In 'The Ending Writes Itself,' a contest to complete a manuscript turns deadly

NPR's Book of the Day

NPR

Arts, Books

4.2 • 671 Ratings

🗓️ 12 May 2026

⏱️ 9 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

🧾️ Download transcript

Summary

In a new mystery novel, a group of struggling writers lands on a private island belonging to bestselling author Arthur Fletch. But Fletch is dead and the authors, who come from a number of genres, must race to come up with the best ending to his unfinished manuscript. Then, the competition turns deadly. The Ending Writes Itself is by V.E. Schwab and Cat Clarke, who wrote the novel under the pen name Evelyn Clarke. In today’s episode, the co-authors and friends join NPR’s Scott Simon for a conversation about their collaboration.

To listen to Book of the Day sponsor-free and support NPR's book coverage, sign up for Book of the Day+ at plus.npr.org/bookoftheday

See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for sponsorship and to manage your podcast sponsorship preferences.

NPR Privacy Policy

Transcript

Click on a timestamp to play from that location

0:00.0	Hi, I'm Melissa Adwarnie, and this is NPR's book of the day.
0:05.9	Interested in a smart, twisty, and satisfying thriller, the ending writes itself might be just the
0:12.5	thing. Here's the premise. Six authors go to a private island to write the ending of a
0:18.0	bestseller's novel, except the famous author is actually dead,
0:22.8	and everyone on the island is now part of a real-life murder mystery.
0:27.5	Author V.E. Schwab and screenwriter Kat Clark talked with NPR's Scott Simon
0:32.2	about the who-done-it novel they wrote together.
0:36.8	Hey, wait a minute. I thought we were going to interview Evelyn Clark, author of a new mystery.
0:41.8	Who are you two? We are the faces. We are the names behind Evelyn Clark, aren't we, Kat?
0:46.8	We are Evelyn Clark. We too are Evelyn. Everyone is Evelyn.
0:50.6	Vee Shraub and Kat Clark join us from somewhere on Book Tour. They've combined under a pen name Evelyn Clark to bring us the story of seven midlist writers who are brought to the private Scottish island of a mega best-selling thriller writer named Arthur Fletch. But here's a twist. Arthur Fletch is dead. His last manuscript needs an ending. Oh, that should be easy.
1:13.5	The ending writes itself is the book by so-called Evelyn Clark and V. E. Schwab and Kat Clark. Thanks so much for being with us.
1:20.8	Thank you so much. Oh, thanks for having us. Who looked at whom, if I use that correctly, to say, let's write a novel together.
1:28.8	Victoria?
1:29.6	It's entirely my fault.
1:31.1	Kat and I have been friends for 15 years.
1:32.9	I've spent many days in her kitchen, venting about publishing.
1:36.6	And I said to Kat, I have an idea for a weird thriller.
1:41.4	If I write it, will you write the screenplay?
1:44.2	Right. But here's what you need to know is that we had both made solemn oaths.
1:49.2	I had left publishing in 2018. I used to write young adult novels, swearing never to write
1:54.7	another book again. And Victoria had sworn that she would never, ever co-write a novel,
	...

Transcript will be available on the free plan in 4 days. Upgrade to see the full transcript now.

Previous episode | Next episode

Disclaimer: The podcast and artwork embedded on this page are from NPR, and are the property of its owner and not affiliated with or endorsed by Tapesearch.

Generated transcripts are the property of NPR and are distributed freely under the Fair Use doctrine. Transcripts generated by Tapesearch are not guaranteed to be accurate.