When a much-despised book critic is murdered, a sleuthing New York ghostwriter must unravel the plot . . .

After a summer in the sun, ghostwriter Jake O'Hara is out of her beach house and into the poorhouse. But help is about to come from an unlikely place. Acerbic book critic Richard Peter, voted the man most Americans love to hate, has written himself into a corner by accepting a whopping advance for a murder mystery he can't deliver.

With his publisher on the warpath, Peter's willing to share a generous slice of the pie with a discreet wordsmith like Jake. The problem is, plenty of people would love to stab Peter in the back. And before long, one of them does—literally.

Now Manhattan's gutsiest ghostwriter is left ghosting for the dead—and chasing down clues to a murder that hasn't seen its final chapter . . .

"We will be looking for more of Jake O'Hara." —The Mystery Reader

"A very funny lady." —Donna Andrews, New York Times–bestselling author of the Meg Langslow series