How to Kill a Crime Writer

by Sarah Lotz

She wrote for a living. But who wanted her dead? When bestselling author Annie Morrissey is found dead, her daughter Niamh knows in her gut it’s no accident – even if the case needs a good edit.

The village is strangely uneventful.

The suspects are suspiciously normal.

The leads quickly turn into dead ends…

But when Annie’s final manuscript lands on the doormat, the pages humming with mystery and suspense, the lines between fiction and reality begin to blur.

This can’t be a coincidence.

Because if Niamh learnt anything from her mother’s crime fiction, it’s that there’s no such thing. And that village secrets never stay buried for long…

From the award-winning novelist & screenwriter, How to Kill a Crime Writer is a funny, mind-bending and brilliantly original mystery that will stay with you long after the final page. Perfect for fans of Jennie Godfrey and Anthony Horowitz

'Playfully blurring the lines of reality and underscored with tenderness' Sarah Lotz

Readers love HOW TO KILL A CRIME WRITER ‘[A] heartfelt, compelling, and delightfully meta mystery … a laugh-out-loud yet deeply touching story’ ★★★★★

‘I loved this book through and through … The story beautifully explores themes of grief and loss in a way that feels honest, raw, and deeply moving’ ★★★★★

‘Mind blowing, a masterclass in suspense … I haven’t been able to stop thinking about it since’ ★★★★★

‘The tension is thick, the atmosphere ominous, and the twists are genuinely shocking … the ending had my jaw on the floor!’ ★★★★★

‘Fabulous … sharp, witty and really fun to read! I loved it’ ★★★★★

Genres: Mystery, Mystery Thriller, Fiction, Crime, Cozy, Cozy Mystery, Grief

Audible Audio

Published February 26, 2026

About the author

Sarah Lotz is a screenwriter and fiction novelist with a fondness for the macabre and fake names.

Reviews

[Elodie · Rating 3 out of 5]

Thank you NetGalley for an advanced readers copy in exchange for an honest review.

This was a super unique book, with a lot of ideas that I haven't seen before in previous books I've read!

Despite the book's originality, I found myself disappointed at how secondary the mystery was. I went into this story expecting that it was mostly a cozy mystery with an armature sleuth. This didn't end up being the case at all. While Nimah does investigate her mother's death, I found that it took a back seat and wasn't anywhere near the main focus of the overall story.

In terms of the mystery itself, I struggled with it a little bit as well. Since it was more background, there wasn't a lot of clues. While there was some red herrings, I felt like most of it was just Nimah speaking to several people and often ruling them out quite quickly. I also found the ending was a little underwhelming, as Nimah solved the mystery by finding something that automatically have her the answer. She didn't solve the mystery by putting clues together and coming to a conclusion like I had hoped it would be.

One thing I did really appreciate about Nimah as a sleuth though is that she felt very real and balanced. Her skills weren't perfect and she'd strutter and sometimes get it wrong, but she had some really good moments at well, especially as the story went on. Her theories were a little wild, but I didnt find that really an issue. To me, it just added more believability that this was an armature trying to do something they've never done before. Plus, she's the child of an author, so I expect her imagination to be a little out there 😜

This book felt more like a character focused story that centered around Nomahs grief of losing her mom and learning how to live life again. Even though this wasn't what I was expecting, I will say that the author did a really good job at exploring grief, especially for the folks out there that tend to avoid uncomfortable or upsetting feelings.

I did also really enjoy Nimah's relationship with Leah. We are never told how Leah appears, which feels like a little sprinkle of magical fun! As someone who really enjoys magical realism, this gave me some joy!

Overall, I'm happy I read this book and I'd recommend others check it out if you like character driven stories that explore grief, life after a major loss and learning how to move past a major loss. However, if you are wanting a plot driven mystery, this may not be your best option.

[Mandy White (mandylovestoread) · Rating 4 out of 5]

A funny, emotional and clever take on a murder mystery. How to Kill A Crime Writer had me at the title to be honest, how could I not want to read this.

A small sleepy village where nothing g much happens. Niamh moves into her mother’s cottage after her death, a death ruled an accident. But Niamh’s mother was a crime fiction author and she has too many questions, things don’t add up and in crime fiction there is no such thing as a coincidence. With the help of her mother’s main character, Niamh sets out to find out what really did happen to her mother, whilst dealing with her grief and suffering from guilt of not being there for her.

Unique, comical and mysterious, this is a fun read that I really did enjoy.

Thanks to Harper Collins UK for my early copy to read on NetGalley. Published on February 26th.

[Mike · Rating 2 out of 5]

A gentle crime mystery, How To Kill A Crime Writer (2026) by Sarah Lotz, is set in the English Midlands. Niamh Morrissey’s mother is a best-selling crime author who falls off a ladder and dies. Niamh inherits her house and is happy to escape her aimless city life. Struggling to cope and avoiding social contact, Niamh begins to speak to Leah, the hero of her mother’s books, who encourages her to investigate her mother’s death. A somewhat vanilla tale of an all-too-normal rural village and dull locals makes for a ho-hum tale. Although it graphically captures the essence of an English village, the figment of imagination, friend and weak crime aspect, make it a disappointing two-star read. As always, the opinions herein are totally my own, freely given and without any inducement.

[Kristina Pauls (ARC Reviewer) · Rating 3 out of 5]

PUBLISH DATE: July 21, 2026

This was a really creative premise and I loved the idea of a fictional detective stepping into the real world. The humor and witty moments were definitely highlights that kept me interested.

Unfortunately, I struggled to stay immersed because there was so much dialogue with very few reminders of who was speaking. There were log stretches of back-and-forth conversation that often wasn't clearly labeled, and I found myself having to stop and figure out who was talking. Instead of it drawing me in, I spent energy trying to keep up with what I was reading and it just didn't feel fun anymore, and made it difficult for me to concentrate.

Even with that, I still appreciated the originality of the story and enjoyed the humor throughout. It just wasn't easy for me to follow as I'd hoped, and so it landed at only 3 stars.

PUBLISH DATE: July 21, 2026
BOOK TITLE: How to Kill a Crime Writer
AUTHOR: Sarah Lotz
PUBLISHER: Berkley Publishing Group
FORMAT: ebook
PAGES: 352
I received a complimentary digital ARC [Advanced Readers Copy] of this book via NetGalley. Thank you to the Publisher and the Author for the opportunity to read and review this title prior to publication. As always, the opinions expressed in this review are my own.

