The Author's Guide to Murder

A Novel

By: Beatriz Williams, Lauren Willig, Karen White

Narrated by: Angus King, Saskia Maarleveld, Brittany Pressley, Lisa Flanagan

""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!

©2024 Beatriz Williams, Lauren Willig, Karen White (P)2024 HarperCollins Publishers

Couldn’t finish

I’ve read well over 800 Audible titles and have never been moved to write a review. I guess i had expectations for a Beatriz Williams-quality listen but this was a shocker. The superficial characters and tedious rom-com-esque dialogue was what immediately put me off. To be fair, I could not make it past chapter 3, so, who knows, it may have improved. In the end I genuinely felt life was just too short to bother.

Artfully fun

Loved the collaboration and the intricacies of each character. Great job on another Collab!! Can’t wait for the sequel (please). :)

Difficult to follow

I have restarted this book three times and are still have a very difficult time trying to follow this story, trying to keep the character straight.

Silly plot and narration

This third book comes no where near the combined efforts of these authors first two novels. This book had no depth, was formulaic and on the level of middle-school silliness and behavior.
The narrator was almost more than I could bear, with the overdone speak of Kat, who sounded more like Gloria Swanson.
I won’t pay for another one of their collaborations if it is this trite and unimaginative.

Great narration - some funny quips but overall meh

If not for the narrators I might have DNF’d in the middle when it got a bit tedious and repetitive. However, I did enjoy the characters and the narration enough to stick with it. It was fine. Like nice to pass the time with but wouldn’t recommend it go to the top of anyone’s TBR

Ignore the synopsis

I understand this was satire but yikes this was bad. Maybe you need to be an author to appreciate this but if not for being trapped in holiday travel traffic this would have been a DNF for me