In Paul Theroux's 1977 short story "Diplomatic Relations," an American diplomat in Malaysia receives a letter from a female colleague, his former lover, warning of her impending visit. Their reunion in a Singapore hotel is brief and awkward, and the diplomat's sentiments, summed up in the final line of the story ("I didn't want her to pity me"), make for a memorable study in passive-aggressive behavior.
"A Dead Hand" also begins with a woman's letter to a male protagonist, and another similarity between the two works is soon apparent, as Theroux takes perverse enjoyment from building up reader expectations and then using literary judo to trip them with the unexpected.
The recipient of the letter is American travel writer Jerry Delfont, who is on an extended sojourn in Calcutta and is beset by anxieties that his writing talent has dried up — that he has a "dead hand," writer's block. The letter leads to a meeting with Mrs. Merrill Unger, another American residing in the city. Her son's Indian friend Rajat awoke to find a boy's corpse on the floor of his hotel room and fled without notifying the police. "My son might be implicated," she frets.