Death and the Lit Chick

Summary

Lord Easterbrook, owner of Deadly Dagger publishing house, has convened his stable of mystery writers at Dalmorton Castle and Spa, near Edinburgh. They'll be staying at the castle for the weekend of the annual Dead on Arrival writers' conference. His most honored guestis Kimberlee Kalder, wildly successful young author of the chick lit mystery Dying for a Latte.

Among Kimberlee's rivals for the bestseller rankings are Magretta Sincock, whose damsel-in-distress novels are fading in popularity with the reading public, and Tom Brackett, whose spy thrillers toppled along with the Berlin wall. Then there's Winston Chatley, whose dark and edgy novels have lost their edge, and Donna Doone, who is hopelessly enmeshed in writing a detective story set in prehistoric times. In fact, there is no shortage of writers who feel shoved aside by Kimberlee, who goes out of her way to let her fellow writers know she thinks all of them are past their sell-by date.

Despite the tense atmosphere, St. Just is as surprised as the rest when Kimberlee turns up dead, thrown to the bottom of the castle's bottle dungeon. With his Scottish colleagues, St. Just begins a race against time to find the writer with the "poison pen."