You are fatally invited A novel

No one knows the true identity of famous author J. R. Alastor. Not even Mila, who has been hired to organize Alastor's mystery writers' retreat on a remote private island off the coast of Maine. Without ever meeting in person, the reclusive author and Mila plan a week of nightly mystery dinners, complete with riddles, puzzles and challenges based on classic mystery tropes. The six authors who accept this exclusive invitation are ambitious, successful, and secretly burdened with a variety of demons from their pasts. In fact, one of the authors wronged Mila years ago, and she sees this retreat as a unique opportunity for revenge. But when one of the authors turns up murdered, and it's not the author Mila had in mind, she realizes she is trapped with a madman (or woman) who seems determined to kill not just one, but every author on the island, perhaps including her. Debut mystery author Pliego delivers a fresh and satisfying take on the classic locked-room murder mystery.

Pliego's tongue-in-cheek debut puts a postmodern spin on the classic locked-room mystery. Six thriller authors are invited to a retreat on a private island off the coast of Maine organized by the mysterious J.R. Alastor, a pseudonymous bestseller who has never been seen in public and whose real identity remains unknown. At dinner on the first evening, each guest is invited to play a game that exposes some wrongdoing they've buried in their past. The next morning, the writers discover that their elusive benefactor has cut off all communication between the island and the mainland. Then one of the writers turns up dead, his mutilated corpse displayed above a gravestone with his name on it. Mila del Angél, a once-aspiring author whom Alastor has recruited to host the retreat, is stunned--mostly because she's planning a murder of her own, and she never accounted for a second killer in her midst. Pliego gleefully toys with genre tropes while delivering a slick, satisfying mystery all her own. Seasoned Agatha Christie fans may have quibbles about mechanics and motives once the dust settles, but those issues are too minor to detract from the fun. It's a thoroughly enjoyable ride. Agent: Hannah Schofield, LBA Literary. (Feb.)