William Morrow
Featuring: Emma Endicott; Cassie Pringle; Kat de Noir
416 pages ISBN: 0063259869 EAN: 9780063259867 Kindle: B0CV7SJ7QX Hardcover / e-Book / audiobook Add to Wish List
THE AUTHOR’S GUIDE TO MURDER by Beatriz Williams, Lauren Willig, and Karen White is a revenge mystery collaboration by three talented writers. As three fictional authors descend on a Scotland Historic Castle to attend a writing retreat, mayhem ensues and a revenge plot takes a twisted turn in this fun, sometimes messy and satirical, murder mystery.
Cassandra Pringle writes cozy mysteries, Emma Endicott writes historical fiction, and Kat de Noir writes spicy erotica. These three very different authors travel to Kinloch Castle in Scotland to write a sexually charged historical murder mystery together. The women first met at a conference with similar stories to tell—all involving literary blowhard and predator Brett Saffron Presley. Mr. Presley is found murdered after the celebration at the Kinloch Ceilidh. His body is found in the Obelisk, barely clothed in leather, with an antler protruding from his back. Now the race is on to find the killer. Was it one of the American novelists? Or did someone in Scotland detest the man even more?
THE AUTHOR'S GUIDE TO MURDER starts with a great premise but gets lost in the middle with its uneven writing, non-productive chapters, and slogging pace. The characters are not particularly likeable, even if you try to take into consideration the satirical humor. The setting is enjoyable, and there are some interesting clues and funny hijinks as the authors stumble around and try to solve the mystery, but the story could have been condensed and the mystery more effectively structured. The last quarter of the novel is where the best action and plot development happens. There is some madcap adventure, romantic overtures, a covert popular romance novelist, and a daring helicopter rescue.
Agatha Christie meets Murder, She Wrote in this witty locked room mystery and literary satire by New York Times bestselling team of novelists: Beatriz Williams, Lauren Willig, and Karen White.
There’s been a sensational murder at historic Castle Kinloch, a gothic fantasy of grey granite on a remote island in the Highlands of Scotland. Literary superstar Brett Saffron Presley has been found dead—under bizarre circumstances—in the castle tower’s book-lined study. Years ago, Presley purchased the castle as a showpiece for his brand and to lure paying guests with a taste for writerly glamour. Now it seems, the castle has done him in…or, possibly, one of the castle’s guests has. Detective Chief Inspector Euan McIntosh, a local with no love for this literary American show-off (or Americans in general), finds himself with the unenviable task of extracting statements from three American lady novelists.
The prime suspects are Kat de Noir, a slinky, sexy erotica writer; Cassie Pringle, a Southern mom of six juggling multiple cozy mystery series; and Emma Endicott, a New England blue blood and author of critically acclaimed historical fiction. The women claim to be best friends writing a book together: a historical novel about the castle’s lurid past and its debauched laird, who himself ended up creatively murdered. But the authors’ stories about how they know Brett Saffron Presley don’t quite line up, and the detective is getting increasingly suspicious.
Why did the authors really come to Castle Kinloch? Is the murder of the long-ago laird somehow connected with the playboy author’s unfortunate demise? And what really happened the night of the great Kinloch ceilidh, when Brett Saffron Presley skipped the folk dancing for a rendezvous with death?
A crafty locked-room mystery, a pointed satire about the literary world, and a tale of unexpected friendship and romance—this novel has it all, as only three bestselling authors can tell it!
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