I’m working on a cozy mystery where a woman married to a famous guy who has a clean, family guy image, finds out he’s been cheating on her with prostitutes.
She’s so furious she pens a tell-all with the help of a ghostwriter. She knows it will ruin his image.
He finds out, begs her forgiveness, goes to therapy for sex addiction, and swears he’s turned over a new leaf.
She’s not sure she believes him, but she realizes she acted in anger and she doesn't want to embarrass their kids by exposing their dad.
She wants to cancel her book, but the publisher refuses.
Then the publisher is murdered.
Some questions:
1. if she’s signed the contracts, can the publisher go ahead and publish the book even if she now wants to withdraw it? I hope so, since that gives her and her husband motives and makes them suspects in his murder.
2. apart from the publisher, who else would know about the contents of the book? I assume the ghostwriter, the editor, a publicist, and who else? If it hasn’t reached cover designer stage, the artists would not know.
3. I’m thinking if he’s a big publisher, so many people in the company would know about the contents of the book, that killing him would even be meaningless. Any of them could anyway go to the tabloids and leak the info.
So I’m thinking of making him a small indie publisher. She gives him her book because she’s his sister and she figures she’ll help his company make millions with her book. She never expects her own brother will later refuse to help her. If he’s that small, he may not even have a publicist.
What do you think of it all?
Thanks for any feedback.