[Karen Chong · Rating 3 out of 5]

3.0 / 5.0

A solid read from start to finish, probably not my cup of tea but if you’re looking for something light hearted, funny, dry-humoured this book would be for you. It’s a comfort read, where if the weather is terrible you can read in almost one sitting. The book is written very well, the dialogue, the plot, the pacing and flow is consistent and there’s never really a dull bit. It’s not the type of book for me, maybe it was on a light hearted side and more comedy sketch vibes.

When best selling author Anna Morrissey is found dead, her daughter Niamh knows in her gut it’s no accident. The village her mum lives in is strangely peaceful, the suspects seem relatively normal. The leads quickly turn into dead ends, but when Annie’s final mystery lands on the doormat- the lines between fiction and reality begin to blur. And it can’t be a coincidence. If there’s one thing Niamh has learnt from her mum, is that there’s no such thing as coincidences and the village secrets never stay buried for long…

But overall if you’re looking for a light hearted simple read to pass the time this book is a good book to go with.

[Leah · Rating 5 out of 5]

Niamh Morrissey has moved into her mother’s cottage after her death, and is coping with her grief and anxiety by living like a hermit and immersing herself in computer games. The village is small, and despite her anti-social tendencies, Niamh knows some of her neighbours, partly from visits to the cottage while her mother was still alive, and partly because some of them have offered her neighbourly support since she moved in. The more Niamh thinks about how her mother died, though, the more unsettled she feels. She finds it impossible to imagine her mother climbing a ladder at dusk to fix loose guttering, and yet the police are convinced that her death was the result of an accidental fall from the ladder. Now the inquest is looming and Niamh’s anxiety is growing, and then Leah turns up…

Annie Morrisey had become a successful crime writer in the last few years of her life, writing a series about a loner private investigator called Leah Overton. Originally, Niamh had collaborated with her mother in creating the character and working out plots, but later, as Niamh’s anxiety and depression began to turn her life into one long mess, she’d come to see Leah as her mother’s wish fulfilment of what she’d hoped Niamh would become – a strong, confident woman with skills. Niamh’s self-esteem is rock bottom, and she doesn’t feel she has any skills, so she gradually began to resent this fictional superwoman. And now Leah has appeared in the cottage! Is she a sort of ghost? Though since she was never alive, how can she be dead? Or is she a projection created by Niamh’s anxious imagination? Niamh doesn’t know, but she soon discovers Leah is just as domineering in real life as in her books. And Leah is convinced Annie was murdered – she’s here to force Niamh to investigate and find the killer.

Despite the underlying theme of Niamh’s grief and mental health struggles, the overall tone is quite light and highly entertaining. Whether Leah is ‘real’ or not, she’s a lot of fun. Although she bullies poor Niamh dreadfully, the feeling is that this is exactly what Niamh needs to force her out of her safe little cocoon of avoidance. Lotz’s handling of her character is very cleverly done – Leah only knows about things that have happened to her in her various books. So there’s a lot of playfulness about the difference between real life and fictional life. For example, Leah is astonished that travelling anywhere can take hours – in the books she gets into her car and the next chapter opens with her miraculously at her destination.

Niamh is handled equally well, and with a good deal of sensitivity. The author’s afterword tells us that the book was a response to her own grief over the death of her husband, and Niamh’s feelings always feel true. She’d had an argument with her mother last time they met, so feels guilty too, but it’s not overdone – beneath her anxiety, Niamh is a level-headed, intelligent woman, and realises that the argument would have passed like so many before. But it means she doesn’t know what her mother was doing and thinking in the last few days of her life, so this is what she and Leah set out to discover. Along the way, they’ll find out more about the neighbours, get involved with a grief support group, and go to a book festival where they’ll meet lots of fans also touched by the death of Annie and the resultant loss of their favourite ‘tec, Leah.

The village with its small community of residents is entertaining – more in the quirky style of Midsomer Murders than a traditional Christie village. Everyone has secrets, and gradually the suspect list grows. As well as Leah, Niamh has inherited her mother’s cat, Brian, who is lovely and adds more humour to the story (and suffers no harm, animal lovers). When the fictional Leah first appeared in ‘real life’, I was momentarily put off – I’m not an enthusiast for mixing fantasy elements into crime. But the suggestion that she may simply be a projection of Niamh’s grief kept it grounded enough for me to buy into, and as the story went on, I was having too much fun to care if the boundaries were becoming ever more blurred.

Sarah Lotz is new to me, but apparently mixing thrills, mystery and humour is her trademark style, and in this one it works excellently. An unexpected success for me – should have been out of my comfort zone, but the warmth, humour and sense of kindness to her characters won me over completely. I look forward to reading some of her earlier books.

NB This book was provided for review by the publisher, HarperCollins.

www.fictionfanblog.wordpress.com

[Beth · Rating 2 out of 5]

I really didn't like this. Right from the start the main character Annie comes across as one of the most unlikable, infuriating and annoying people. I hated reading this book from her POV.
The author clearly puts her own political views in this which was another thing that spoiled it for me.
Also the CONSTANT name calling of a character as The Wanker wore thin after the first few times of hearing it, let alone after a whole book of it.
This was a huge dud.

[Phyllis · Rating 5 out of 5]

This was even better than I thought it would be, although when I described it to a friend after reading it I thought it might sound hard to follow. Instead, she immediately put it on her TBR list. The novel starts out with one interesting premise and then the fun begins. Main character Niamh (an Irish name pronounced “Neeve”) has moved into her recently deceased mother’s country cottage in the UK. Millennial and slightly ne’er-do-well, Neeve is adjusting to the sudden accidental death of her mother, a bestselling crime writer.

Soon after she moves into the cottage, she is visited by seemingly perfect Leah Rebecca Overton, the fictional heroine from her mother’s series. While only Neeve can see and hear Leah, (which makes for some humorous instances), this ultra competent private investigator encourages Neeve not to accept that her mother’s death is accidental. The two of them begin an investigation as to what really happened to popular crime writer Annie Morrissey, while at the same time dealing with their loss.

