“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…“

Hello and welcome to damppebbles. Today I am delighted to share my review of How to Kill a Crime Writer by Sarah Lotz. How to Kill a Crime Writer is published by HarperCollins today (that’s Thursday 26th February 2026) and is available in hardcover, audio and digital formats with the paperback to follow. I chose to read a free eARC of How to Kill a Crime Writer but that has in no way influenced my review.

What a wonderful book this is! Before I crack on with my review, I want to confess something. The only reason I picked up a copy of How to Kill a Crime Writer is because Sarah Lotz wrote it. Sarah Lotz who wrote The Three (which I loved and read pre-blog so no review to share) and The White Road (which I love, love, loved – this is the book that made me realise I love horror survival thrillers and snowy settings. You can blame Sarah Lotz for a LOT of the content on my blog). The title and the cover….weren’t really a draw. But oh my goodness, I’m so glad I read this book. I had so much fun with it.

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.

I chose to read and review a free eARC of How to Kill a Crime Writer. The above review is my own unbiased opinion.

How to Kill a Crime Writer by Sarah Lotz was published in the UK by HarperCollins on 26th February 2026 and is available in hardcover, audio and digital formats with the paperback to follow (please note, the following links are affiliate links which means I receive a small percentage of the purchase price at no extra cost to you): | amazon.co.uk | Waterstones | bookshop.org | Goodreads | damppebbles bookshop.org shop | damppebbles amazon.co.uk shop | damppebbles amazon.com shop |

Sarah Lotz has painted outrageous frescoes for dubious casinos, written kids’ cartoons and lived homeless on the streets of Paris as a teenage runaway. She’s also written a lot of books on her own, and with collaborators, including the Downside horror series as SL Grey (with Louis Greenberg), the ferocious zombie YA Deadlands trilogy as Lily Herne, with her 22 year old daughter, Savannah Lotz and the cheerfully sexy Girl Walks Into… erotica series with Helen Moffett and Paige Nick. She also writes insanely smart and creepy thrillers, crime novels and memoir under her own name.

She likes scruffy dogs, fast cars and sitting in her attic making stuff up.