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REVIEW: Kill Your Darlings by Josh Lanyon
Kill Your Darlings – Josh Lanyon
At this mystery conference, murder is more than just another plot twist…
Nobody likes conferences, but they’re part of the job.
Millbrook House senior editor Keiran Chandler has spent years curating the best voices in crime lit, but when an unsolicited manuscript is handed to him at the Noir at the Shore mystery conference, truth collides with fiction. I Know What You Did is more than just another slush pile submission—it’s a direct threat.
U.N. Owen seems to know what really happened in Steeple Hill all those years ago. Who is Owen? How does he know these things? Clearly the mysterious author is after more than a book deal. But what?
With a potentially career-ending publishing merger on the horizon, the end of his affair with bestselling author and former homicide detective Finn Scott, and not so subtle threats from someone in his past, Keiran has a lot bigger problems than coming up with something witty to say on discussion panels.
I’d always heard the phrase “Kill your darlings” and took it literally so I had to google what it actually means. As Masterclass.com explains, it’s the writer’s ruthless art of cutting beloved but unnecessary storylines, characters, or sentences for the sake of the bigger picture.
In Josh Lanyon’s Kill Your Darlings, I’m still figuring out what those “darlings” are. The novel is a meta-heavy murder mystery featuring Keiran Chandler, a senior editor at a publishing house about to be acquired. At a mystery conference, tensions flare between editors from his current and future employers. True to Josh Lanyon’s style, the book is filled with cameos from other series, commentary on crime fiction, publishing politics, and of course—murders.
I loved the rare glimpse into traditional publishing. It’s unsurprisingly cutthroat, but seeing it through an editor’s eyes rather than a writer’s felt fresh. Keiran, respected and experienced, faces conflicting feelings about his career as rival editors circle, writers are poached, and the merger looms. At 40, he wonders if it’s too late to start over.
The conference scenes were fun, with panels featuring mystery writers who solve real-life cases. Familiar faces like Christopher Holmes (Holmes & Moriarty) , Adrien English (The Adrien English Mysteries), and Kit’s husband, JX Moriarty appear, alongside side characters offering high-falutin opinions on crime fiction that went over my head.
The real twist is Keiran’s past, and a long-ago crime Keiran was an accessory to. It came biting him in the ass in the form of blackmail through a manuscript detailing a fictionalized account of a murder Keiran was involved at just 17. This had him visiting his hometown, resurrecting old ghosts, and unearthing secrets, blurring the line between fiction and reality
I’ve always wished mysteries featured other crimes apart from murder or missing persons. So even though murder is involved, I enjoyed how the plot focused more on finding the blackmailer and how everything relates to Keiran’s tragic past. The details of the crime are already known, including the murderer, who disappeared.
As with the way of stories, everything came full circle, but I wasn’t impressed when the resolution was to literally throw things in the trash. But this is also romance, and we wouldn’t have our HEA otherwise.
The romance is classic Josh Lanyon: a second-chance romance with past hookups, mutual pinings, a bisexual single dad, and an emotionally closed-off love interest. To shake things up, Keiran, the narrator, is the emotionally distant one while Finn Scott, writer and ex-cop, wears his heart on his sleeve. While not ground-breaking, they were a worthy addition to the author’s roster.
There are books about books, but Kill Your Darlings is a book about the publishing books. Perhaps an homage and a critique, it captures the joys and woes of the people who work behind the scenes. That there was a real-life mystery in their midst is just another reminder that fiction and reality often blur in the publishing world. Overall, an insightful, and intriguing story that cuts deep in fiction and in truth.
Rating:
4 Stars – minor quibbles but I loved it to bitsSoundtrack: Kill Your Darlings
Artist: Mesh
Album: Kill Your Darlings
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KILL YOUR DARLINGS: Amazon UK | Audiobook
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REVIEW: All She Wrote by Josh Lanyon
Holmes & Moriarity: All She Wrote – Josh Lanyon
Giving screwball mystery a whole deadly new meaning.
A murderous fall down icy stairs is nearly the death of Anna Hitchcock, the much-beloved American Agatha Christie and Christopher Holmes’s former mentor. Anna’s plea for him to host her annual winter writing retreat touches all Kit’s sore spots: traveling, teaching writing classes, and separation from his new lover, J.X. Moriarity.