There are lots of red herrings, coincidences, secretive neighbors, a cat named Brian, and missing garden gnomes. In addition to the murder investigation, the novel skillfully inserts the themes of grief, anxiety, mothers and daughters, and unexpected death. To lighten the mood, each chapter starts with the title of a horror film or series.

I highly recommend this clever, emotional, and witty cozy murder mystery. And don’t miss the “Author’s Note” at the end.

[Andrea · Rating 4 out of 5]

Review of ‘How To Kill A Crime Writer’ by Sarah Lotz, due to be published on 26 February 2026 by Harper Collins UK, Harper Fiction.

Niamh is coming to terms with her mother Annie’s unexpected and untimely death. Niamh has moved into her mother’s cottage, in a quiet hamlet in the Countryside, unable to bring herself to read her mother’s final book, Overlooked, or listen to the final voice notes Annie sent.

Seemingly from nowhere, the main protagonist in Annie’s book series, PI Leah Overton, appears leaving Niamh confused and questioning why her subconscious has manifested Leah. The answer lies in Leah’s belief that as part of Niamh’s grief journey, she should embark upon a ‘grief quest’ to get to the bottom of how Annie died.

Add in a missing ladder, a missing phone, crippling social anxiety, a cat named Brian, twitchy neighbours and stolen gnomes and you have an extraordinary story full of sarcasm, humour and grief that has fiction colliding with reality.

The story is well executed, both Niamh and Leah are well developed, and though there are dark moments of grief, the undercurrent of humour runs deep. The ending was a surprise twist, and unbeknownst to the reader is carefully threaded throughout the story. A recommended read.

[Emma · Rating 4 out of 5]

All my reviews can be found at damppebbles.com

Niamh is both deeply saddened and shocked at the sudden death of her beloved mother, bestselling author Annie Morrisey. Annie had recently moved to a small hamlet where the neighbours know each other’s business, including what everyone had for dinner (an over-exaggeration on my part!). Returning to her mother’s house (because she doesn’t really have anywhere else to go) and to sort out her mother’s affairs, Niamh discovers the manuscript of her mother’s new book. But that’s not all that turns up. Having convinced herself that her mother was murdered (she was a crime writer, it would fit…sort of!) she embarks on an investigation of her own. But who would want her mother dead…?

How to Kill a Crime Writer is a wonderful, heartfelt, compelling novel from the outset. You can’t help but feel sorry for Niamh, who, despite having a fairly good relationship with her mother, had managed to fall out with her days before her death. The regret the character exudes is palpable, and my heart really went out to her. Niamh hasn’t really achieved much in life, but her mother saw her potential and made sure to involve her daughter in all of her major plot decisions. Particularly when it came down to her main character, the character she was famed for, Leah Rebecca Overton. A character Niamh pretty much despised. There is such a lovely, unexpected twist to the story that I don’t want to reveal in this review so I’m going to skirt right over it and pretend it never happened (IYKYK).

Would I recommend this book? I would, yes. I wasn’t sure what to expect with How to Kill a Crime Writer but having read books by this author before, I knew I was in safe hands. It’s really very different to everything else I’ve read by Lotz, but that only made it stand out all the more. There is an author’s note at the end which had me in floods of tears. It helped me understand where the author was when she wrote the book. And it made me love Niamh just a little bit more than I already did (she’s such a wonderful, hilarious, sarcastic, down-to-earth, relatable character). The blurb doesn’t mention the twist, and if I were you, I would do everything in my power to avoid discovering it before reading the book (you’re safe here, no spoilers). Great characters, something a little bit different, and a compulsive, intriguing plot (I just had to know what had happened to Annie!). There’s a real warmth to the story but there’s a sadness too. A really lovely, well-written, laugh-out-loud tale. Recommended.

[Jeanne · Rating 5 out of 5]

In How to Kill a Crime Writer by Sarah Lotz, Niamh's mother was a bestselling crime novelist. After her mother's death, Niamh moves into her mother's home and hides away, finding various ways to avoid dealing with her grief. That becomes much harder when Leah shows up.
 
Leah is the protagonist of her mother's crime series, and Niamh sees her as the daughter her mother always wanted. This made for a really interesting story. With Leah around nearly 24/7, Niamh cannot avoid the reality that her mother is gone.
 
The book is not just a story about grief. There are also questions about whether her mother's death was truly an accident or if it was murder. Niamh's attempts to investigate add plenty of humor, as solving crimes is definitely not her area of expertise. Having Leah, whom only Niamh can see, constantly offering feedback, whether wanted or unwanted, makes the situation even more entertaining.
 
It was an intriguing mystery, with several surprising twists about who the murderer might be. The ending was very satisfying, and I look forward to reading more books by Sara Lotz.

Thank you to the author, Berkley, and NetGalley for the Advanced Reader Copy (ARC) of this book and I am voluntarily leaving an honest review.

[Jilly · Rating 3 out of 5]

This book was quirky, which I liked, but I found it very hard to get into.

Niamh is dealing (not very well) with the recent death of her mother, which happened under suspicious circumstances. Her mother's muse 'appears' and the two of them work through various scenarios trying to find out who killed her mother. Some of the characters are almost caricatures and the plots border on silly. But then Neevy starts to deal with her grief and discovers the truth of what happened.

If I had read the author note before reading, I think I would have enjoyed this more. The author's life has many parallels to Niamh's and I appreciated it more after reading it.

If you like quirky, you will probably enjoy this. I did really enjoy learning some new words - a sign of a good read for a word nerd like me.

Thanks to NetGalley for the chance to read this ARC in exchange for an honest review.

[Janine · Rating 2 out of 5]

I hate leaving reviews of books I didn’t enjoy, so I’ll try to be quick.

I could see this being a winner for a lot of people, but I was not one of them. It was very slow, and the writing seemed almost messy and scattered all over the place. I would classify it as a cozy mystery, which I should’ve been more cautious about because I’m not a huge fan of that genre.

There were some unique plot points included, but not enough to really draw me in.

My rating: ⭐️⭐️

Thank you to Berkley Publushing for my gifted copy!

[Justine Shenton · Rating 4 out of 5]

Funny and quirky
An enjoyable read

[Ali · Rating 4 out of 5]

Cute cozy mystery with an interesting crime-solving duo (as half of it is fictional). Could see a series, and would read more books featuring these characters.

