Big Name Fan

Ruthie Knox, Annie Mare

• Publisher: Kensington Books
• Year: 2025
• Topic: Literature
• eBook ISBN:
  9781496751270
• Subtopic: Crime & Mystery Literature
• Index: Literature

Brimming with insider industry panache and the kind of heart that's any shipper's dream, this shrewdly witty novel delivers an amateur mystery plus romance as a TV detective duo stumble into a real-life case . . . and possibly a happy F/F ending.

"Great fun." —The New York Times

Bexley Simon and Sam Farmer aren't detectives, but they play them on TV. Well, played, past tense. The iconic cult hit that was Craven's Daughter ended five years ago, and their friendship died with it. Fans were disappointed that the pair's legendary chemistry went unfulfilled—and crushed that the actual spark between actresses Bex and Sam didn't pay off, either. The network never intended for two women to get romantic, in life or onscreen. But the bigger tragedy was the loss of their dear friend, makeup artist Jen Arnot, whose accidental death cast a pall over the series' last episodes.

Now the network has decided on a reunion special, and Bex and Sam are thrust together once more to host a rewatch podcast. Their first guest—a megawatt star who played a murder victim early on—drops a bombshell. Among the millions of pixels of fanfic written about the show online, one truly prolific author, known in the fiction world as the show's Big Name Fan, was an insider, almost certainly someone from the cast or crew.

As the podcast moves along—and the spark between Bex and Sam threatens to burn down the studio—the pair realize they're faced with two actual mysteries: Who is their Big Name Fan? And was Jen's death truly an accident—or foul play? Sifting through clues, the duo will need to separate fact from fiction as they make their personal partnership into unmistakable canon . . .

Table of contents

• Title Page
• Copyright Page
• Dedication
• Cast List
• Stage 46
• Too Late to Make a Plan
• A Real, True Fan
• I Played a Detective on TV
• Not a Little Drama
• Carpe DM
• A Real Detective
• In the (Iconic) Closet
• Fix-It Fic
• Kicking the Hornet’s Nest
• Vintage Hollywood Mythology
• Two Birds with One Stone
• The Makeup Artist’s Secret
• Brave Like Carrots
• Literary Analysis
• She Kissed How She Listened
• Reunion
• Pretty Speeches
• Broadcast Live from Studio 46
• The Mystery of What Comes Next
• Acknowledgments