A gripping tale of what happens when an authors world shifts 180 degrees DAVID NIALL WILSON Bram Stoker Award Author of Deep Blue & The Parting Beth Shepherd is a forty-nine-year-old, twice-divorced, mid-list crime writer whose life is unraveling. Even though she lives in beautiful Santa Cruz, California, she cant pull herself together. Shes past deadline on her new book, over budget, and her New York agent, Marty Schienman, is applying pressure via hysterical phone calls and emails. Meanwhile, things are bad at home, as her gay son is doing his best to reunite with his deadbeat dadalthough even Beth has been feeling pretty deadbeat lately. Her fictional NYPD homicide detective, Katie Shields, seems to be turning on her with every new page. Finally, she finds out that her long-time champion Marty is dying of cancer, and its all Beth can take. Thats when something unbelievable happens. Katie, a fictional character, hijacks Beths mess of a manuscript. She stops existing in fiction-land and gets on the case of her creator, ultimately helping Beth face what she must face from her sons burgeoning relationship with his dad, to Beths relationship with her brothers, to her dealing with Martys illness. As Beth gains control of her book and her life, she solves the biggest case of her career.