Two bestselling authors—thriller writer Cat Clarke and prolific fantasy writer V.E. Schwab—unite for The Ending Writes Itself under the pseudonym Evelyn Clarke. The duo’s first ever collaborative novel releases April 7th, 2026! In anticipation of the upcoming release, Clarke and Schwab sat down to talk with us about inspiration, writing process, book recommendations, and more for readers anxiously awaiting the can’t-miss, co-authored mystery.

Evelyn Clarke is described as the “brilliant and diabolical creation” of the two of you. How did this partnership come to be?

VE Schwab: Cat and I have known each other for 15 years, first as YA authors and then as friends, and we’ve seen each other’s paths to and through (and out of) publishing. When I got the initial seed of the idea for a Knives-Out-in-Publishing thriller, I knew she was the only one I wanted to write it with.

Cat Clarke: V pretty much dragged me back into publishing kicking and screaming. She promised me it would be fun. And it has been fun, which is pretty miraculous to me.

What did the ideation process look like between the two of you? And then what was the collaboration like when you were writing?

VE Schwab: Some co-writers split the work down POV lines, but we really wanted Evelyn to feel like one writer with one voice, so we basically built the book as if it was a house, layer upon layer, from the foundation to the scaffolding to the decoration, room by room and scene by scene.

Cat Clarke: Most of the book was written with the two of us sitting opposite each other at the kitchen table. Fuelled by many, many cups of tea and constantly distracted by pets. It was a big help to be in the same place and to be able to talk through any thorny plot issues there and then.

There is something so delightful about writers writing about writers. What were some fun real-life publishing aspects you got to explore through these characters?

VE Schwab: Oh, we mined 15 years of personal publishing trauma (in fact, no anecdote shared by the authors is fictional), so we’d say it was very cathartic!

Cat Clarke: There were a lot of publishing horror stories we had to leave out—to protect the innocent… and the guilty. But it was also nice to be able to explore the thing that writers share—the love of telling stories.

What are some books that you recommend over and over?

VE Schwab: Definitely Fingersmith, which manages to be a stunning queer historical novel AND a totally gripping mystery with a twist I didn’t see coming.

Buy the book now: Bookshop.org | Amazon 

Cat Clarke: The Cazalet Chronicles by Elizabeth Jane Howard. I can’t resist a multi-generational family saga, and this one is my all-time favourite.

Buy the books now: Bookshop.org | Amazon

What are you each working on next?

VE Schwab: I have the finale of my Villains series, Victorious, coming out this Fall!

Cat Clarke: I’m currently tinkering with a new film script.

The Ending Writes Itself by Evelyn Clarke and V.E. Schwab

Six authors mysteriously receive an invitation to join legendary author Arthur Fletch for a weekend on his private Scottish island. The authors discover that they were invited under false pretenses and the esteemed author has died leaving his final work unfinished. Fletch’s agent and editor present the six authors with the opportunity to compose the final chapter for his incomplete book sweetened with the promise of a career revival and a ridiculous amount of money. With only seventy-two hours to write a masterpiece, the mettle of all six authors is put to the test.

Buy the book now: Bookshop.org | Amazon