The Midwest Book Festival should have been Kayla Christie's dream come true. Her debut thriller is about to hit shelves, the panels are packed, and her name badge gleams with the word AUTHOR. But on the eve of her breakout, the most powerful man in publishing drops dead in his hotel suite-hours after cameras caught him smiling beside her.Overnight, Kayla's fresh start curdles into scandal. Headlines spin the photo into something sinister, readers gossip in real time, and every rival at the festival suddenly looks like a suspect. Then the clues begin appearing-cryptic notes, staged scenes, daisies with teeth-each echoing chapters from the dead man's novels. Whoever is pulling the strings isn't just framing Kayla... they're writing a story meant to end with her downfall.To survive, Kayla must navigate the festival's glittering chaos of editors, publicists, and ambitious authors, all while dodging the cameras that circle her like sharks. With a true-crime podcaster at her side and a detective closing in, Kayla races to uncover the truth before the final twist leaves her as the festival's ultimate headline.A chillingly clever whodunit where ambition, envy, and storytelling collide, Murder on the Bestseller List turns the publishing world's biggest stage into a deadly game of cat and mouse.