This book was a really enjoyable whodunnit! The setting of the English countryside in the 1920s was very enjoyable, as were the shifts in perspective between characters. While I did not find the numerous characters tough to keep track of, I know others who may struggle with the cast of supporting/side characters, so it may be helpful to keep a list of everyone as you read. The prose Huang uses is very descriptive and helps to immerse the reader in the ride he takes us on. Huang does a fantastic job of weaving together each of the perspectives, plots, and twists to deliver a great story that is an equal mix of Knives Out and Agatha Christie vibes. I would certainly recommend checking out this book! (4.5 stars, minus 0.5 stars for the somewhat foreseeable villain)

I was immediately very interested in the premise of this one. There was a lot of Agatha Christie vibes in this one. But it dragged on a little bit. It's more character driven than plot. Overall interesting premise and I think people more patient than me will enjoy it more. Thank you NetGalley and Inkshares for the advanced reading copy.

The three Linwood siblings live in Linwood Hall, set in many acres of beautiful countryside. The family are respected and revered by all the local villagers, but there are dark and disturbing secrets of mental and physical abuse, with coercion a matter of course. As they get older the three move away from home and the influences there, but they are drawn back to Linwood Hall to attend a funeral, though even that is not as it seems.

This book is mainly set in the early 1020’s, with the horrors of war still at the forefront of most peoples minds. The language is that of the period, and both that and the setting are well done, reminiscent of the popular detective novels of the day. The story holds much promise and expectation. Unfortunately the book needs a very thorough editing, as it is long winded and repetitive, which makes the reader lose interest. With the extraneous waffle taken out it would be a much easier and pleasurable read.

Thank you NetGalley.

Mixed feelings about this one. It was very well written, but dragged quite a bit. Reminded me of an Agatha Christie novel. I loved the historical setting, but just couldn’t fully get into the mystery.

3.5 - I enjoy a good murder mystery, and this one was quite pleasing. The setup was intricate and suspenseful, and I thought it did a good job of transitioning POVs from character to character. I also liked that it wasn't the type where it's totally unsolvable - the reader can have a little fun trying to figure out the mystery as well, and there's enough plausible information given that I could piece together my own theories.

I thought the pacing could use some work. I think the author made a considerable effort to immerse the reader in the 1920s setting, but it just didn't do it for me. I guess I didn't find that time period particularly interesting, so when there was a lot of context building related to that, I tended to unconsciously start skimming.

Received a free copy from Netgalley.

Unnatural Ends is a murder mystery in the style of Agatha Christie's novels. Set in the 1920s, it tells the story of Sir Linwood's three adopted kids returning home after their father's murder and being tasked with finding his killer in order to receive their inheritance. The book has multiple POVs in which we switch primarily between the main 3 characters and sometimes even get an insight into other side characters (the detective, innkeeper, etc.).
It's an interesting murder mystery that has pretty solid writing and I found it overall enjoyable but not necessarily anything I'd recommend or remember down the line. As a result of the multiple POVs and how they're done, the story comes across as incredibly slow-paced; we often discover things numerous times, once through one kid and then through the other, or when the author wants to make a point (for example, about the child abuse), he makes it multiple times, really emphasizing something. This makes it so that the reader has more time to process everything and is, for the most part, ahead of the characters. The reveal in the story loses some of its touch because you've had the time to think out all scenarios and arrive at it well in advance.
There's also one thing I have to mention as it bugged me quite a lot when reading the book and that was the fact that Caroline (one of the siblings) keeps referencing The Taming of the Shrew in her POV chapters. The first few times were fine as she is shown to be a dramatic and literary person but at some point she's explaining everything through how it compares to characters in The Taming of the Shrew and which character lines up with which one and it just seemed like such a bizarre move for the author to do so and to, basically, map out his thought process for the readers. It's almost as if the West Side Story movie had a character that kept looking at the audience and saying "this character is supposed to be Romeo, this one's Juliet".
The writing, as mentioned, is quite well done. It's very similar to books written a hundred years ago and truly makes you feel like you're reading a classic. I haven't made my mind up about whether that's a good thing or not. It could be, if you're looking for something recent that has the same vibe but ... for me, I just kept thinking that maybe I should read those classics instead.
All in all, the story is interesting and the characters are well developed. Were this to be adapted into a TV show with a much faster pace, I can see it being done well and truly captivating the audience, especially through the multi-dimensional characters and how well built they are.

I didn't love this. I felt like there was a lot of repetition when it wasn't necessary and the characters weren't likeable.

If you go into this book hoping for a lush historical mystery, you might not exactly find it. That isn't to say that it is a bad book. It just turns the dial way into the mundane details that contribute to establishing the time period and setting. So I will recommend this not for mystery lovers but for more slice of life lovers with a bit of mystery.

