The Ending Writes Itself

Evelyn Clarke | Paperback | April 2026

It’s the perfect plot. All it needs is a killer ending.

Six authors. One private island. Seventy-two hours to write the ending.

World-famous author Arthur Fletch is dead. His final novel, the most anticipated book in history, remains unfinished. But the ending won’t write itself.

When six struggling authors are invited to Fletch's private Scottish island and presented with the opportunity of a lifetime, the plot thickens: whoever writes a worthy ending will receive a game-changing book deal and two million dollars.

Why have they been chosen to attend? Who is behind the invitation? And just how far would they go to secure a place on the bestseller list?

They have just seventy-two hours, a typewriter and a blank page. All they have to do is write…

Starting is often the hardest part. But getting to the end could be murder.

SELECTED FOR 2026 ONES TO WATCH: Daily Express, Daily Mirror, Radio Times, BBC News Online, Stylist, Scotland on Sunday, The Herald Scotland, My Weekly, The Scotsman, Muddy Stilettos Berkshire

Evelyn Clarke is the pseudonym for Number One Sunday Times bestselling author V.E. Schwab, and screenwriter and YA author Cat Clarke.

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‘In the running for the best mystery of 2026’ STEPHEN KING

‘And Then There Were None meets Yellowface’ KATE MOSSE

‘A cracking read' VAL MCDERMID

‘Smart, original and completely addictive’ KARIN SLAUGHTER

‘You may be reminded of the “meta” mischief of Anthony Horowitz' THE TIMES

‘There were so many things I loved about this intelligent crime novel’ RED MAGAZINE

‘this is going to be huge!’ FABULOUS

‘ambition turns dangerous in this clever, claustrophobic thriller’ iNEWS

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Author Info

It was a dark and stormy night (well, it was actually an unusually warm evening in Edinburgh, Scotland) when Number One Sunday Times bestselling author V.E. Schwab, known for The Invisible Life of Addie LaRue and Bury Our Bones in the Midnight Soil, proposed an absurd idea to longtime friend and screenwriter Cat Clarke: that they should write a book together. Victoria had made quite a name for herself, but had sworn she’d never co-write a novel. While Cat, following a tumultuous career as an editor and the author of several YA novels, including Girlhood and Entangled, had fled the publishing industry to work in the even more tumultuous film industry, swearing she’d never return to books. And yet, fate – and an irresistible idea – made liars of them both. That night, Evelyn Clarke was born.