[Jenna Fiorini · Rating 3 out of 5]

3⭐️ just fine. Didn’t feel I needed to keep listening but was easy enough to follow

[Audra Grenz · Rating 2 out of 5]

So I made it about halfway through then got bored, it felt so repetitive and long winded. I skipped through the second half catching a few tying up of loose ends and then for the very anticlimactic killer reveal.

[Gino]

I received this ARC through the Goodreads giveaway. I tried to get into it but just found myself drifting and really not caring about what's happening. I may not be the right person for this quirky kind of book. I may try again sometime in the future.

[David Dunlap · Rating 4 out of 5]

****1/2
Some months before the story opens, crime fiction writer Annie Morrissey dies in an accident, falling off a ladder in her garden while attempting to clean her cottage’s gutters. Her under-achiever of a daughter, Niamh, has moved into the cottage to take care of her mother’s cat Brian…and because she has no other place to go. She is plagued with guilt that her relationship with her mother was not always so smooth and her social anxieties mandate she deal with her grief by isolation. Then she is visited by Leah Rebecca Overton, the protagonist of Annie’s novels, who insists to Niamh that her mother’s death was no accident but was, in fact, murder. Given her personal demons, Niamh is convinced at first that Leah is a hallucination – no one else can see her…except the cat, some backyard birds, and a spider in the garage. But Leah is just as relentless in ‘real life’ as she is on the page: she keeps prodding and pushing the reluctant Niamh to investigate the death, before the upcoming coroner’s inquest finalizes the affair. But who would want to kill her mum? One of the neighbors perhaps? The dottery former maid who married an English lord who proceeded to squander what remained of the family money? The retired police officers next door? The mysterious rude man who parks his humongous vehicle in a way that blocks access to the cottage’s driveway? The writer of a series of emails sent to her mother in the wake of her having killed off Leah’s cat in one of her novels? Can Niamh even do this…when she has been unable to listen to the voice mails from her mother on her cellphone? – A lot of red herrings in this one! I really enjoyed reading it, especially because the author has not only drawn vivid characters, a palpable setting, and a plausible plot, but because of the bits of humor included throughout. Highly recommended. (And be sure not to miss the Author’s Note and Acknowledgements at the end: they supply an entirely new lens through which to see and understand the narrative that has preceded.)

[Judy Collins · Rating 5 out of 5]

REAL-WORLD GRIEF VS. A FICTIONAL QUEST FOR VENGEANCE
“A bestselling crime author’s death is ruled an accident, but when her final manuscript lands on the doormat, the lines between reality and fiction completely blur.”

In How to Kill a Crime Writer, award-winning novelist and screenwriter Sarah Lotz delivers a brilliantly funny, dark, and mind-bending meta-mystery. Moving away from traditional dark thrillers, Lotz crafts a delightfully quirky, bookish cozy crime story that balances witty sarcasm, deep emotional grief, and a striking, reality-shifting premise. The narrative follows an anxious young woman who must navigate her crippling social anxiety to solve her famous mother's suspicious death—with the help of a very unexpected partner.

WHEN FICTION CROSSES THE DEADLINE: SARAH LOTZ DELIVERS META-MYSTERY BRILLIANCE
A bestselling author is dead, a final manuscript holds the truth, and a fictional detective is stepping off the page to solve the crime.

📌 The Hook
~A bestselling mystery author dead in a quiet hamlet.
~A final manuscript carrying clues to a real-life crime.
~A fictional PI who steps out of the pages into the real world.

🛗 Elevator Pitch
A sharp, meta-fictional cozy mystery following a reclusive, anxious daughter grieving the sudden death of her crime-novelist mother. When her mother's final manuscript arrives alongside the literal, ghost-like manifestation of the book's fictional heroine, the duo must embark on a "grief quest" to unearth the dark secrets hiding within a deceptively quiet country village.

🔍 Review Breakdown
Intro
Niamh Morrissey is utterly paralyzed by grief following the untimely death of her mother, Annie, a legendary crime writer who supposedly died in a freak home-maintenance accident. Retreating to her mother's quiet country cottage, Niamh avoids the world by binge-watching TV and gaming. But her isolation is shattered when two impossible things occur: her mother's final advance manuscript lands on the doorstep, and Leah Rebecca Overton—the fictional PI heroine from Annie's bestsellers—suddenly appears in her kitchen. Realizing that she is the only one who can see this imaginary sleuth, Niamh is dragged into an extraordinary investigation, using lessons from cozy crime fiction to discover who wanted her mother dead.

Setting
A deceptively uneventful, quirky English country village where eccentric neighbors, missing ladders, and stolen garden gnomes mask deep-seated animosities.

Vibe
Witty, meta-fictional, and emotionally resonant. It is "Midsomer Murders" meets "Stranger than Fiction," driven by dark humor and sarcastic banter.

Genre: Meta-Fictional Cozy Mystery / Bookish Thriller

Themes
~The messy, non-linear reality of surviving grief
~The blurring boundaries between an author, their creation, and reality
~Overcoming isolating mental health struggles and social anxiety
~Deceptive surfaces of idyllic small-town communities

👥 Standout Characters
~Niamh Morrissey: The anxious, sarcastic millennial protagonist whose overwhelming grief and passivity are challenged when she is forced to play real-life detective.
~Leah Rebecca Overton: The sharp-witted, fictional PI who manifests in Niamh's reality, serving as the driving, confident force that pushes the investigation forward.
~Brian the Cat: Annie’s inherited, highly opinionated feline companion who safely anchors Niamh's chaotic home life and adds brilliant comedic relief.

✍️ Author Writing Standout
Sarah Lotz shines in using her screenwriting background to craft sharp, snappy dialogue and incredibly quirky character dynamics. The interaction between a heavily anxious, modern protagonist and a trope-heavy, confident fictional detective is masterfully written. Lotz handles the heavy theme of grief with immense empathy while keeping humor running continuously through the plot.

Takeaway
In crime fiction, there are no coincidences; in real life, the truth is often hidden in the stories we leave behind.

Title Significance
"How to Kill a Crime Writer" functions as a brilliant double meaning, questioning both the physical murder of the author and the literal mechanics of how a novelist chooses to retire their beloved characters.

Metaphor
Annie’s final manuscript functions as a central metaphor—a physical bridge between the living and the dead, transforming from a simple book into a literal map to a killer.

