Kill All Your Darlings
When a professor’s student disappears and is presumed dead, he passes off her manuscript as his own—only to find out it implicates him in an unsolved murder in this new thriller from the USA Today bestselling author of The Request.
After years of struggling to write after the deaths of his wife and son, English professor Connor Nye publishes his first novel, a thriller about the murder of a young woman.
There’s just one problem: Connor didn’t write the book. His missing student did. And then she appears on his doorstep, alive and well, threatening to expose him.
Connor’s problems escalate when the police insist details in the novel implicate him in an unsolved murder from two years ago. Soon Connor discovers the crime is part of a disturbing scandal on campus and faces an impossible dilemma—admit he didn’t write the book and lose his job or keep up the lie and risk everything. As the murders pile up, Connor must clear his name by unraveling the horrifying secrets buried in his student’s manuscript.
This is a suspenseful, provocative novel about the sexual harassment that still runs rampant in academia—and the lengths those in power will go to cover it up.
Praise for: Kill All Your Darlings
- Edgar Award nominee
- Target featured new release
- New York Post Best Books of the Week
- Parnassus Books Bestseller
- SheReads Most Anticipated Summer Thriller
- Frolic Best Book of the Summer
“A dark, twisty journey through the labyrinth of academia. This book has everything—a missing girl, a murder, a book-within-a-book and so much more! One of David Bell’s most unique and engrossing novels.” —Samantha Downing, USA Today bestselling author of My Lovely Wife and He Started It
“Compulsively readable and jam-packed with more twists and turns than a rollercoaster, KILL ALL YOUR DARLINGS is first-rate literary entertainment. Suspenseful and surprising, I didn’t want it to end.” —Richard Chizmar, New York Times bestselling author of Chasing the Boogeyman
“Grabs you by the throat and never lets go. KILL ALL YOUR DARLINGS will keep you reading late into the night with a twist you’ll never see coming.” —Liv Constantine, bestselling author of The Last Mrs. Parrish
“This compelling thriller about a professor, a student, and a stolen manuscript that closely mirrors a real-life murder will keep readers guessing until the very last page. Kill All Your Darlings is storytelling at its very best!” —Wendy Walker, national bestselling author of Don’t Look for Me
“Only the diabolical mind of the talented storyteller David Bell could concoct this mind-bendingly twisty thriller! He manages to brilliantly weaponize college, students, teachers, tenure—and even the writing of novels. Smart, audacious and completely original. I could not put this down.” —Hank Phillippi Ryan,
USA Today bestselling author of The First To Lie
“The kind of literary achievement that keeps you reading all night long… KILL ALL YOUR DARLINGS combines all the book lover’s delight of that experience with Bell’s signature ability to thrill, elude and shock.” —Rebecca Munro, Book Reporter
“Sounds like WONDER BOYS times Patricia Highsmith. Yes, please!” —Crime Reads
Domestic Publisher
Berkley Publishing Group, Penguin Books USA