The Mystery Writer
A Novel
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- $22.99
Publisher Description
2024 Mary Higgins Clark Edgar Award Nominee
"A mischievous twist on mystery novels and the people who write them." — Benjamin Stevenson, author of Everyone in My Family Has Killed Someone and Everyone on the Train is a Suspect
There’s nothing easier to dismiss than a conspiracy theory—until it turns out to be true
From 2023 Edgar Award nominee and bestselling author Sulari Gentill comes a literary thriller about an aspiring writer who meets and falls in love with her literary idol—only to find him murdered the day after she gave him her manuscript to read.
When Theodosia Benton abandons her career path as an attorney and shows up on her brother’s doorstep with two suitcases and an unfinished novel, she expects to face a few challenges. Will her brother support her ambition or send her back to finish her degree? What will her parents say when they learn of her decision? Does she even have what it takes to be a successful writer?
What Theo never expects is to be drawn into a hidden literary world in which identity is something that can be lost and remade for the sake of an audience. When her mentor, a highly successful author, is brutally murdered, Theo wants the killer to be found and justice to be served. Then the police begin looking at her brother, Gus, as their prime suspect, and Theo does the unthinkable in order to protect him. But the writer has left a trail, a thread out of the labyrinth in the form of a story. Gus finds that thread and follows it, and in his attempt to save his sister he inadvertently threatens the foundations of the labyrinth itself. To protect the carefully constructed narrative, Theo Benton, and everyone looking for her, will have to die.
PUBLISHERS WEEKLY
Gentill (The Woman in the Library) nimbly balances the plausible with the outlandish in this sly thriller set in the publishing world. Theodosia "Theo" Benton has dropped out of law school in Australia to pursue her dream of becoming a novelist. Determined to leave her old life behind, she flees Australia and moves in with her brother in Lawrence, Kans., to hunker down and write a novel. In Kansas, she meets and befriends Dan Murdoch, a bestselling author who agrees to read her manuscript and offer notes. When Dan doesn't show up for one of their meetings, Theo goes to his house, where she finds him stabbed to death and calls the police. A few days later, she agrees to meet with Dan's agent, Veronica, who says her agency would like to take Theo on as a client. Her elation slowly gives way to terror when others in her circle, including a reporter she speaks to, are killed, and she becomes a suspect. With her life and career on the line, Theo does some digging and turns up startling details about the twisted operations of Veronica's agency. Every time readers think they've got the plot pegged, Gentill swerves in a shocking new direction. Certain late-stage reveals, which might ruin the fun in less capable hands, only serve to enhance the novel's biting wit. This is a winner.
