Hor often confessed without shame my passion for Agatha Christiea love that was born since I was a child when I inherited from my favorite aunt a series of yellowed volumes that I kept and reread with the same avidity with which the rightful owner had consumed them. And as can happen with old books I found one that was missing the final pages. A drama for a mystery which today, however, thanks to re-editions and online publications, is no longer a problem.
But what could happen if the author of a suspenseful plot died before writing the final word? This unfortunate eventuality is precisely the incipit of a new detective novel with an unequivocal title The ending writes itself by Evelyn Clarke (Mondadori).
In reality, it is a pseudonym that hides the identity of two experts in the genre, Victoria Schwab and Cat Clarkea valiant author and an equally famous screenwriter who, as historical friends, enjoyed writing together this little gem which could also be defined as a tribute to the Ten little Indians of our super Agatha.
Serena Dandini (photo by Gianmarco Chieregato).
The story is set in a lonely castle on a foggy Scottish islandthe owner is a famous mystery writer who drowned before finishing his latest bestseller, throwing the literary agent and the publisher into despair who devise an unprecedented competition to close the book.
“The ending writes itself” by Evelyn Clarke (Mondadori).
Six aspiring writers with very different styles and human problems are summoned to the island who believe they will meet the literary star and instead in his place they will find themselves faced with a proposal so tempting that they cannot refuse it. Isolated from the world, they have 72 hours to write the last pages of the unfinished bookwhoever wins the competition will earn two million dollars and a contract for three novels.
They only have a typewriter and a blank sheet of paper and no artificial intelligence that can come to the rescue but the challenge is indispensable for the protagonists and will transform into a battle with no holds barred. And of course I won’t add anything else…
All articles by Serena Dandini.
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