It's a breezy 65 degrees Fahrenheit where I am today which was cold enough to send me digging for my ankle boots. I love sweater weather (as my closet can attest) and it's just about the perfect time to cozy up to an uber-meta murder mystery set in the Scottish Highlands. That's just what you get with The Author's Guide to Murder, a team effort by Beatriz Williams, Lauren Willig, and Karen White.
I was lucky enough to get an advance copy through NetGalley. You can pre-order a copy now anywhere books are sold and start reading on the novel's official release date of November 5, 2024.
The Author's Guide to Murder takes us to Castle Kinloch on the blustery Scottish Highlands where 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 have convened to co-write a novel together based on the Castle's notoriously shady history. When acclaimed author and current lessor of the castle Brett Saffron Presley is found dead in the tower, our American authors find themselves prime suspects. Perhaps with good reason as we soon learn that each woman has a secret connection with the acclaimed author.
If Cassie Soto is Back is a book for tennis lovers, this is, without a doubt, a book for writers. This is not only true because of the concept of three writers having to solve a mystery, but there are a ton of insider writer-ly references, some of which I had to look up. This could be a turn off to some readers. Likewise, there are a number of dated cultural references that had me scratching my head as to the audience of this book. I'd guess the main characters are in their early to mid-30s, which would mean they were born around 1990(!) Yet, they make a lot of references to books and shows which would definitely pre-date these characters, like multiple Murder She Wrote references, what might have been an OJ Simpson reference, Gilbert & Sullivan (what?) and that a guy was as hot as Peter O'Toole in Lawrence of Arabia (who? huh?). Also making the book feel a bit dated and, honestly, a bit cringe, was the ongoing assumption and joke about whether a character was gay. You'd think that Kat de Noir with her over the top sexuality as armor personality would have heard about sexuality being a spectrum. Guess not. I also struggled with a few of the "reveals" which were a bit obvious from the outset and what this book wanted to be. Initially I thought it was a standard cozy mystery, but some of the themes are a bit non-traditional for this genre. The description of the detective's investigation where he had access to texts, emails, and historical information immediately after the crime occurred was just way too farfetched, especially given the multi-jurisdictional and international law issues, and fully took me out of the story. And one of the minor character's motive was just too unreal to be believed. No spoilers, but hand delivery? I don't think so. Not in 2015.
On the other hand, I loved the climax of the story. The action was fun and exciting, the loose threads came together in a really lovely way, and I absolutely didn't figure out who the real killer was before the big reveal. I was quite skeptical for much of the novel, but when I got to the end, it had a fun and satisfying conclusion that made up for quite a few earlier peccadillos.
I'm new to each of the three authors of this joint effort, but I took a look at their backlists and I have my guess as to which author wrote which author-character. Give this locked room mystery a read and see what you think and if you can identify the killer before our bonny Scottish detective. Let me know how you did!
