Mystery novelist Sidney Sinclair has run out of murders. With his sales falling and his next book long overdue, his agent suggests an unusual cure for writer’s block: commit a crime of his own.

At an estate sale, Sidney steals an antique clock—and discovers a faded map hidden inside it. Soon, he follows its clues to Antibes with his friend Callie McCann while writing a new case for his fictional detective, Noah Blake. But as the events in Sidney’s manuscript begin to echo those around him, a harmless search for inspiration draws the pair toward old secrets, suspicious strangers, and a treasure someone may be willing to kill for. Witty, suspenseful, and full of unexpected turns, Stolen Troubles is a mystery about creative obsession, guilty impulses, and what happens when a writer steps too far inside his own story.