When the widow of a best-selling mystery writer inherits an unfinished novel, competing writers will kill to get their hands on the work potentially worth millions.

SYNOPSIS:

Famous mystery writer, M.T. WHITLOW (45), dies after a shorter-than-expected battle in hospice, leaving behind a fortune and an unfinished manuscript. She charges her Russian wife, MARGOT (32), and underachieving adopted son, FLYNN (17), with a single task to convene selected authors and vote for the most suitable writer to complete her novel and collect millions in royalties. The candidates are a mix of old and new friends. ROBERT KNOLLS (50), a charming and successful British mystery writer, and CARLOS DIEGO (45), a suave Columbian writer, are the favorites. Less competitive authors include DEDE FLETCHER (40), a carefree American writer, and an Indian college student, SAMIRA RAM (21). However, M.T. stipulated that her staunch Australian attorney, ARTEMIS TRENT (60), and Asian female butler, CEE-CEE (28) also have voting privileges along with Margo and Flynn, to ensure a single writer is selected.

Margot and Flynn orchestrate the meeting. Before voting, everyone must review M.T.’s nine rules for writing murder mysteries: (1) the most unlikable person is the first to die; (2) the butler didn’t do it; (3) women use poison, men use guns or knives; (4) never kill off the wildcard; (5) the motive is always lust, love, loathing, or loot; (6) the first person arrested didn’t do it; (7) it’s all about misdirection; (8) The best clues are what people don’t say; and (9) no one believes in the right to remain silent. M.T. also left clues about writing scattered in the mansion.

The meeting barely gets started when Robert, the most likable candidate, dies from poisoning. Chaos ensues before everyone has a chance to pitch their proposed ending to M.T.’s novel. Enter SERGEANT ELLIE CAIN, a confident detective, who is uncertain about the cause of Robert’s death and takes the body to autopsy. With the frontrunner dead, anybody could win, including Margot, Flynn, Cee-Cee and Artemis. However, a strict “morality clause” embedded in the Will prohibits anything immoral or illegal or they get disinherited. When Artemis is found stabbed to death in the den, Flynn is the primary suspect, and the Sergeant is called back to the mansion on a stormy night.

Relationships form between Dede and Carlos, and between Flynn and Samira, but a steamy connection between Margot and Cee-Cee remains a secret. Flynn observes it all and surprises everyone, especially the Sergeant, by sorting out the events of the evening one by one and solving not one, not two, but three murders, including the illegal euthanasia of his mother. Some of M.T.’s rules for murder mysteries were followed, but some were not. In the end, Flynn nails Carlos and Dede for Artemis’s murder, and Margo and Cee-Cee for Robert and M.T.’s murders. Due to the morality clause, Flynn inherits everything, including a twist at the end.

THE UNFINISHED MYSTERY