"The Author's Guide to Murder," A Review

As many of you know, Beatriz Williams is my daughter-in-law. Most of what she writes – and her good friends and co-authors – falls into the category of historical romance. This is different. It is clever, witty with a plot that would be the envy of Dorothy Sayers, Ngaio Marsh or Agatha Christie. If you like mysteries and wit, this is your book.

 

Happy Thanksgiving. After a hearty meal, find an armchair next to a roaring fire, with a single malt near-by, and let your mind wander to the island of Kinloch off the Scottish coast.

 

Sydney M. Williams

 

Burrowing into Books

“The Author’s Guide to Murder,” Beatriz Williams, Lauren Willig, & Karen White

November 23, 2024

 

“Americans. Why did they always have to be Americans?”

                                                                                                      The Author’s Guide to Murder, 2024

 

This fun-filled mystery, which takes place on a remote Scottish island, will keep you guessing and have you smiling, as it combines elements of Agatha Christie, Jonathon Swift, and Will Rogers.

 

Like Agatha Christie, who plotted her crime stories starting with the murder, this story begins with the crime scene. Like Jonathon Swift who once wrote, “Satire is a sort of glass, wherein beholders do generally discover everybody’s face but their own,”^[1] the story is laden with clever innuendos. For example, the fictional Kinloch Castle, scene of the murder, derives from a real clan’s name whose motto is Non Degener (not degenerate), a deliciously inappropriate motto. Like Will Rogers who infused his books with one-liners, the story is comedic. There is a sheep named “Beatrice,” a Sheep Dog named “Loren,” a writer of romance novels named Karyn Black, and an editor named Rachelle, “brilliant and well-shod,” who, out of fondness, is named for the three women’s real editor, Rachel Kahan.

 

The story centers around a writers retreat at Kinloch Castle, to which three American novelists have been invited: Kat de Noir, Cassie Pringle, and Emma Endicott. They know one another, having met some time earlier at Yaddo, a retreat for artists in Saratoga Springs. And they have a secret in common, but are not really friends, at least not at the novel’s start. Their host, as we learn on the opening page, is the murder victim, Brett Saffron Presley. 

 

A few other characters populate the story, well-drawn and engaging: Detective Chief Inspector (DCI) Euan Macintosh; his sister – the only medical professional on the island – Fiona; the castle’s factotum Calum MacDougal (owner of Beatrice); his mother, the housekeeper Morag; and Archie Kinloch, the financially-strapped Laird (and owner of Loren) who has rented his castle to Mr. Presley.

 

A passage that caught my attention, which will surprise no one, but which is indicative of the three authors’ humor and of how much fun they had writing the book. Emma speaks of the past, how it matters, and how, “sooner or later the past will find you.” Kat responds “dismissively:” “You stole that from Beatriz Williams’s website.”

 

This is my first write-up of a mystery, and mysteries are best kept mysterious, so this is short. As Will Rogers once said: “Lettin’ the cat outta the bag is a whole lot easier’n puttin’ it back.”^[2]

 

So, pick up a copy, put up your feet, a glass of Lagavulin in hand, and enjoy a couple of hours of fun. And you will watch this mystery unfold, as neatly as if Hercule Poirot or Jane Marple were on the case.