Hi Deadliners

We hope you enjoy this latest edition of Reading Between Deadlines. Our whole purpose here is to read HYPED books and unpack whether we a) agree with the hype and b) can understand WHY this book has reached such heights. Well, today we are chatting about a book that got a LOT of hype when it was announced last year and the BIG mystery was WHO were the two author behind the pseudonym Evelyn Clarke.

This episode’s pick: THE ENDING WRITES ITSELF by Evelyn Clarke is a locked room mystery set in the publishing world, written by best-selling authors V.E. Schwab and Cat Clarke under a shared pseudonym. The story begins when six authors are invited to a remote island to complete the unfinished manuscript of a legendary novelist but when one of them dies, they all start to wonder who they can trust and whether there’s more at stake than their careers.

We hope you enjoy and lets us know what you think in the comments.

Happy Listening and Love lots,Rach and Anthea

PS. If you want to watch rather than listen, scroll down.

In this episode, we cover:

Rach’s love affair with a real Scottish Island.

Was the crime or publishing stuff stronger in this book?

Midlist authors!

Literary snobbery.

Convention or cliche?

Ponder which famous authors we’d like to collaborate.

Who would YOU like to collaborate? Let us know in the comments.

💋 And, of course, we rate it: Kiss, Kill, or Marry

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⏰ Timestamps

1.0 Welcome to Rachael’s private tropical island (you may be wondering why she invited you here today…)

3.14 The blurb. (Would you risk life and limb for a weekend in a creepy house on a windswept Scottish island?) (Yes. Yes you would.)

4.39 When two authors become one. The hype surrounding two best selling authors who love each other very much and have a book baby. (Anthea wonders if she’ll ever be loved that much..) (PS look out for The Insta Detectives in January!!)

6.15 Victoria Schwab and Kat Clarke co-bio – more of a story, but hey, we’re not judging!

7.49 – Rach and Anthea do a weird switcheroo and keep almost giving away their feelings before the official rating.

10.10 – Rach tries to get factual but it’s such a new book there isn’t much to say. Although the pre-buzz guessing who the authors were was FUN!!

12.52 Kiss, Kill, Marry.. We rate The Ending Writes Itself

14.05 Anthea invokes the name of Agatha (also, funnily enough, her nickname when she was at primary school)

14.05 Rachael recalls her own trip to a (non-murdery) Scottish Island

16.26 The cast of characters. Victims, murderers… and not nearly enough heelund coos!

17.42 Rach has a (mid-list) identity crisis.

21.34 The crimey bit. Is it enough?

24.58 Anthea loves the classics, like Duran Duran, obviously – but also 1930’s murder mysteries..

26.43 What’s next for Evelyn Clarke – romance? Horror? Rural?

31.10 Who invited all these characters, anyway, and how much do we care?

36.38 The cost of living crisis comes to the Pod. (Anthea does the numbers and realises she’s essentially unemployed.)

40.22 Rach ‘ships’ her fave authors into writing collabs.

41.26 What are we reading next (interrupted by a long and boring story about Anthea forgetting the name of her local café. Spoiler alert. She had to look it up.)

43.48 Anthea and Rach sign off. Anthea is off on a cruise to Budapest, with Rachael’s Kobo.

👉 Watch the episode above and let us know your feelings about THE ENDING WRITES ITSELF!

📖 Coming up next:

👉Next Ep we’re chatting to to Fiona McArthur about Junkyard Cats by Faith Hunter

📅 In September, we’re diving into Rebecca by Daphne Du Maurier and we’re chatting to Tricia Stringer about The Giver of Stars by JoJo Moyes.

For what we’re up to after that, click here.

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