The Last Word

The novel opens in Shoreham-by-Sea, Sussex, in April 2022. Edwin Fitzgerald, an 84-year-old former BBC Radio 3 presenter turned private investigator, notices that the journalist who wrote a newly published obituary, Malcolm Collins, died in 2021, before his subject. Edwin shares this with his friend Benedict Cole, a former Benedictine monk who runs a beachside coffee kiosk, and with Natalka Kolisnyk, Benedict's Ukrainian girlfriend and Edwin's partner at the K and F detective agency. Natalka brings a new case: A woman named Minim "Minnie" Barnes wants them to investigate the death of her mother, Melody Chambers, a romance novelist who died of a heart attack. Melody's obituary was also written by the already-dead Malcolm Collins.

Edwin and Natalka visit Minnie and her sister Harmony in Brighton. The sisters accuse Melody's second husband, Alan Franklin, a pharmacist 15 years her junior, of poisoning her blood pressure medication and persuading her to change her will. Minnie produces a notebook in which Melody wrote that she believed her husband intended to kill her. When they interview Alan, he dismisses the accusations, insisting the entries were fiction for a planned novel.

Meanwhile, Benedict's old friend Richard Fraser, a married former vicar who converted to Catholicism, brings another case. An Anglican vicar named Don Parsons had secretly published bestselling romances under the pen name Donna Parsons. Don recently died of a heart attack, but before his death he wrote Richard a letter saying he was scared and that "they" were trying to kill him.

With two writers dead of heart attacks, Natalka calls Detective Inspector Harbinder Kaur, a British-Indian gay woman working in a London Murder Investigation Team. One of Harbinder's analysts mentions that another author, Eileen O'Rourke, also recently died. Eileen's daughter, Felicity Briggs, initially claimed the death was murder but retracted the accusation. Harbinder visits Felicity, who now lives in her mother's valuable house, and notices that a cover blurb on Eileen's book was written by Melody Chambers.

Edwin identifies the common thread: Battle House, a remote writers' retreat near Hastings run by Leonard Norris, a novelist longlisted for the Booker Prize in 1992. Melody, Don, and Malcolm all posted testimonials on the retreat's website. Edwin proposes that he and Benedict go undercover at a writing weekend. Benedict reluctantly agrees, though he harbors a secret: He has written two unpublished crime novels, making the role of aspiring writer uncomfortably personal.

At Battle House, a stone building in dense woodland, Leonard is melancholic and contributes little to the teaching, which is led by the energetic crime writer Imogen Blythe. On the first evening, a guest named Sue Hitchins, a quiet retired teacher, warns them to "be wary of Imogen" without explanation. The next morning, Sue confides to Edwin by a lakeside statue that she lost her boyfriend Malcolm a few months ago. When Imogen assigns the prompt "If only I hadn't..." Sue reads her piece aloud, recalling that Malcolm conceived a book idea about "a musician who's murdered by his own instrument." She adds that she will write the book herself, since she knows "the real story."

On Sunday afternoon, Edwin and Benedict find Sue's body floating face down in the lake. Detective Sergeant Liv Brennan of Hastings police takes over the scene. Forensic officers find two sets of footprints at the water's edge indicating a struggle. Edwin reveals his identity as a private investigator and shares what he knows about the suspicious deaths.

The team pursues multiple leads. Edwin discovers Malcolm died of Covid-19, not a heart attack, but finds Malcolm's obituary for Felix Marshall, a flautist who died with his flute in hand, connecting this to Sue's account of a musician killed by his instrument. Benedict obtains Don Parsons' laptop and finds a document reading: "I'm scared, they're trying to kill me... They're my friends. They wouldn't hurt me. Even if I know their secret, they know mine" (160).

Natalka obtains a funeral photograph showing Melody, Leonard, and a woman named Miriam Fry together at Battle House. Edwin attends Imogen's book club, where he notices a prescription bottle from Alan Franklin's pharmacy. Among the members he meets are Georgina Potter-Smith, Miriam's niece and the current owner of Battle House, and Pietro Alighieri, a retired Italian-born chef his age. The team learns that Miriam drowned in the same lake where Sue died ten years earlier; Leonard discovered the body and erected the lakeside statue as a memorial.

Then Leonard is found shot dead at Battle House while listening to Puccini's opera Tosca at full volume. He had sent panicked messages to a group chat earlier that evening: "Is anyone there i'm scared" and "can you come theres evil in the air" (250). Benedict drives to the house alone and finds him dead. Frances O'Toole, a poet who attended the weekend, arrives shortly after and pulls a scrap of paper from Leonard's hand reading "If only I hadn't." That same night, Natalka receives devastating news: Her brother Dmytro's brigade has disappeared in Ukraine, rumored killed.

Edwin takes charge. Reading all the "If only I hadn't" pieces from past courses, he notes recurring themes about mothers and elderly relatives. Listening to Tosca, he realizes Leonard placed the CD as a dying clue: The aria Recondita Armonia translates to "Remembered Harmony," pointing to Harmony as the killer. Edwin connects the deaths of book club members' elderly relatives to a pattern. Georgina's aunt Miriam drowned so Georgina could inherit Battle House. Felicity's mother Eileen died so Felicity could inherit her London house. The flautist Felix Marshall also died. All were potentially facilitated by Alan Franklin's pharmaceutical expertise.

Before Edwin can act, Harmony arrives at his flat with pills, telling him he is too old to live. Edwin hides the pills under his tongue and uses yogic breathing to slow his pulse, fooling her into believing he is dead. She leaves but returns with a gun, finding Edwin alive with Benedict and Natalka. She threatens a murder-suicide, but Pietro, who has come to deliver pastries, enters and knocks Harmony unconscious with a metal tray. Harbinder, meanwhile, discovers that Eileen's heart medication was dispensed from Alan's pharmacy. Natalka, not yet aware of the conspiracy, accepts an invitation from Alan, who drugs her coffee with belladonna, a toxic plant extract, to learn what Harmony has revealed. Harbinder and Brennan arrive with armed police and rescue Natalka.

The full conspiracy emerges. Alan conducted affairs with multiple women connected to the book club, including Georgina, Felicity, and Harmony, his own stepdaughter, and used his pharmaceutical knowledge to help them kill elderly relatives for inheritance. Harmony and Alan conspired to murder Melody and planned to elope to Australia on the money. Harmony killed Sue because Sue knew the truth behind Malcolm's planned book. Harmony killed Leonard because he read her incriminating writing exercise and confronted her. Georgina is arrested, and Felicity confesses to replacing her mother's heart medication with caffeine tablets from Alan. The novel closes with celebration: Dmytro is alive, Natalka reveals she is pregnant, Benedict decides to become a teacher, and Edwin begins a relationship with Pietro. In the epilogue, set in August 2022, Harbinder and her girlfriend Mette attend Natalka and Benedict's Catholic wedding in Shoreham, with Edwin as best man.