Ratings2
Average rating2.5
"A pure delight from start to finish! Williams, White and Willig are in top form in this clever, engrossing whodunnit with a heart." --Lisa Unger, New York Times bestselling author of The New Couple in 5B 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!
Reviews with the most likes.
Okay, first of all, “The Author's Guide to Murder” is technically correct, but if the book has three MCs, shouldn't the title be “The Authors' Guide?” The fact that I was grammar nitpicking before I even started reading wasn't a good sign. And unfortunately, the book's content did nothing to change my first impression. The fifth “Team W authors” collaboration attempts to meld together slapstick comedy, romance, cozy mystery, women's fiction, and #MeToo. The result is cartoonish, uneven, occasionally offensive (jokes about whether or not a well-dressed man is gay in 2024?) and unnecessarily long. I'm giving it 2 stars instead of 1 because the “fake friendship evolves into #Girl Power” trope was actually rather touching, and because the last few chapters are brazenly bonkers. The three authors have published several historical fiction novels together, but apparently the idea for this one emerged from a drunken bar conversation in which they joked about co-writing a historical romance set in Scotland with the dubious title Fifty Shades of Plaid. Now that the trio has a loyal following, they decided it was time to revisit and fine tune the idea, although their publisher drew the line at keeping the original title. As a relative newbie (I've read a few [a:Beatriz Williams 4927506 Beatriz Williams https://images.gr-assets.com/authors/1575561474p2/4927506.jpg] books, but nothing by the other two women), I can't recommend a story that would have been better suited to the authors' newsletters. YMMV if you are a Team W fan who can appreciate the in-jokes and Easter eggs. ARC received from Net Galley and publisher in exchange for review.