💭 My Thoughts
“What begins as a reclusive retreat from grief fast becomes a witty, mind-bending race to prove that village secrets never stay buried for long.”

THE SCRIPT IS WRITTEN, BUT THE MURDER IS REAL
"In this delightfully dark meta-cozy, a grieving daughter teams up with her late mother's imaginary sleuth to proofread a real-life homicide."

Lotz excels at pulling back the curtain on the writing life, delivering a fresh, highly unique concept that cozy mystery lovers will absolutely devour. Watching Niamh and Leah build their bizarre, reality-defying partnership is thoroughly entertaining and deeply emotional. The pacing captures the slow-burn curiosity of a traditional village mystery, while dropping clever genre inside jokes that book bloggers and avid readers will love. Just when you think you understand the boundaries of this meta-puzzle, Lotz threads a surprise ending that turns the narrative completely on its head. A delightfully original, clever summer read!

Verdict: ⭐⭐⭐⭐✨ (4.5/5).
"A delightfully quirky, sharp meta-cozy bookish crime mystery that masterfully utilizes dark humor and a unique concept to explore the depths of grief and the power of fiction."

Stop by my Blog on pub date for Blog Tour Stop!

📚 What to Read Next (Read-Alikes)
If the clever book-within-a-book meta-commentary of "How to Kill a Crime Writer" kept you thoroughly entertained, add these targeted thrillers to your TBR list:

~Beach Thriller by Jamie Day
~A Different Type of Poison by Liz Alterman
~The Plot by Jean Hanff Korelitz
~All This Could Be Yours by Hank Phillippi Ryan
~The Book Witch by Meg Shaffer

Special thanks to Berkley and NetGalley for sharing an advanced reading copy in exchange for my honest thoughts.

blog review posted @
JudithDCollins.com
@JudithDCollins | #JDCMustReadBooks
My Rating: 4.5 stars rounded to 5 Stars
Pub Date: July 21, 2026
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[Kirsten · Rating 1 out of 5]

This book was getting ridiculous each page..

[Get Your Tinsel in a Tangle · Rating 4 out of 5]

Niamh moves into her late mother’s cottage with the very relatable plan of feeling absolutely nothing until further notice. She is treating grief like an email marked “urgent” that she has decided to leave unread forever. Unfortunately, her mother Annie was a wildly successful crime writer, and Annie’s death from a supposed accident has the exact energy of a plot point her own readers would call suspicious by chapter three.

Then Leah Rebecca Overton appears in the kitchen. Not in a dream. Not as a memory. Physically standing there like she has keys, opinions, and several complaints about how Niamh is handling herself.

Leah is Annie’s famous detective heroine, which means she is brilliant, composed, hyper-observant, and constitutionally incapable of minding her own business. She takes one look at Niamh’s grief spiral and basically says, “Embarrassing. Your mother was murdered. Put on shoes.” There is no onboarding process. There is no discussion of boundaries. Niamh has apparently inherited both a cottage and the world’s most judgmental imaginary supervisor.

Their dynamic is so funny because Leah is everything Niamh thinks a capable woman should be. She always knows what to say. She notices everything. She has never once stood in a kitchen eating something directly from the packet while avoiding a phone call. And now she is following Niamh around, criticizing her investigative technique and refusing to let her collapse in peace. It is like being bullied by your own impossible standards, except your impossible standards wear sensible clothes and solve murders.

Underneath all that, though, this book is quietly devastating. Niamh is not only grieving Annie. She is grieving the version of their relationship she thought they still had time to fix. Their last conversations were not perfect. There was tension. There were things left unsaid. Death is rude like that. It freezes the relationship exactly where it was and leaves the living person holding every unfinished sentence.

The village is, naturally, full of people who know something and would rather die than answer a direct question. Everyone has history with Annie. Everyone has an opinion about Annie. Nobody can explain anything without staring into the middle distance first. It has that very specific small-town energy where the neighbors know what you bought at the pharmacy but somehow missed an entire suspicious death.

The mystery is cozy rather than vicious. There are secrets, dead ends, odd behavior, and enough side-eye to power the local electricity grid, but this is not a thriller sprint. There were stretches in the middle where I wanted someone to either uncover a clue or have a complete emotional breakdown because we needed movement from somewhere. At times the book is juggling grief, comedy, village eccentricity, and murder so aggressively that one of them nearly rolls under the sofa.

But the weirdness kept winning me back. Leah only knows what happened inside her own novels, so real life is constantly offending her. Travel takes time. People forget things. Clues do not arrive at dramatically appropriate moments. Watching a fictional detective discover that reality has terrible structure was exactly the kind of meta nonsense I needed. She is standing there like, “Why are we still driving?” because books usually cut this part, and honestly, she is right.

Niamh is also such an easy disaster to root for. She does not transform into a genius detective because a fictional woman yelled at her. She gets things wrong. She hesitates. She avoids. Then she tries again. Watching her get dragged back toward her own life is the part that stayed with me. This is not a glamorous rebirth. It is a tired woman slowly remembering that being alive requires participation.

By the end, I cared more about Niamh making peace with Annie than I did about solving Annie’s death, and I think that is exactly where the book wanted me. The reveal matters, but the real gut punch is understanding that grief does not give you the person back. It just changes the shape of the space they left behind. Sometimes healing begins because you are ready. Sometimes it begins because your dead mother’s fictional detective will not stop criticizing you in your own kitchen.

This is clever, sad, strange, occasionally wobbly, and absolutely overflowing with personality. I would rather spend time with a book making three risky choices at once than one behaving perfectly and leaving no fingerprints. A chaotic, tender 3.5 stars, and yes, I would let Leah reorganize my life, but I would need her to stop making eye contact while she did it.

Whodunity Award: For Turning Grief Into a Full-Time Job With an Extremely Judgmental Fictional Supervisor

And thank you to Berkley Publishing Group and NetGalley for the ARC. You handed me emotional damage wearing a cozy mystery cardigan, then sent a fictional detective into the kitchen to make sure nobody processed it quietly.

[Jill · Rating 5 out of 5]

Niamh was devastated when she lost her mother. Her mother, Annie Morrissey, a crime writer, had taken a fall in the garden working on her gutters. Niamh didn’t have anywhere else to live, so she moved into her mother’s country cottage and tried to deal with her grief. She had been trying to learn screenwriting, but the harsh feedback in her course had flattened her, and she walked away. Now she spends her days gaming and eating junk food.

