Really well written, interesting characters and good twists. Made me want to go find the author’s first book.

A controlling and demanding member of the English Aristocracy is killed in a grisly and mysterious manner. A stipulation in his will declares that whichever of his three adopted children solves his murder will inherit the entirety of Linwood Hall and the estate. The hunt for his killer reveals more about the three siblings than they expect. Secrets from both their past and their father's abound in every corner of this debut novel.

This book had so much potential. I really did love the three siblings, Arthur, Roger, and Caroline. I also really loved Roger's girlfriend Iris. The setting of Linwood Hall is atmospheric and perfect for this 1920's mystery. The premise of the novel is also highly intriguing and the whodunit kept me turning pages.

I do think, unfortunately, that it needs more tightly edited. There is far to much repetition as we switch POV from characters so often. They circle the same places, the same events and it's all rehashed as we get different narrators, but it becomes frustrating. Yes - I know what the convent looks like, thanks Arthur and Caroline. I was also confused why there were so many flippin' Shakespeare references. It was distracting to the plot. And the moment Caroline tries to cast all the characters in King Lear? I mean, why?

Finally, the big reveal at about 85% of the book was not a surprise to me. Because one word was used early on in the book and used only once but it gave that part of the plot away. No spoilers here but I'd love to know if anyone else had the same experience.

Ultimately, I enjoying this novel but it could have been tightened up significantly to create an even better debut. There is much to look forward to from Mr. Huang's work is he can trim his work down and not pack it with the superfluous. I will certainly be recommending this to people because I liked the mystery at the books core.

Unnatural Ends by Christopher Huang was not for me. It is a murder mystery set in the roaring 20s so I had hoped for a clue type aesthetic but it ended up boring me instead. The book is full of details that overwhelm the plot and none of the characters are especially interesting to me. I ended up DNFing the book at around 40% because it could not keep my attention and felt sluggish to read through.

I enjoyed Unnatural Ends! It has family secrets, drama, murder mystery, really well thought-out characters and storylines. All of the different pieces can be a bit confusing at first but they all came together nicely.

I wanted to love this one. The premise soundless intriguing, but the storyline just did not pull me in.

I started and stopped this books numerous times because I just couldn't get into the story. On top of feeling disengaged, there seemed to be a lot going on and it was hard to keep track of what was happening.

Overall, it was only an okay read for me.

An intriguing mystery set in 1920s England. This is a book Agatha Christie would write. While the narrative starts off simply enough with the three siblings and their family's solicitor, by the end there's been so many side characters and subplots introduced that I sort of lost track of it. The ending, though, was satisfying, if only a bit predictable.

Sir Linwood of Lindwood Hall is found dead in his study. Lady Lindwood calls for her three children to travel back home in order to put their father to rest. Once at home, the three find out that Sir Linwood was murdered by a medieval mace, and that it is their father's wishes that whoever shall solve the mystery of his death shall become the sole heir to Linwood Hall.

The siblings; Alan, Roger and Caroline, must now investigate what exactly happened to their father while the mystery leads them down suspicious paths.

My thoughts:
I loved the setting of this book, the Yorkshire Moors!!! What a beautiful place to start a story off. I also liked the time this book was written in. It was a very interesting read. The chapters didn't have numbers though which was confusing at first and I felt that there was just alot of background information. I don't think I was in the mood to read a historical mystery so it took me a little longer to get through but I did enjoy it and would like to read it again someday.

I really enjoyed this historical mystery/family drama set in 1920s England.

Sir Lawrence Linwood, tyrannical patriarch of Linwood Hall, is dead…bludgeoned to death in his locked study. His three adopted children return home only to find an unusual stipulation in his will…whoever finds the killer, takes it all. And so the plot thickens.

Yes, this is a classic murder mystery, but even more it’s a finely-tuned family drama, focusing on Alan’s, Roger’s and Caroline’s childhoods and how they were shaped and molded by their parents, especially their father. So not only was I sucked in by the intriguing mystery, but the family dynamics kept me riveted as well. Smart, ingeniously-crafted, twists and turns and well-developed characters…what’s not to love? And I definitely did.

Highly recommended.

My sincere thanks to the author, NetGalley and Inkshares for providing the free early arc of Unnatural Ends for review. The opinions are strictly my own.

