Problem with U of C’s “The Man With the Getaway Face”

Reader (and crime novelist) Wallace Stroby alerts us to this problem with the University of Chicago’s reprint of The Man With the Getaway Face.

Has anyone else noticed that the University of Chicago edition of MAN WITH THE GETAWAY FACE – in addition to having a lot of typos – deletes the original last line of the novel, and substitutes a new, non-contextual one?

The original version – or at least the 1984 Avon edition – ends as follows:

“Parker had to unwind for awhile, for a few weeks anyway. It would be good to be Charles Willis again for a time.”

The U of C edition ends like this:

“Parker had to unwind for awhile, for a few weeks anyway. Then we’ll see.”

Strange enough that it’s in first person plural, while the rest of the book is in third, but it feels like it was tossed off by someone who was trying to guess what the last line might be. I’d just started working my way through the UC versions recently, and this brought me up sharp. It also made me wonder what else had been changed/omitted in the rest of the books.

Has this come up before? My copy is newly bought, so it seems unlikely this was an early mistake that was caught and fixed for later editions. Curious what U of C’s explanation might be though.

I contacted U of C about this, and they suspect that the error originated in the Mysterious Press edition which is what theirs is based on. I seem to have misplaced my copy of that, so I can’t confirm (please let me know if you can). I have been assured that the error will be corrected in subsequent printings, which (happily), are occurring pretty regularly.