Or she did. Until the day Leah Rebecca Overton showed up.

Leah was Annie’s main character, the women who solved the crimes in her books and took no prisoners. Niamh wasn’t sure if she was delusional when she first saw Leah in the kitchen, but she did know this. Leah didn’t go away. She smoked, she judged Niamh for her meal choices, and she followed her around. Niamh couldn’t understand why Leah was there. Her mother’s new book was about to hit shelves, but there was no reason for Niamh to be seeing her. And hearing her. Until Leah pointed out the obvious.

The ladder was missing.

The ladder that Annie had fallen from, the one she’d been using to clean out the gutters, something Niamh had never known her to do, especially at night, was nowhere to be found. It wasn’t leaning against the cottage. It wasn’t in the shed. It was missing. And just like that, Niamh was no longer convinced that her mother had died accidentally.

As Niamh and Leah start to look at who might have had a motive to kill Annie, their questions take them from the neighborhood to a crime convention and back home. Was it Annie’s agent, wanting a ghostwriter to take over the series so she could have more control? Was it the neighbor who only came out to his country house on weekends? Was it a crazy fan of her mother’s crime series? Was it the neighbor whose story Annie had borrowed for her new novel? Or could it have been Leah, afraid that Annie was going to end her series and, by extension, end her? Or was it truly just a terrible accident?

Niamh wanders through her grief as she collects clues and information, finally getting to the answers she needs. But will she only figure it out too late to save herself and her mother’s legacy?

How to Kill a Crime Writer is a smart but emotional mystery about a young woman trying to figure out who her mother was before her death while dealing with her shattering grief. It’s clever and sweet, written with a modern flair on timeless tropes. The addition of the character of Leah adds a level of mind-bending logic that gives Niamh more compassion, insight, and self-confidence. The two make a fascinating pair or crimefighters, and they make this book truly unique.

I wasn’t sure quite what to expect from this book, but it is a crazy ride. There is a layer of sadness, as both Niamh and Leah are grieving Annie’s death in their own ways. But there is also some sweet humor, smart and layered plotting, and a lot of heart. Author Sarah Lotz was clearly working through some things as she wrote this book (I encourage you to read the acknowledgements at the end for her story), and some of that personal journey comes through on the pages. She has put a lot of herself in this book, and it shows. I can’t wait to see where she takes us next.

Egalleys for How to Kill a Crime Writer were provided by Berkley through NetGalley, with many thanks, but the opinions are mine.

[Robin · Rating 4 out of 5]

I was of two minds on this novel. I enjoyed the main character, Niamh, who has just lost her mother and who has moved into her mother’s remote cottage in the English countryside. She has a cat, Brian, but mostly she is (not) dealing with her grief by sofa surfing and playing video games. She is startled out of her “grief journey” (as her stepmother refers to it) by the appearance of the main character in her author mother’s books. Her mother had written thrillers featuring someone I can only describe as a female Jack Reacher, differing in gender and in that she has a fixed place of abode.

The appearance of this character, Leah, is more than startling, obviously. Is she a ghost? Is she an apparition? Is she a figment of Niamh’s tortured psyche? Whatever Leah is, she manages to pull Niamh off the sofa. Her mother’s death had occurred when she took a fall from a ladder while fixing the gutter. While this seemed unlike her mother, Niamh has accepted her death as an accident, and it’s Leah who suggests it might in fact be a murder.

She can’t find the ladder her mother fell off and she can’t find her mother’s phone and so with Leah’s push, she decides to investigate. She begins, naturally, with her neighbors – the next door former cop, devoted to his garden to an obsessive degree; the titled and reclusive elderly lady and her niece; and someone she refers to as “The Wanker,” a wealthy young guy who uses his restored farmhouse on the weekends, leaving his obscenely large vehicle in everyone’s way.

As she gets to know the neighbors to a degree, she also begins to look inside her mother’s bookish world – and ends up chasing leads to a book conference and to a son of another mysteriously dead thriller writer. What was good about this book was the character of Niamh and, in fact, her grief journey, though she refuses to refer to it in those terms. Her grief is real, raw, and believable.

The other strong point, though it was weird, was the character of Leah, who pushes Niamh and gets her through some tough spots with a click of her virtual zippo lighter. When Niamh is in danger of breaking down and letting loose the always threatening floods of tears, a click of Leah’s lighter rights her and she’s able to push on (mostly). This messy character study was appealing. Niamh was even annoyingly human in her ceaseless yet completely understandable grief for her mother.
What wasn’t as strong was the actual plot, which is meander-y and often gets off track. As someone closer to Niamh’s mother’s age I was somewhat fascinated, somewhat charmed, and somewhat exasperated by Niamh’s millennial behavior. She’s never heard of Columbo or V.I. Warshawski – but she has heard of Jack Reacher. Made me feel old, though also wishing I could reach through the pages and share a bit of experience with her.

I will say the ending twist was quite well done and quite unexpected, and I applauded Niamh’s refusal to be a lame damsel in distress. Say what you will about millennials, they are pretty fierce, as they must be to deal with the world of the moment. So a big hand for the characters, a hand for the mind bendy use of Leah as a character, and a bit of a miss for the wobbly plot.

[Lysandra · Rating 5 out of 5]

Thank you NetGalley and HarperCollins UK/HarperFiction for the opportunity of reading this ARC! All opinions are my own.

Incredibly witty, funny and sarcastic.

Part of the cosy mystery genre, ‘How to kill a crime writer’ is a book which encompasses a surprisingly deep psychological arc. It focuses on Niamh, whose mother, an author, has mysteriously died in the countryside, while living all alone. The police has labelled it an accident, but circumstances arise and Niamh is motivated to learn the truth about her mother’s end.

Niamh is incredibly well-written. As a millennial myself, I found her relatable and representative for my generation at the same time — however, she is anything but stereotypical. Spiralling from depression and grief, she finds motivation to seek the truth behind her mother’s death. She is quite realistically written, and her journey through grief, in the middle of a life crisis of her own, is both touching and motivating. Her character arc and development should be familiar to anyone who has experienced loss and grief, and the vulnerability with which it is handled is easily noticeable. Niamh is a main character one cannot but help themselves to root for. I can’t give away the reason which pushed her towards investigating on her own, however, I can say it was rather clever — for one has physical children, but also children of the mind, a part of themselves which is born from them in a metaphysical way and leaves its mark around without many consciously realising it. The psychological aspect of her character arc was intriguing.