Started out good but went downhill from there. By the time it got to the the end just didn't care anymore.
Characters need a lot more depth,and development.
Thanks NetGalley for advance copy

Yorkshire, 1920, adopted, murder, murder-investigation, law-enforcement, lawyers, amateur-sleuth, suspense, suspicion****

The Linwood family is upended and exposed by the bludgeoning murder of Sir Laurence in the family home in rural Yorkshire. The three children were adopted and are all grown now, but the will brings an interesting surprise. Each of the children has reason to discover the murderer and the sleuthing becomes entangled in the plot twists and red herrings. The characters are very well developed and interesting.
I requested and received an EARC from Inkshares via NetGalley.

This was an engaging mystery/thriller novel to read. I enjoyed how the characters (each of the children) were flushed out where we got to know each of their personalities, and that I actually had trouble figuring out who the murderer was! I love murder mysteries that keep you guessing, that offer new clues that change the course of the story and your thinking. What I also appreciated from this novel was the diversity of the characters but that their ethnicities did not define their characters.

I absolutely loved reading this - it bought out my inner Miss Marple as not only was there a crime to solve, there was family secrets to unravel and character motivations to assess. The story being told in alternating point of view chapters by the 3 adopted Linwood children as they navigate the aftermath of their fathers murder worked brilliantly, it kept me guessing until almost the end.

As I read this book, the golden-age mystery writers—John Dickson Carr, Agatha Christie, and Josephine Tey—came to mind. These writers set the standard for whodunits; stories that make us want to catch the murderous villain on our first (second, third) guess. So, what does Unnatural Ends have in common with these writers? Everything, including witty, concise, and natural prose.

We have a locked room with a dead body, ala John Dickson Carr: the master of the locked room mystery. Just like his novel The Hollow Man, we have a man found murdered in his study. The door and window are locked from the inside. There is also a character who might not be whom he/she says they are.

Like an Agatha Christie novel, there are many suspects, and no solid motive. Could it be his wife, Lady Linwood: a once strong and independent woman (one of the first female medical doctors in England) now silenced and cowed due to years of brutal abuse by her husband? Or should we be suspicious of his three adopted children? Sir Lawrence was an exacting and negligent parent; one who liked to test his children on their reactions to stimuli. He saw sentimentality, affection, and contrition as signs of weakness (never say you are sorry; it makes one appear weak). If he saw any of these qualities in any of his children, he would make sure to hold back any type of positive reward.

Finally, there are similarities to the crime/mystery stories of Josephine Tey; specifically, the police are secondary to the amateur sleuths. The grown children separately follow divergent leads towards uncovering his murder. Along the way, they learn more about the circumstances of their births, and the disappearances of their mothers. They are joined by Iris, the girlfriend of Roger who is the youngest and favorite of Sir Lawrences children. She adds an outsiders view to the family and the villagers.

This is a true homage vintage mystery and crime novels. I found no flaws in logic, and was engaged right from the start. It was refreshing to read something this well written by a modern writer.

I would like to thank NetGalley and Inkshares publishers for the opportunity to read and enjoy this whodunnit.

Synopsis: Alan, Roger and Caroline will have to solve the mystery of their father's death if they want to be his universal heir. What they will not imagine is that while searching for answers they will find very well kept secrets from their father.
General points:
*An unpredictable novel.
*It has a slow start; in the third part is when the most interesting begins.
*I like that everything revolves around the family past and the variety of characters.

If you are a lover of cozy crime then this book is for you. Sir Lawrence Linwood has been killed and his heir is to be decided in a classic whodunit. Linwood's three children set out to find his killer and win the right to Linwood Hall. But, as in classic Christie style, not all is as it seems. A great read.

An excellent puzzle of a murder mystery with a lot of suspects which kept changing with every chapter. Sir Lawrence
Linwood is rather old, death was not expected but his head was found bashed in with a mace so there was nothing
natural about his demise. He was estranged from his children who did not show a united front when they did arrive
and who were hostile to everyone around them.

Sir Lawrence had a strange proviso in his will. His estate would go to the person who solved the mystery of his death,
if he did die of unnatural causes. There was a very cryptic puzzle available and his Secretary and companion of many
years was also entitled to the search for clues.

As the story progresses, many skeletons in the closet are revealed even those in the Secretary's past and now the two who are assisting in the investigation are beginning to doubt all those who are in pursuit of the clues. When the eldest son is also found murdered, when the pursuers are locked up to prevent them reaching the final clue one begins to see the dysfunctional features of the family which are so twisted and macabre.

A lot of attention to detail, a setting of the 1920s very well done too.

