I Didn't Do It

April 1, 2023

Finding Tessa author Hendricks's latest takes place at Murderpalooza, a national thriller conference taking place in New York City. Five authors are up for the Thriller of the Year Award, but by the end of the first day, rumors circulate that one of the nominees, Kristin Bailey, has been murdered. When four people receive threatening texts saying that they may be next, they band together to find out who is threatening them and why they've been targeted. Vicky was up for the Thriller of the Year Award, along with the victim; Davis is the toast of the conference, already with a film deal before his first book has even come out; 37-year-old Mike, once the hot new novelist, now feels forgotten; and Suzanne only hopes her agent can sell her first book. Bombareded by Tweets and veiled threats, the four of them start to eye one another with suspicion. They all have secrets connected to Kristin. Is one of them a killer? Is one the next victim? VERDICT Readers might find the five narrating voices to be too many and the overall premise to be manipulative, but it could be fun for those interested in stories of backstabbing and suspicion. Suggest for fans of Sulari Gentill's The Woman in the Library.--Lesa Holstine

Copyright 2023 Library Journal, LLC Used with permission.

March 27, 2023
This brisk, funny thriller from Hendricks (It Could Be Anyone) begins at Murderpalooza, an annual New York City conference for writers of genre fiction. When Kristin Bailey, a nominee for the coveted Thriller of the Year award, is found dead in her hotel room, the Twitterverse runs rife with speculation. Shortly after Kristin’s death, four other conference attendees (who narrate the novel on a rotating basis) start receiving menacing tweets from a burner account that threatens to leak secrets that could end their personal relationships, careers, and possibly their lives. The group decides to band together for protection, but each new tweet breeds distrust and fear as the truth about Kristin’s killing slowly comes to light. Hendricks’s plotting is impeccable, and she knows precisely when to jump perspectives for maximum suspense. Her humor, too, is razor-sharp: she has fun taking shots at the anxieties and unchecked egos of writers at all stages of their career (“Is it really narcissism if I know I have it? Or just an overinflated ego,” one character wonders). This is good fun for anyone enmeshed in the writing world or thinking of jumping in. Agent: Anne Tibbets, Donald Maas Literary.

Starred review from March 15, 2023
Authors' dreams curdle into nightmares when murder strikes a mystery convention. Kristin Bailey, one of five nominees for Murderpalooza's Thriller of the Year, has been stabbed to death in her hotel room. Amid the digital firestorm that breaks out, two items stand out. One is a Twitter thread indicating that @MPaloozaNxt2Die is following Vicky Overton, a fellow nominee; Mike Brooks, the once-successful friend who shared a hush-hush relationship with Kristin; Suzanne Shih, the admiring stalker she'd gotten a restraining order against; and Davis Walton, a self-absorbed rising star. The other is a series of text messages to Vicky, Mike, Suzanne, and Davis making target-specific insinuations and threats, all ending with the refrain "Maybe you're next." Since all four of them have plenty of secrets to hide, their suspicions of each other are equaled by their apprehension that they're about to be unmasked. Alternating among their four points of view, Hendricks revels in their paranoia while archly revealing the differences in their narrative styles, from Vicky's relentless self-editing to Suzanne's guileless pushiness to Davis' preening narcissism to Mike's terror because his current comeback novel features a murder at a mystery convention committed by his own fictional avatar. Authors, agents, publishers, wannabes: None of them comes off nearly as well as Vicky's boyfriend, publicist Jim Russell, who's miles ahead of Pearson--no first name--the investigator hired by the Waldorf to figure out just which of these experts in homicide upped their game to the next level. Despite the obvious premise, it's a furious, riotous, meta-romp right up to the last deflating twist. A dishy balm for every aspiring author who's envied those established figures at mystery conventions.

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