The plot is realistic; it’s tense and has quite a lot of suspense, and the course of action is perfectly fluid and logical. I have enjoyed the several dead ends encountered, as it reflects the reality of an investigation. Because, sometimes, even if everything has a perfectly logical explanation, there are mandatory steps for an actual detective which can be missed by someone like Niamh, inexperienced in criminal investigations. Her detective journey and deduction skills evolution was an entertaining experience. That being said, the plot twist happens at a timing which couldn’t be best. Structurally, the plot is neatly done and wrapped up quite satisfyingly.

The prose is incredibly vivid; perhaps because the author is also a screenwriter, but everything feels incredibly visual and tactile, even if the style itself is direct and succinct. I could easily envision every character, location and atmosphere in the book, and I must praise Sarah Lotz for managing that so well. I genuinely don’t know if I’ve read a book or watched a show!

I loved all the casually dropped references — books, movies, politics — they added both context and humour.

Would recommend this to anyone who wants a witty and sardonic main character. Niamh was very fun.

I hope to actually see this adapted into a show, I think it would do incredibly well. (Also because I couldn’t help myself from imagining millennial icon Eve Hewson as Niamh from the very first pages.)

[Sibil · Rating 3 out of 5]

3.5 stars
Thanks to NetGalley and the Editor. I received a copy of this book in exchange for an honest review

This book was a way for the author to mourn and work her way through the grief of losing a loved one, she said this herself in the notes at the end of the book, and I think that you can feel that in the way in which the themes of grief and loss are treated here. Mind you, this is a mystery, and it stands pretty well on its own, but the way in which the author portrays the loss and talks about the mourning process has some personal nuances and she talks about painful themes, threading lightly between them all.
I really appreciated this side of the book.

I have also appreciated the general idea of the book, the point is that I don’t know how much I should be telling you, because the major selling point of the book (or one of those) is not written in the synopsis, so will be a spoiler if I tell you that? Honestly, I don’t consider it a spoiler, because it is the driving point of the whole plot, so… a major plot point shouldn’t be a spoiler, but since it has been kept from the synopsis… I think the author’s intentions are that you should discover that for yourself? I am a tad confused about this, and if you want to know, you can ask for it in the comments. I will answer you!
Anyway, to be completely honest, if this point had been highlighted in the synopsis, I wouldn’t have requested an ARC for this book. Because, indeed, it worked here, and it is also true that I called this part a selling point, because I am convinced this is a selling point, just not for me. I simply didn’t find the idea so appealing. I can understand the appeal, and I have a couple of books on my TBR that have the same sort of thing in them, but still… it’s not that I dislike it,I just don’t find it as appealing as other tropes.
But that’s enough of me being mysterious, I promise!

Let’s try to actually say something about this book. It is a mystery set in a quaint hamlet that I’d love to visit, dead mother of the MC aside, obviously. Because our MC is mourning her mother, a famous thriller writer, who suddenly and quite mysteriously died after moving to this small and scenic hamlet. Everyone is considering it an accident, but there are some particulars that don’t really work, and so, for peace of mind, our MC decides to try and make clarity to her mother’s death. The fact that she also has some mental health related issues doesn’t help here, while she tries to navigate the mystery and the mourning and find a direction for her own life. She has to shoulder quite a lot, and she tries her best to keep everything afloat, even if sometimes the results aren’t… optimal, or sometimes she finds some… original ways to deal with everything.
That said, the whole story is quite engaging, but the pace is quite slow. Some parts were really slow; they dragged more than a bit, and on the whole, I would have enjoyed everything more if things moved a bit more quickly.

That said, it did its job, we also have some adorable pets around and a really good twist.

[Lyn · Rating 2 out of 5]

(Finished October 3rd, 2026)

Let me preface this by saying that I read this book to test a theory. A good friend of mine, who doesn't read books, tends to have really good intuition. She had recently, at random, picked a book for me that ended up being 5 stars for me. So I wanted to see if she had a gift of picking unexpected 5 stars. Unfortunately the streak as ended just when it began.
Where do I even begin? In premis alone did I think this book was great. I truly thought this book had the chance to be something, but unfortunately missed the mark for me. I feel the author thought of Leah being this other being was so far fetched for them they had to make the rest of the plot very excruciatingly mundane. A part of me gets it, Leah's world is so action packed and the epitome of an unrealistic detective story and Naimh has to constantly give her reality checks. I get it, HOWEVER, I feel this was a whole nothing burger. A bunch of mundane red herrings for a semi shocking ending and then were done. Yippee. I was just so BORED through put the book, even when we FINALLY left the house to do actual mystery solving. I get Niamh is a civilian with no prior detective skills and has immense social anxiety, but my GOD there was literally NO sense of urgency. NONE!! I didnt know if we'd ever solve this d*mn mystery.
And dont get me started on how I not only didnt care about Niamh, I couldn't STAND Leah for majority of the book!! Shes insufferable and just a plane b*tch for most of the book. And when a "heart to heart" moment happens that consists of her sharing nothing about herself she is then somewhat nicer. Thats it! We get more context later? I guess? But overall i felt nothing.
And as if to top it all off, the very tone deaf add ins of Niamh very casually and neutrally using AI and Chat GPT fot basic Google searches....LIKE HUH?!?! It threw me so off as it happens in the beginning of the book and its so unnecessary as theyre googling or using it for things THEY ALREADY KNOW HOW TO DO!! For a time like now where we know the harmfulness of AI and how its effecting our planet....to let your character set in current times use it casually feels odd to say the least. It then begs the question if the author uses it, not only casually, but even to write books. Odd behavior...truly. Especially since its mentioned not once, or twice, or even thrice! But 4 or 5 times!!! She does one acrually Google search...before thinking of using AI...sigh...
Overall it was a mid book, mid story, and questionable choices. The story it could've been. But oh the story it actually was... sigh
Tbh if it wasnt for my friend giving me this book I would've DNF'ED it at the mention of AI and Chat GPT...cause cmon...this year you did this?...shame tbh

(P.S. cool movie/show/video game refernces I guess...)