I loved that this book did not come across formatted. The characters were engaging and the time period this was set in was perfect. I look forward to more books by Christopher Huang.

In the beginning was Linwood Hall, and Linwood Hall was the world.
It saddens me that I didn't enjoy this book, at all. I feel like I'm letting down my friends because Fran and Sujoya really enjoyed it.

Unnatural Ends is about Sir Lawrence Linwood, a eugenics enthusiast and eccentric who feels like something out of a bad Batman episode. When the details were revealed about his past, it just felt way too out there.

[Painting]
North Yorkshire Moores in the Evening (where the author said Linwood Hollow is set)

Originally, I found him fascinating. Linwood was killed in his study. It was locked and the killer could only have come in through the window. He had three adopted children, two of whom were people of colour. And the author will NEVER. LET. YOU. FORGET.
...Sir Lawrence Linwood's children were all adopted, so no one expected much family resemblance; but Roger, darker even than Caroline and with a hard-to-place exoticism about his features
A few pages later
...Roger Linwood with that queer, exotic something about him that was not quite Chinese, not quite Indian, and certainly not entirely English
But wait, there's more
Amberley was talking about that odd, exotic something about his features, he realised, which no one else had ever been able to place
This may be the first book I've ever read where a character's ethnicity was part of the mystery.

But perhaps what left me most disappointed was how poorly the sleuthing was done. See, after the death of Linwood, the three siblings are told by their solicitor's son that the estate is to be left to their adoptive mother, Rebecca. However, whoever solves the murder of Lawrence Linwood, gets to inherit the bulk of the estate.

And so I thought would begin a race to be the first to solve Father's murder. But the siblings soon get more caught up in uncovering secrets of their past. It's some of the worst amateur sleuthing in that there was barely any sleuthing. At one point Alan discovers the murder weapon because vibes.
As though drawn by the hand of God—Father would have had a fit at the idea—Alan turned to the hidden panel that opened into the servants' passage. It slid with barely a whisper, and he stepped through into the cool, dark space beyond... He blinked as his eyes adjusted, and then he saw it: ...
Another thing that got on my nerves was the eschewing of proper plot progression for a bit of Shakespearean juxtaposition. Father is like King Lear. Mother is like Katharina from The Taming of the Shew. The cat is Pawtia, Portia from Merchant of Venice (don't worry you'll get a full detailed explanation of the pun). It got repetitive and boring. If you read this book, make it a drinking game. I certainly wish I had.

I also didn't like the superhuman powers of observation. It's possible to read people's demeanours and infer how they are feeling. It's also easy to make assumptions. Agitation could be anxiety or impatience. Impassivity could be a resting bitch face or boredom. Blushing could be embarrassment or joy. But not for these characters.
"How positively delightful." But behind the sarcasm, Caroline thought she heard a note of warmth and sympathy.

He saw fear in every movement, under that fear, a certain relief. Grief was only the third emotion to register after that.
Then why not solve the murder by looking into the eyes of these characters by finding the intent to kill?

There was also a lot of repetitiveness. One of the reasons I absolutely loathe multi person POV. When one character has visited a location, I don't then need a rehash of the location from a different perspective. So what if Caroline was right that the church was gothic, Alan? What purpose does it serve? There was also a lot of redundant description. And it wasn't even entertaining to read. The characters are indistinguishable, which begs the question why they needed POVs.

But perhaps the straw that broke this camel's back was the line, God created tea to inspire wakefulness in men. This is of course, in response to officers on the watch falling asleep after taking tea. Somehow that line struck me as the stupidest thing I've heard out of a fictional Englishman's mouth.

This book disappointed me. Even the finale was dull. And not even carried out by the three main siblings whose actions we've been following through the whole book. The grand mystery is solved through a conspiracy of coincidences and sheer dumb luck. The prose was lacking and I was borderline bored. It's unfortunate but I'm afraid our association has come to a natural end.

Thank you to Netgalley for providing me with a copy in exchange of an honest review.

Well wasn't this an interesting twist on a whodunit type of mystery. The story pulled me in immediately with the death of the father and his three mysterious adopted kids. I will say the story lagged at times but when thigs started happening to some of the ancillary characters I was back in! I had fun trying to put all the puzzle pieces together so I just had to know how it all ended. Overall, an enjoyable read!

Really really enjoyed this mystery. Great setting. A puzzling mystery
Constant twists.and the variety of viewpoints kept this engrossing., Look forward to more from this authot.