For J.X., Kit’s cancellation of yet another romantic weekend is the death knell of a relationship that has been limping along for months. But that s just as well, right? Kit isn’t ready for anything serious and besides, Kit owes Anna far too much to refuse.
Faster than you can say Miss Marple wears boxer shorts, Kit is snooping around Anna’s elegant, snowbound mansion in the Berkshires for clues as to who’s trying to kill her. A tough task with six amateur sleuths underfoot, six budding writers with a tangled web of dark undercurrents running among them.
Slowly, Kit gets the uneasy feeling that the secret may lie between the pages of someone’s fictional past. Unfortunately, a clever killer is one step ahead. And it may be too late for J.X. to ride to the rescue.
Warning: Contains one irascible, forty-year-old mystery writer who desperately needs to get laid, one exasperated thirty-something ex-cop only too happy to oblige, an isolated country manor that needs the thermostat cranked up, various assorted aspiring and perspiring authors, and a merciless killer who may have read one too many mystery novels.
All She Wrote is the second book of the Holmes & Moriarity series. I’m guessing the title is a riff on Murder She Wrote, a whodunit tv series from days of yore a.k.a days when cable didn’t exist and satellite television was cutting edge.
By the end of book 1, Somebody Killed His Editor, I was warming up to Kit and JX. At the beginning of this installment, Kit took a step backwards with his whining, commitment phobia and comments that were less witty, more bitchy than usual. He described himself as a curmudgeon and I do understand that he was burned before. His husband cheated on him with no less than his PA who was younger hence his tendency to blow his super minor 5-year age difference with JX out of proportion and “carry on like a 70-year old”. Meanwhile, JX completely won me over with his understanding of Kit’s issues and his trademark blunt but constructive commentary.
J.X. said calmly, “You know what, Kit? I’m a big boy. I can look after myself. I know that right now the idea of a relationship paralyzes you. But I think you do care for me, or you wouldn’t have had the hospital contact me when you were hurt, and I’m willing to hang in here for a while longer. You’re worth it.”
My heart was hammering as though I was having a panic attack. “What if I hadn’t called you?”
“I don’t know. I can’t do this on my own, obviously. I wanted you to try and
meet me halfway. Or as close to halfway as you could handle. That’s what this feels like.” He shrugged.Yay, JX!
There were major character and relationship developments here. Kit didn’t let me down after all. He bucked up and met JX halfway. He even discovered a side to himself he didn’t know exist. Attaboy, Kit!
There is also a running joke in the series where everybody can’t seem to take the Miss Butterwith books seriously, throwing shade now and then. Except JX who believes Kit is talented but is hiding behind his cozy mystery books. I also want Kit to get out of his comfort zone. I hope Josh Lanyon resolves this thread.
There was a going nowhere feel on the mystery part but at the same time, I was riveted to the audiobook because Lanyon knows her business and Kevin R. Free is a great narrator. Kit and JX had no concrete evidence, mostly conjectures by the former. They were running around in circles and hitting brick walls. There were a bunch of supposedly eccentric characters, none of whom were interesting or likable. The deaths were not particularly gory, just emotionally painful. The motive was so goddamn vindictive and, IMO, petty, you will hate the already unlikable villain even more. As usual, I couldn’t guess who the killer was but on hindsight, one of the character’s less than forthcoming attitude should have tipped me off. Damn! I was also bracing myself for a hanging thread because that how she rolls but Lanyon kindly gave her readers closure on a key plot point so the book ended with me feeling contented.
So while the mystery was not as fun as the last, I liked where Kit and JX are heading. Here’s hoping they get there.
P.S.
Comments on Somebody Killed His Editor here.
Rating:
4 Stars – minor quibbles but I loved it to bitsSoundtrack: Oxford Comma
Artist: Vampire Weekend
Album: Vampire Weekend(source: https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/9502791-all-she-wrote)
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I don’t know why anyone would be scared of a homeless person. The truly scary people are all the murder mystery writers. They spend all day thinking of the perfect plot on how to kill someone and get away with it.
Shannon L. Alder
