A 73-year-old romance novelist known for writing steamy stories packed with dark, violent twists has been charged with murder after police say she walked into a Montana motel and shot a local businessman dead.

Kyle Ann Morrow, an elderly author whose books reportedly feature homicidal plots and gunfire, is accused of killing 78-year-old Gene Gudmundson, the owner of the Spa Hot Springs Motel in White Sulfur Springs.

The shocking shooting happened on July 12, according to authorities, when Morrow allegedly entered the motel and gunned Gudmundson down inside the property.

What she allegedly said next has only made the case more chilling.

According to a police booking affidavit obtained by the Bozeman Daily Chronicle, Morrow allegedly told a front desk clerk: “He is a son of a b****. I shot him.”

The clerk then went into Gudmundson’s office and found the motel owner lying on the floor surrounded by blood, the affidavit said.

Morrow was later arrested at her White Sulfur Springs home on suspicion of killing Gudmundson. She has since been charged with one count of deliberate homicide, according to the Meagher County Sheriff’s Office.

The case has stunned the small Montana community, not only because of Gudmundson’s violent death, but because of Morrow’s background as a romance writer whose work reportedly includes disturbing scenes of violence, revenge and deadly encounters with men.

Deputies said they discovered a collection of suicide notes inside Morrow’s home, and in those notes she allegedly admitted to killing the motel owner, according to the filing.

Officers also allegedly seized a handgun case from her vehicle, along with a semi-full bottle of Jameson whiskey, loose cigarettes and a lighter.

Police said Morrow had a connection to the Spa Hot Springs Motel before the shooting. She was previously employed there, and the owners reportedly allowed her to sell her books on the premises.

Investigators said surveillance footage helped them identify Morrow as a suspect after video allegedly showed her Nissan Frontier driving away from the motel around the time of the killing.

When officers went to Morrow’s home, they found her vehicle parked outside, according to the affidavit. Police said she refused to open the front door.

Authorities said Morrow later tried to flee the residence, but state troopers and sheriff’s deputies “physically blocked” her and took her into custody.

She is being held at the Broadwater County Detention Center on a $1 million bond. Morrow is scheduled to appear in court on August 11 for a preliminary hearing.

The bizarre case has drawn even more attention because of Morrow’s writing career.

According to her author profile, Morrow said she was inspired to begin writing romance novels after reading Fifty Shades of Grey. She earned a master’s degree in creative writing from Aberystwyth University in Wales in 2011.

Morrow grew up on an isolated ranch in Montana, where she reportedly spent her childhood horseback riding, daydreaming and disappearing into books. Later, she appeared to draw heavily from that Western background in her own fiction, describing one of her works as a “Montana romance with a rodeo erotica subplot.”

But beneath the romance, her stories reportedly carried a much darker edge.

Morrow has published three books on Amazon, including one that reportedly opens with the narrator having a “homicidal thought” about killing her abusive husband.

In another novel, a female narrator reportedly pulls a gun on a threatening man and fires a shot at his vehicle.

Now, police are investigating whether the same kind of violent themes that appeared in Morrow’s books have any connection to the real-life killing of Gudmundson.

Authorities are said to be examining all possible motives, including whether Morrow may have been a disgruntled former employee. Investigators are also reportedly looking at the repeated presence of violence and death in her novels as they work to determine what may have led to the deadly encounter.

For now, Morrow remains behind bars as the quiet Montana motel shooting continues to generate national attention.

Gudmundson, a local businessman, was found dead at the motel he owned. Morrow, the romance author who once sold her books there, now stands accused of walking in, opening fire and leaving behind a trail of questions that reads like something out of one of her own dark plots.