Book Review — Evelyn Clarke

Glass Onion and Murder on the Orient Express had a baby — and it felt like a fever dream.

That’s the only way I know how to describe The Ending Writes Itself. Six struggling authors summoned to a private Scottish island to write the ending of a dead novelist’s final manuscript. It’s also worth knowing that Evelyn Clarke is actually the pen name for V.E. Schwab and Cat Clarke — two authors who wrote a book about authors. The meta layer is very much intentional.

I went in expecting something darker. Something closer to The Maid — a thriller with real weight. What I got was lighter and more comedic than I anticipated, which was genuinely unexpected. It reminded me more of The Thursday Murder Club, except with authors instead of elderly sleuths. Once I recalibrated my expectations the book worked better for me.

It had its moments. The satire on the publishing industry is sharp and clearly comes from real experience — the dynamics between struggling midlist writers competing for a life-changing deal landed in a way that felt specific and true. The premise alone is clever enough to carry you through.

Where it fell short for me was the Scottish island setting, which never quite came through. That atmosphere could have made this book genuinely unsettling — and it didn’t deliver on that potential. The other thing I couldn’t shake: why were people so casually murdered with so little public outrage? The internal logic of the world felt loose in a way that pulled me out of it.

This is not a genre I typically reach for in books or film. And I could see exactly the kind of reader who would love this — someone who enjoys a locked-room mystery with wit and a wink. For that person, this is probably a five-star read. For me it was a solid three.

⭐⭐⭐ — 3/5 stars

The Ending Writes Itself by Evelyn Clarke. This post contains affiliate links. I may earn a small commission at no cost to you.