The Ending Writes Itself

In the first collaboration, written under a pen name, between V. E. Schwab (Bury Our Bones in the Midnight Soil) and Cat Clarke (The Lost and Found), six struggling authors writing in various genres are invited to spend a weekend at the private Scottish island owned by reclusive author Arthur Fletch. Upon arrival, the writers discover that Fletch is dead, and they’ve been summoned by Fletch’s team for a competition to see which of them will get to write the final chapter to Fletch’s magnum opus. Whoever is chosen will get a large sum and a career boost, but it’s a big challenge: the chapter must be written in under 72 hours. A stellar use of multi-perspective narration introduces all of the competitors, recounts their writing careers, and depicts their perspectives of the harrowing events. This thriller is also a smart satire of the publishing industry which takes that competitive world to a literal level. As it oscillates between locked-room mystery, circle-of-suspects mystery, and competition caper, readers will be caught up by the twists through the final page.