"A gripping tale of what happens when an author's 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 can't pull herself together. She's 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 dad--although 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 it's all Beth can take. That's when something unbelievable happens. Katie, a fictional character, hijacks Beth's 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 son's burgeoning relationship with his dad, to Beth's relationship with her brothers, to her dealing with Marty's illness. As Beth gains control of her book and her life, she solves the biggest case of her career.