[Stacey (Bookalorian) · Rating 4 out of 5]

BOOK REVIEW — HOW TO KILL A CRIME WRITER

Title: How to Kill a Crime Writer by Sarah Lotz
⭐⭐⭐⭐ Star Rating: 4

Vibe Check: came for the murdered crime writer, stayed for the fictional detective who walked out of a book and apparently decided she was now part of the family drama.

Niamh moves into her late mother's country cottage to deal with her estate.

Understandably, she is grieving.

Then her mother's final book arrives.

And the fictional detective from the book shows up in Niamh's kitchen.

Excuse me?

I love this.

Leah Rebecca Overton is the fictional sleuth from Niamh's mother's novels.

Except now she is real.

Or at least real enough for Niamh to see her.

And Leah thinks Annie's death might not have been what it seemed.

So naturally, Niamh ends up teaming up with a fictional detective to investigate her mother's death.

Because grief apparently wasn't enough.

I really enjoyed the meta-fictional setup here.

There is something wonderfully weird about having a fictional character confront the person whose mother created her.

Especially when that fictional character is a competent detective and the actual daughter is grieving and probably would like everyone to stop appearing in her kitchen.

The relationship between Niamh and Leah is also a fun contrast.

Leah is everything Niamh isn't.

Confident.
Competent.
Detective-shaped.

And Niamh has spent years living in the shadow of her mother's success.

That gives the mystery a personal dimension beyond solving a murder.

Tropes included: fictional character comes to life, murder mystery, crime writer, mother-daughter relationship, grief, literary mystery, amateur investigation, and meta-fiction.

Did they deliver?

Yes.

The concept is clever, the mystery is intriguing, and I loved the book-within-a-book element.

I did want a little more emotional payoff in places, but overall this was a very entertaining read.

Petty Complaint: Niamh has a ghost-ish fictional detective appear in her kitchen and still somehow has to be the responsible adult in this situation.

I would simply hand Leah a notebook and say good luck.

Overall, How to Kill a Crime Writer was a clever, quirky mystery with a fantastic literary premise and enough weirdness to make it stand out.

Four stars.

Would I recommend it?

Yes, especially if you love murder mysteries, crime writers, books about books, fictional detectives, and stories that get wonderfully weird.

[Kari · Rating 3 out of 5]

Book rating: 3⭐️
Genre: mystery thriller
Themes: grief, small towns, crime writers,
📖 Read if you like: Fair Play, Deadly Does It

Thank you to @BerkleyPub for this #gifted book. #BerkleyPartner #BerkleyBookstgram

Bestselling author Annie Morrissey is found dead under strange circumstances. A careful woman afraid of heights is after all unlikely to fall to her death during an evening gutter repair. When her wayward daughter Niamh moves into her mother’s cottage in rural Midlands, her grief will manifest itself into her mother’s crime solving heroine Leah. While the veil of normality blankets this small village, the figment of her imagination pushes Niamh to look further into a potential murder and the clues left behind.

Niamh is a recluse that suffers from crippling anxiety over her own failures at screen writing and the grief she tries to avoid. It was easy to imagine her mind going off the rails with much of the book a stream of consciousness between her and the sardonic Leah. There are parts that were humourous and parts that made me cringe, but it was a very millennial representation. I enjoy messy characters with a touch of insanity, so Niamh was an interesting protagonist. I do wish Leah was not such a cliche and her presence was more than judgemental looks and snippy remarks, but I get the direction this was going and her adaptations made sense in the context of Niamh’s journey. The Leah Niamh relationship really ended up being central and an enjoyable part of this story.

The mind bending concept was interesting and small towns can be ripe with secrets and shady figures, but this was a very small town so it was much slower paced than I was expecting. There were so few people and so little happening it really made the mystery feel a little stagnant. Much to Niamh’s disdain, this read more as a psychological grief journey than a murder mystery.

The narrative indicated that the obvious answer was dropped in an early chapter, but that readers would have to go through several misdirections before coming full circle. I found this annoying. This may be true of every crime novel, but then the red herrings need to be distracting enough to hold our attention. It was more an existential crisis where the humourous conversation carried the weight. It actually read like a sitcom, so points for entertainment. If you’re going for a traditional mystery this isn’t that, but it made me laugh and the concept was refreshing.

[يوسف عبداللطيف · Rating 2 out of 5]

How to Kill a Crime Writer by Sarah Lotz

Other people loved this book so do be sure to read more reviews than just mine!

Having read Sarah Lotz's The Impossible Us, which I gave 4 stars, I came into this book expecting to enjoy it. But I was immediately turned off by the main character, Niamh, and things went down from there. Niamh's mom, Annie Morrisey, a best selling crime writer, has died by falling off a ladder. Now Niamh, who seems to squat at the houses of relatives while binging video games on her laptop as a constant pastime, can now live in her mother's home without being hassled by her mom to do things such as wash her dishes or empty the dishwasher. Good things come from bad things, apparently.

But then, Leah, the main character in Morrisey's very popular crime fighting series, shows up to tell Niamh that her mother did not have an accident but was murdered and that the murderer must be found. Leah won't stop following Niamh around which means Niamh spends a lot of time in bathrooms when she wants to get away from Leah since that's one place where Leah doesn't follow her.

I've only given six (now seven) 2 star ratings out of over 2000 reviews so it's obvious I really did not enjoy this book. Using the work wanker 73 times (thanks to Jayme for that word count) was about 73 times too many, not to mention all the other cussing and extremely distasteful words and speech coming out of the mind and mouth of Niamh. Then there are the gross body descriptions, body emissions included, and just the overbearing judgmental-ness coming from a person who has been freeloading and accomplishing nothing at all (her own admission) for way too long and I would have DNF-ed (rarer than my 2 star reviews) if this was not an ARC.

There is also the often mentioned side plot of authors killing off the pets of main characters in their popular book series. And making fun of people who don't like for pets to be killed in books. So very NOT funny, along with MORE judgmental opinions from Niamh about anyone who doesn't think just like she thinks on everything. What a bore is Niamh. At least I got to read this with Jayme so we could let off steam with each other, it was so hard not to just stop reading and call it quits with this story.

Publication July 21, 2026

Thanks to Berkley Publishing Group | Berkley and NetGalley for this ARC