Reviewed: 23 July 2024

The Author’s Guide to Murder

by: Beatriz Williams, Lauren Willig, Karen White

A Novel

Rating: (3.5/5)

Three writers, a castle, and … a murder, what could be better?

This story written by three writers about three writers writing a story starts out as a slow burn. Unlike many other stories that jump straight into the murder then provide the backstories, the reader is provided with the backstories first. Hang in and get through that and you're rewarded with a witty murder with interesting characters.

This is story is about three writers pretending to be besties (not sure why that was important) going to a castle for a writer's retreat but that is not the real reason. While the themes running through are mature they are handled well and with a light touch. There are lighter moments interspersed to balance the drama (can we say pantaboots).

Throughout, each chapter is from a specific point-of-view which helps keep track of what is going on. I like that the story was cohesive and didn't feel like it was written by three people. There are parts of the book summary that don't seem to fit and others that are spot on.

Cassie - kept surprising me. She was a bit anxious and driving people nuts about not having good cellphone and wifi coverage to get in contact with her family (husband and six kids)

Emma - was very analytical and it turns out for good reason.

Kat - not nearly as shallow as she comes across in the beginning.

Their friendship became a self-fulfilling prophecy. As read about it, my mind casted back to how some of my friends and I became such. It was well written.

There are a few unexpected twists that in hindsight (it's 20-20 right) that were facepalm obvious but were enjoyable nonetheless. At one point, Kat comments how there was no Poirot (as in Hercule Poirot) moment where everything was explained. I get that as there were a couple of things that still now after rereading a few sections I am not 100% sure how they happened but have surmised enough to let it go.

As mentioned earlier this story has some mature themes but also some very poignant points and observations about society (Kat's book descriptions especially). It provides lots to contemplate while enjoying a well written whodunit in a castle haunted with sins of the past threatening to become sins of the present.

Power through the first third of the book and you won't regret it.

Happy Reading!

Thank you to #NetGalley for the opportunity to do an early read and share my thoughts on the story.

Release Date: 5-November-2024

Female Sleuth, NetGalley, Thriller, Scottish

Plot Summary

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 literary Americans, finds himself with the unenviable task of extracting statements from three American lady novelists.

The prime suspects are Kat de Noir, a slinky 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, 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? 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!