Individually, Beatriz Williams, Lauren Willig, and Karen White are historical-fiction-writing forces; working together (All the Ways We Said Goodbye; The Lost Summers of Newport), they're a power throuple. In The Author's Guide to Murder, their foray into contemporary mystery, each brings her own strength to the story--just like the three women they've brought to vivacious life on the page.
The novel opens with a crime scene at Kinloch Castle, located on a remote Scottish island. American novelist Brett Saffron Presley has been found facedown in a puddle of mead, an antler from a decorative stag's head in his back. Presley was renting out the castle for a writers' retreat attended by three Americans collaborating on a book: Cassie Pringle, cozy-mystery writer and stress baker; Emma Endicott, author of "historic bio-fics about unknown women," which are popular with university libraries if not the general public; and Kat de Noir, who knows she's wasting her advanced degree in sex by writing about "deeply clichéd sexy demons" to pay the rent. Naturally, the women become the main suspects in Presley's murder.
It's a sublime premise harboring a few terrific gasp-making reveals. While there's ultimately a serious topic at the novel's heart, The Author's Guide to Murder ceaselessly spoofs writerly egotism and publishing-world gimmickry (the women consider calling their book Fifty Shades of Plaid). In an impressive sleight of hand, Williams, Willig, and White, who know something about writing romance, manage to send up the tawdry bodice ripper while simultaneously paying it lovingly steamy tribute. --Nell Beram, author and freelance writer