released from prison. He tries to go straight, taking a legitimate job, but ends up being fired and, in typical noir fashion, turns back to crime to survive.

Coates owes a lot of money to a loan shark and drug runner whose enforcer is a former cop who blames Coates for getting him kicked off the force.

Coates' brother, Richard, tricks Jimmy Coates out of land their father left him, and refuses to give him money to pay off the debt. Jimmy Coates' motivation becomes as much to get back at his brother as it is to free himself from his potentially fatal debt.

"After that, it kind of spilled into Cain and Abel," said Kostoff, an associate professor of English at Francis Marion University in Florence.

The setting -- Arizona -- is a major character.

"I think I just have something about hot climates," he said, noting "A Choice of Nightmares" was set in Florida, and a novel he's working on is set in Myrtle Beach.

He came to know Arizona by visiting his brother, Ronald, a painter who lives in Phoenix.

"I fell in love with the landscape," he said. "We went out in the desert for hours every day."

The novel crosses genres, with bits of crime novel, mystery and thriller.

Kostoff said he likes writing crime stories because the motivation of the characters is always central.

"They're always a 'whydunit' rather than a 'whodunit,' " he said.

Publishers Weekly called "The Long Fall" a "craftily written noir thriller" and a "deft, oddball entertainment."

Jim Nawrocki of the San Francisco Chronicle found the novel "a fun ride" and said Kostoff "spins this tale deftly, with Chandleresque language and a cast of memorable minor characters."

"Kostoff," said Kirkus Reviews, "writes well enough for a place in the neo-noir vanguard, but be warned: you really have to like noir, because it's hard to like Jimmy."

The Los Angeles Times and the Mystery Writers Association of America have selected "The Long Fall" as a candidate for their annual book awards.

Kostoff called himself an obsessive writer. He gets up at 4:30 or 5 o'clock in the morning and writes for two to three hours before going to work. Late at night, he reads what he had written that morning, edits it and works out what to write the next day.

The disciple of the editing process noted that he cut "The Long Fall" from 450 pages to 225 while he was trying to interest publishers.

"How can I keep the strength of the story and do it faster?" he said he asks himself.

Kostoff's advice to aspiring writers has nothing to do with the business side of finding an agent or getting published.

"If you want to write, you have to be a reader and you have to know about what you want to write about to write about it with any authority."

Kostoff said he sets aside about an hour each evening to read.

"Free time is not something I have copious amounts of," he said.

"The Long Fall" is available through Waldenbooks, Barnes and Noble Booksellers, Borders Books and Music and Amazon.com