Jaime Lynn Hendricks’ I DIDN’T DO IT is an extremely clever novel that feels like a story within a story. You really need to stay on guard because the murder victim and possible suspects are all mystery/thriller writers.

Kristin Bailey is one of five nominees for Thriller of the Year at Murderpalooza, the premier thriller writers conference, but she won’t live to see the ceremony. Her body is found, stabbed to death, inside the hotel that is housing the visiting authors, publicists and various media covering the event. She was a favorite to win the award, and no one knows what to think now.

"...an extremely clever novel that feels like a story within a story.... I DIDN’T DO IT is one of the smartest, twistiest and most tongue-in-cheek mystery/thrillers you will read this year."

Pearson, the investigator on the case, is immediately put on the trail of four rival authors, each of whom have their own links to Kristin. They also have become the target of some outrageous Twitter feeds coming from an anonymous source who seems to know everything about them. This person is steering the investigation in different ways, each of which points the finger at one of them as the killer.

The potential suspects are fellow nominee Vicky Overton, whose boyfriend, publicist Jim Russell, may have been sleeping with Kristin; rising star Davis Walton, who started out in a writers’ group with Kristin back in the day, where at least two other authors died under mysterious circumstances; fledgling writer Suzanne Shih, Kristin’s alleged stalker who has a restraining order out against her from Kristin’s publisher; and Mike Brooks, a veteran author who has not had a hit in a while and was involved in a secret fling with Kristin. Mike also just co-wrote a novel with Kristin that hasn’t been released yet. Serving as his comeback attempt, it’s about an author who is murdered by a fellow author at an awards festival.

There are plenty of leads and just as many red herrings. For instance, Jim was supposedly mugged while walking around New York City. He had blood on his hands and was seen arguing with Kristin at the hotel. The mightiest load of evidence seems to be dumped on Davis, who easily can be implicated in at least one of the author deaths from his past --- a car accident that may have been orchestrated to look like a suicide. We also know that he has confessed, internally, to killing an author from the same writers’ group.

The bouncing narrative chapters keep the action moving forward at such a rapid clip that you dare not put the book down for fear of missing something. I DIDN’T DO IT is one of the smartest, twistiest and most tongue-in-cheek mystery/thrillers you will read this year.