"The Ending Writes Itself" | Reviewed by Chris Stuckenschneider

The clock is ticking for six writers on Skelbrae, a remote island in the North Sea off the coast of Scotland. The group has been invited to a best-selling author’s cliffside mansion to compete for a monetary writing prize and the promise of future book contracts.

Each of them has had a modicum of literary fame and are tasked with writing the ending to the final book in a bestselling series by well-known author Arthur Fletch. The hitch is they only have 72 hours to come up with a conclusion. When the writers arrive at the island, they quickly learn Fletch is dead, drowned in the sea.

That’s the set up for “The Ending Writes Itself,” a read-it-in-one day barnstormer by Evelyn Clarke, a pseudonym for authors Cat Clarke and V.E. Schwab.

It’s fun from the onset in this thriller, a who-dun-it comprised of short chapters that focus on each of the writers, including a married couple who pen thrillers. Additionally, readers meet a romance author, a woman who writes for young adults, a science fiction author, a horror writer and a newbie who’s showing great promise, selected by Fletch’s publisher, Meriweather Press, who came up with the idea for finishing Fletch’s book. 

The writers are assigned their own rooms and typewriters and given copies of Fletch’s unfinished manuscript. Their electronics, including their phones, are locked away. They also are introduced to an agent from Merriweather Press who will stay in a cottage separate from the mansion. The writers are instructed they are not to contact him for any reason, or visit his cottage.

Sienna and Malcomb are the writing duo, a team not long on teamplay. Sienna loves to write and has a strong work ethic but Malcomb is the pretty face on “the back of their books… equal parts gravitas, mystery and charm.” Malcomb wants to be famous, but doesn’t want to do the work to get there, and Sienna has had enough. She’s made a deal with Malcomb to accompany him to the island to compete for the prize, but then they’re finished. Of course, none of the other writers know they are struggling.

Once readers are introduced to Sienna and Malcomb, and learn their backstories, chapters on each of the other writers gets underway, narratives that are entertaining, tension mounting as mysterious happenings pop up that can’t be explained—bumps in the night, hidden doors and passageways, and one ghastly death followed by another.

“The Ending Writes Itself” sets itself above the usual mystery fare that plays out in remote locales because of its emphasis on publishing, tongue-in-cheek humor delivered that pokes fun at an industry with foibles aplenty. The last page of this lighthearted romp leaves readers wondering if a sequel might be in the offing. Time will tell—

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