Beth Shepherd is a 49 y/o, twice divorced mid-list crime novelist. She can’t write. Her latest book in her NYPD Katie Shields series is behind schedule; her drug-addicted younger brother, Stephen, has just shown up on her doorstep after his umpteeth failed round of drug treatment; she can’t sustain a relationship with a man. And now, her grown gay son in San Francisco is reuniting with his father who ran out on the family over 20 years ago.
To add to her problems, Beth is shocked to discover that her protagonist from her crime novels, Detective, Katie, hijacks her author’s psyche in order to solve the biggest case of her career: the heinous crimes of her author, Beth Shepperd.