Thank you Uplit Reads / William Morrow Books #partner, for the finished copy of The Author’s Guide to Murder in exchange for my honest review.
Publisher: William Morrow Books
Published: November 5, 2024
Summary:
Agatha Christie meets Murder, She Wrote meets #MeToo in this witty locked room mystery and literary satire by New York Times bestselling team of 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 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!
My thoughts:
I have been a fan of the 3 W’s collaborations since the beginning & this one was pure entertainment with a side of murder. It is escape reading at its best and I was all for it! If you’ve read any of their previous collaborations and seen them on tour, you might have heard about their origin story…it’s so funny & I loved seeing them incorporate it into this book! Read the author’s note if you are new to their work!
This cozy is a locked-room mystery that grabbed me from the get-go & the whodunit vibes kept me guessing all the way through. As is typical with a 3W book, there are 3 POVs and I loved how distinct each one was.
This is the type of book that will appeal to a wide range of audiences with its light-hearted, cozy vibes and also the darker themes it touches upon. And of course there’s even some romance…in a Scottish castle!
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