The Author
Jeff Scott
Reader Reviews
4.0
1 rating
Liz M.
Apr 26, 2026
I received this as an ARC copy. This review is gonna be a bit long. So here we go.
We start off with meeting Ian an indie author who is in a book group online so he reads reviews posted there of his books. Of course with every book or author you’ll always have your critics and your mean ones. Well we learn that in the comfort of his own home of course and on his own Ian while reading the reviews written by the critics he to what he believes himself to be jokingly wishing harm on the critics that are absolutely wrecking his works each time he releases a new book.
A couple of days later we find out that a murder has been committed against one of the very critics that left a scathing review on Ian’s latest book and who has left past reviews as well. So the investigation begins. We then meet Detectives Lia & Harris who are investigating the crime committed. As time goes on more critics are found murdered but by the second critic dead we learn that Ian has been at a book signing event so there’s no way he could have done it right? He even fully believes so himself.
Lia & Ian fall into a relationship once it’s found that Ian is clearly no longer a suspect. Lia, Ian & Harris continue to work the investigations Ian is just helping out being that the victims are critics and it’s a world that Ian is deeply involved in as an author himself.
As the investigation progresses slowly more and more comes out. We meet “Lilly Warren” who Ian fully believes is a real person, they met in college had a short run at a relationship that he later broke off with her. As we slowly learn more about Lilly. Lia begins to question what Lilly’s true identity is after finding out that it is a pen name and nobody has ever actually met her.
While some parts of the story were a little confusing at times it was a story that was hard to put down. I couldn’t wait to get to the ending to find out exactly what happened next.
4 stars.
We start off with meeting Ian an indie author who is in a book group online so he reads reviews posted there of his books. Of course with every book or author you’ll always have your critics and your mean ones. Well we learn that in the comfort of his own home of course and on his own Ian while reading the reviews written by the critics he to what he believes himself to be jokingly wishing harm on the critics that are absolutely wrecking his works each time he releases a new book.
A couple of days later we find out that a murder has been committed against one of the very critics that left a scathing review on Ian’s latest book and who has left past reviews as well. So the investigation begins. We then meet Detectives Lia & Harris who are investigating the crime committed. As time goes on more critics are found murdered but by the second critic dead we learn that Ian has been at a book signing event so there’s no way he could have done it right? He even fully believes so himself.
Lia & Ian fall into a relationship once it’s found that Ian is clearly no longer a suspect. Lia, Ian & Harris continue to work the investigations Ian is just helping out being that the victims are critics and it’s a world that Ian is deeply involved in as an author himself.
As the investigation progresses slowly more and more comes out. We meet “Lilly Warren” who Ian fully believes is a real person, they met in college had a short run at a relationship that he later broke off with her. As we slowly learn more about Lilly. Lia begins to question what Lilly’s true identity is after finding out that it is a pen name and nobody has ever actually met her.
While some parts of the story were a little confusing at times it was a story that was hard to put down. I couldn’t wait to get to the ending to find out exactly what happened next.
4 stars.