Wit's End begins with 29-year-old Rima Lanisell arriving at her godmother's California home called Wit's End. Rima's father has died, and even though she hasn't had much of a relationship with Addison, her godmother, she's accepted the invitation to visit. Addison, who writes mysteries under the name A. B. Early, once named a murderous character in one of her books after Rima's father. Rima is curious about what type of relationship Addison and her father had before she was born. Addison struggles with hardcore fans who've developed a cult around her mystery series. Rima discovers that it's another cult that existed in California decades before who might hold the answers to her questions. The novel from Karen Joy Fowler (
The Jane Austen Book Club) has received mostly positive reviews with the St. Louis Post-Dispatch saying, "
Wit's End is about old secrets, unresolved mysteries, and the need to know and understand. Several puzzles drive the story, all of them related, but in delightfully unexpected ways, and Fowler's handling of the many components is as deft as it is delightful."
