First published 2019
Clare Cassidy teaches Gothic literature, specializing in the dark works of RM Holland. She runs an annual course on murder in fiction, never expecting death to invade her own world. When a colleague turns up dead with a line from an RM Holland story beside the body, Clare's academic expertise becomes personal terror. The detective investigating the case believes Holland's writings contain clues to solving the murder. Clare suspects the killer moves within her circle of friends and coworkers. She pours her fears and theories into her private journal, the one place she feels safe expressing her darkest thoughts. Then she discovers additional entries in her diary. Someone else has been writing in it. The handwriting belongs to a stranger. Clare must figure out who has access to her most private thoughts and whether this mysterious writer knows more about the murder than they should. The boundary between literature and life dissolves as Clare realizes she may be living inside the kind of Gothic story she teaches.
Genres: literary-fiction, mystery, crime, contemporary, gothic, academic
Vibes: dark, emotional, intimate, suspenseful, thought-provoking
Tropes: enemies-to-lovers, unreliable-narrator
Setting: Gothic Literature
Period: Contemporary
352 pages · Kindle Edition · HMH Books
Content warnings: death, murder