A is for Author

I’m doing folklore and book review posts to reach and please a larger audience. Previous years have shown select interest in both and to minimise blogging throughout the year, I’m focusing my efforts on April.

Focusing on an A to Z of my TBR (to be read) list, each letter will have books starting with that letter on my list, a book I’ve read and reviewed (with the review!) and one of my books matching the letter with a link about more info about the book.

If you’d rather check out my folklore post for today, go here.

My TBR

About the Book

The Author’s Guide to Murder by Beatriz Williams, Lauren Willig and Karen White

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! 

Check it out on Goodreads.

My Review

So, this book plays off in the 2020s and the women are in their mid to late thirties. Which makes this part stand out like a sore thumb:

“Like he was Mick Jagger or Brad Pitt or . . . well, she couldn’t think of anyone younger; they all looked alike to her. Ryan Reynolds? Or Ryan Gosling? One of those Ryans.”

Younger guys would be spelled Hoechlin or Hemsworth… There are several guys named Chris who also fit the bill if they wanted to finish the sentence in the same way. Those first guys wouldn’t rank as hot to a woman young enough to be their daughter. #justsaying

The book is LOL funny. Each of the women have their own reason to be at the castle, to dislike their host, and even a motive to have killed him. The way the story unfolds keeps one guessing and reassessing from one chapter to the next. Some things were quite obvious (at least to me) before they were revealed.

Kat’s outfits are mindboggling (how does she not break an ankle in those shoes in the snow?) and hilarious as part of her persona. Emma is like a Regency debutante or a character from a Jane Austen novel, with a lot simmering beneath the surface. And you can’t help but like Cassie.

There’s a bit of a romance subplot (quite sweet), village shenanigans, healing for the women by finally talking about what had happened to them and accepting that it’s not their fault, interesting history about the Scottish island they’re on, a sheep that somehow shows up everywhere, a cute dog, and even a poison garden.

A feel-good mystery with lots of tongue-in-the-cheek humour and great themes.

Trigger warning: sexual assault in various forms alluded to.

My Book

Antifreeze (Faery Tales #11)

I hope you enjoyed this. For more books I’ve read and reviewed, check out either my Pinterest board about reviews or my Goodreads profile. Alternatively, you can check out my reviews on BookBub. Have you read any of the books? Loved or hated any of them?

You can now support my time in producing book review posts (buying books, reading, writing reviews and everything else involved) by buying me a coffee. This can be a once-off thing, or you can buy me coffee again in the future at your discretion.

*FYI, my reviews are my honest opinion and if something bothers me, I tell it straight. How else will anything change? My opinions are based on being a voracious reader and book buyer, not an attack on the author.*