Loose Lips: A Ghostwriter Mystery

Donovan’s second whodunit featuring a ghostwriter turned sleuth (after The Busy Body) is a mixed bag. Crime novelist Belle Currer, who ghostwrites celebrity memoirs on the side, finds herself dealing with a real-life closed-circle murder mystery when she accepts an invitation to teach a writing class aboard a luxury cruise. Superstar author Payton Garrett, who first met Belle when they attended the same MFA program, has organized the Get Lit Cruise for wealthy “fans of literature” to attend lectures during a one-week trip across the Atlantic. Flora Fortescue, another MFA classmate, who believes Payton stole her idea for a novel about Lord Byron’s half sister, is among the passengers. As Belle promises in the prologue, three murders occur over the course of the trip, allowing her to flex her knowledge of detective fiction as she solves them one by one. Donovan’s attempts at humor frequently fall flat (Belle prefers white wine because it “sums me up so well: I’m white, and I have a tendency to whine”), and his heavy-handed foreshadowing drains the narrative of tension. While the plot delivers occasional jolts of fun, readers intrigued by the premise would be better off with Benjamin Stevenson’s Ernest Cunningham series. Agent: Abby Saul, Lark Group. (Feb.)