Author alters hit novel in a new edition 20 years later

New York

WHEN Karen Hall published her debut novel Dark Debts 20 years ago, it seemed like the start of a blockbuster literary career. Hall, a veteran TV writer who had worked on hits like M*A*S*H and Hill Street Blues, had the commercial storytelling chops. She spent five years working on the novel, a pulpy theological thriller about a Roman Catholic priest who becomes mixed up with demonic forces.

Dark Debts was an instant success when Random House published it in 1996, with a 150,000-copy print run. Paramount optioned …