In the latest thrilling mystery from Mary Higgins Clark Award-winning author Carol Goodman, a writers’ conference at an Italian castle turns deadly when a killer begins using a husband-and-wife writing team’s novel as a blueprint for murder.

Fred and Thea Morgan-Lane are the envy of the mystery community, the perfect partners in life and in writing. Together they coauthor the wildly successful Death Takes a Holiday series, and they’ve been invited to the Italian castle where it all began for a mystery conference celebrating their first novel, Death Takes the Castle.

But their story isn’t quite the fairytale it seems to outsiders. Twenty years and twenty books after they met, Thea wants out. Their marriage and partnership haven’t been working for some time, and what better place to announce the end of the series than where it started?

Except shortly after their arrival at the beautiful Castellarosa, a shocking death takes place when the wrong person drinks a cocktail meant for Thea. The stunned conference-goers put it down to an unknown allergy, but Thea isn’t so sure. Could someone be trying to kill her? Perhaps her loving husband isn’t as ok with their series ending as he pretends, or maybe Nadine, the upstart young author who is vying to take Thea’s place, wants her out of the way. Suddenly, it seems like everyone has a motive, and when a second death occurs, a disturbing pattern emerges—these deaths aren’t random, they’re following the murders in Death Takes a Castle exactly. Murders that Thea and Fred wrote.

In order to save the day—and maybe even their marriage—the unhappy couple will have to work together to figure out who is using their book as a blueprint for a killing spree. That is, if they can trust the person they’ve spent twenty years plotting murders with…

I received a copy of this book courtesy of the publisher. All thoughts are my own.

There have been a ton of books lately built around writers who suddenly have to survive the plot of their own novel, or find themselves living out something straight out of a thriller. (The Ending Writes Itself and You Are Fatally Invited both immediately come to mind.) I usually enjoy this particular setup, even when it ends up being predictable, so I went into this one expecting more of the same. I ended up pleasantly surprised, because the author took things in a slightly different direction than I anticipated.

Fred and Thea are the golden couple of the mystery writing world, coauthoring a wildly successful series together for the past twenty years. They’re invited to an Italian castle, the same one that inspired their very first book, for a mystery conference celebrating said first novel. What nobody at the conference knows is that Thea has quietly decided she wants out, both of the writing partnership and possibly the marriage itself, and this trip feels like the natural place to finally say so. Before she gets the chance, someone dies after being poisoned by a cocktail that was actually meant for her. Everyone chalks it up to an unknown allergy, but Thea isn’t convinced, and she starts wondering if maybe her husband isn’t as fine with the series ending as he claims, or if an ambitious younger author angling to take her spot has motive of her own. When a second death happens and it becomes clear the killings are following the exact murders from Fred and Thea’s own book, the two of them have to set their crumbling marriage aside and figure out who’s using their fiction as a real life blueprint, assuming they can even trust each other anymore.

I really enjoyed the characters here and liked watching the mystery unfold. Was the overall plot familiar? Absolutely. This is well trodden territory at this point, but familiar doesn’t always mean boring or even predictable. I especially liked how the reveal of who was actually orchestrating everything played out. It wasn’t who I thought it was.

While this book doesn’t necessarily rise above the other entries in this particular subgenre, I really appreciated how understated the whole thing felt. There are no ridiculous, over the top twists piled on just for dramatic effect. The author trusts the reader enough to lead us through a solid, old fashioned mystery without needing to constantly one up itself. Pacing wise, the story moves at a steady clip and never feels like it’s going in circles.

I did a tandem read on this one, listening and reading together, and Marni Penning’s narration was excellent. She handled the full cast of characters effortlessly, which made the whole experience more enjoyable.

If you’re a fan of writers caught in their own thriller plots and don’t mind a familiar setup executed well, this is a solid, satisfying pick. It’s not reinventing the wheel, but it’s a genuinely good time.