The central mystery of Argylle, an upcoming spy thriller starring Dua Lipa as a femme fatale and Henry Cavill as the titular detective, lies not within the film itself, but the cryptic novel that allegedly inspired it. After all, it’s not every day that Apple shells out a reported $200 million for rights to an unpublished book from a first-time author—or goes to great lengths to shield said writer’s identity.
Released on January 9 by Bantam Books and Penguin Random House, the book is credited to someone named Elly Conway, a moniker shared by the film’s main character, played by Bryce Dallas Howard. Throw in a few tangential ties to the world’s biggest pop star and some expert question-dodging by director Matthew Vaughn, and a puzzling origin story has officially been sold.
Before the film finally hits theaters on February 2, let’s review the rumors about Taylor Swift’s involvement and theorize about who is actually behind the year’s most enigmatic book.
What is Argylle, and who is in it?
Argylle is a Romancing the Stone–style caper about Elly Conway, “an introverted spy novelist” who gets “drawn into the activities of a sinister underground syndicate” played by Howard, according to the film’s synopsis. Directed by Vaughn (Kick-Ass, X-Men: First Class), the film is written by Wonder Woman scribe Jason Fuchs and features a star-studded cast including the aforementioned Lipa and Cavill, as well as Sam Rockwell, Samuel L. Jackson, John Cena, Ariana DeBose, Bryan Cranston, Rob Delaney, and Catherine O’Hara.
In an interview with Vanity Fair, Vaughn explained Argylle’s story-within-a-story conceit: Howard’s Conway, he said, is “the J.K. Rowling of spy books. She’s agoraphobic. Her idea of a hot date is staying at home, writing more of her book, with her cat for company. She’s not a victim, because she’s really successful and really funny and really smart, but she has issues.” Within the film’s universe, Cavill and Lipa’s characters are not “real”—they’re fictional creations from the onscreen Conway’s new novel.
The book on which Argylle is allegedly based, by contrast, is “a straightforward thriller with none of the tricksy conceits of the film,” and therefore safe for viewers with “an aversion to winking metafiction,” according to The Telegraph.
And is Elly Conway a fictional character, or a real person?
That’s where things get weird. By all accounts, Conway is Howard’s character in the film, but not an actual human being. There are no photos of her on the internet, and her author bio on the Penguin Random House website is oddly brief: “Elly Conway was born and raised in upstate New York. She wrote her first novel about Agent Argylle while working as a waitress in a late-night diner.”
What’s stranger still are online attempts to pass Conway off as real. Both X (formerly Twitter) and Instagram contain profiles under this name that have a handful of vague posts, but there is no way of validating who is actually posting from either account. The Washington Post reporter Sophia Nguyen attempted to contact businesses Conway has tagged on social media. All of them, Caffe Reggio to Westsider Books, have seemingly played along with the plot. The latter emailed Nguyen, “We did see that Elly posted about the store, we’re glad to hear it is a place she feels at home!”
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