The Final Chapter

A Novel

By: C. B. Everett

CRIME & MYSTERY THRILLER (SUSPENSE) FICTION THRILLERS SUSPENSE

Description

"A canny, double-layered literary puzzle...boasting tantalizing narrative twists." --The Boston Globe

"C.B. Everett is a master of fiendishly-plotted, intelligent mysteries." --Mark Edwards, internationally bestselling author of The Wasp Trap

A missing bestselling author. A final manuscript encoded with clues to his fate. And a best friend racing to get to the final chapter...

From the author of the "blackly funny" (John Connolly, New York Times bestselling author) The Other People, a gripping book-within-a-book thriller that is perfect for fans of Anthony Horowitz and Janice Hallett.

Ten years ago, a bestselling, critically acclaimed literary author disappeared without a trace...and without a final novel. In recent days, that missing manuscript has surfaced, but strangely enough, it's not another genius work of literary fiction, but an espionage novel full of all-too-stereotypical spycraft and James Bond-like twists.

His former publisher has asked the author's best friend--and fellow author named C.B. Everett--to annotate the novel with details from real life to give the strange novel context within his larger oeuvre. But as C.B. reads, he finds the espionage thriller is filled with references to events and people who feel a little too familiar, and soon he's wondering if the novel might in fact be a key to his missing friend's disappearance. There's text and subtext aplenty, and C.B. is determined to learn once and for all what happened to his friend through solving the mystery woven into the pages. But the final chapter may hold secrets darker and more threatening than anyone anticipated.

An unputdownable, twisty thriller, The Final Chapter asks us: how well do we really know our closest friends? And how well do we know ourselves?
"A canny, double-layered literary puzzle...boasting tantalizing narrative twists." --The Boston Globe

"C.B. Everett is a master of fiendishly-plotted, intelligent mysteries." --Mark Edwards, internationally bestselling author of The Wasp Trap

A missing bestselling author. A final manuscript encoded with clues to his fate. And a best friend racing to get to the final chapter...

From the author of the "blackly funny" (John Connolly, New York Times bestselling author) The Other People, a gripping book-within-a-book thriller that is perfect for fans of Anthony Horowitz and Janice Hallett.

Ten years ago, a bestselling, critically acclaimed literary author disappeared without a trace...and without a final novel. In recent days, that missing manuscript has surfaced, but strangely enough, it's not another genius work of literary fiction, but an espionage novel full of all-too-stereotypical spycraft and James Bond-like twists.

His former publisher has asked the author's best friend--and fellow author named C.B. Everett--to annotate the novel with details from real life to give the strange novel context within his larger oeuvre. But as C.B. reads, he finds the espionage thriller is filled with references to events and people who feel a little too familiar, and soon he's wondering if the novel might in fact be a key to his missing friend's disappearance. There's text and subtext aplenty, and C.B. is determined to learn once and for all what happened to his friend through solving the mystery woven into the pages. But the final chapter may hold secrets darker and more threatening than anyone anticipated.

An unputdownable, twisty thriller, The Final Chapter asks us: how well do we really know our closest friends? And how well do we know ourselves?

This Edition

Format
Hardback
Pages
384
Published
June 2, 2026
ISBN-13
9781668058336
Language
English
Publisher
Atria Books
Imprint
Atria Books

Trade Reviews

"A canny, double-layered literary puzzle emerges—boasting tantalizing narrative twists and James Bond-ish turns — when an espionage-thriller manuscript by long-missing best-selling author Jon Durward surfaces, along with a request for his frenemy, C.B. Everett, to help prepare it for publication."

"CB Everett is a master of fiendishly-plotted, intelligent mysteries."

"A metafictional tour de force...Buckle up for a darkly funny mystery about friendship, rivalry, ambition and - wannabe novelists look away now - the more soul-destroying aspects of authorship."

"[A] slyly entertaining metafictional mystery...Adventurous mystery fans are likely to enjoy this one." 

"A clever piece of crime-fiction crime is concealed within this intriguing novel within a novel."

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