I thought the author's writing style was captivating for the time period and he wove together some wonderful characters, however, the story itself fell short for me as this plot has been done so many times before, and for a mystery/thriller, I was not very suprised/thrilled. I predicted the ending very early on. For avid thriller fans, I would probably not recommend this book for that very reason. However, for historical fiction fans, this was an interesting period piece. Very reminiscent of Agatha Christie. Thank you to NetGalley for providing me an ARC of this book in exchange for my honest opinion.

Ok, I really enjoyed this book. I loved the twists, turns, dead ends, and questions that kept popping up. To me, it was like a giant game of "Clue". I loved how new evidence and background kept being found and given to the reader making me continually change my mind about who I thought was guilty. The story grew and developed in a way that made me constantly want to know what happened next and which characters were acting suspiciously. I also really loved how the three siblings grew into themselves more as the story went on and how they were able to grow and learn about who they each were without their father driving their lives. The reason I did not give it five stars is that I found it hard to read/ confusing at times. I had to reread some parts over again to understand them. Overall, though, I really enjoyed the book and am grateful that I was able to read an advanced copy of it!

I'll be honest, I went into this book expecting a typical heir-inheritance war, probably with a slow-burn romance subplot thrown in.

Thankfully, my expectations were completely wrong. When you think you've had the whodunnit moment (essentially a case of scorned-lover-takes-matters-into-their-own-hands), the book takes a complete 180 and ties in multiple subplots to lead up to a massive plot twist (I quite literally cleared my entire evening to finish the book). The subplots themselves were also interesting to follow, if occasionally a tad confusing. The various points of view definitely helped; I really enjoyed reading from the POVs of side as well as main characters. Character-wise, the story was not lacking: each character was multifaceted and unique, and I loved the bond between the Linwood siblings. The setting, although generic-sounding (I mean, how many murder mysteries take place in an ancient location?), was actually very fascinating, especially given the way Mr. Huang described the scenes.

Overall? I'll be waiting with my money for the physical copy to come out.

I absolutely loved this book. The illustration of the family dynamic and the power of the patriarch was dynamic and kept me invested in the siblings’ story lines. The biblical and historical references were creative and added a foreshadowing layer to the plot that was fun to piece together.

3 adopted siblings return to their childhood home, when their father was brutally bludgeoned to death. Upon reading of the will, they find out in order to get the inheritance left behind, they had to solve the mystery of who killed the patriach.

This book was very much like The Inugami Curse and had Poirot crime vibes. However, the difference to me was that Unnatural Ends was really slow. Slower than a slow burn, honestly. I somewhat got bored along the way. The writing was alright, it suited the 1920s feel that this story was set in. Maybe because i have read stories along this same premise, it got me comparing thus feeling that this could have been executed better.

TWs for abuse.

2.5 stars!

Thank you NetGalley for this ARC in exchange for an honest review!

This one was a tough one for me to get through. It just wasn’t fully what I expected a historical murder mystery to be. However, it picked up towards the end. I felt that the beginning had too many irrelevant details that did not contribute to the book as a whole making it hard to follow. I found myself being overwhelmed by the long descriptions making it incredibly slow and dry for me. I found the characters hard to relate to as well.

This murder mystery was set in the 1920s and 3 adopted siblings were reunited after hearing of their fathers death. It came as a surprise to the children when they were told their father was murdered and whoever could figure his killer out would inherit the estate entirely. Along the way they find out who they really are instead of who their father wanted them to be. I felt like it focused more on the character development than the actual murder investigation itself. I did enjoy where the story ended up going, and the ending was worth getting to. Just took me awhile to get there.

This was a fun and quick read. I enjoyed the light mystery and it was written well. While I didn’t find it to be super memorable it is still a book that I would recommend to others.
Thank you to the publisher and NetGalley for the chance to read and review this book.

ARC kindly provided by the publisher via NetGalley in exchange for an honest and fair review.

Mystery novel set in the first half of the 1900s: it's a huge yes for me. It's a must read if you like mystery books and thrillers and you fancy Agatha Christie's books and so on.

Sir Lawrence Linwood is found dead, better murdered with a mediaeval mace, in his study at Linwood Hall in Yorkshire. It's 1921. Alan, an archeologist, Roger, an engineer, and Caroline, a journalist, are the three Linwood siblings and they go back to the estate as soon as they find out about the murder. After the funeral, Sir Linwood's will is read out loud: in its first writing, it read how Linwood Hall was to be divided in three equal parts for his adopted children and in its second writing, it reads how Linwood Hall will go in its enterity only to the one who manages to solve Sir Linwood's murder in case he didn't die of natural causes. Thus, now Alan, Roger and Caroline must find out who is the murderer and why this person decided to kill their father.

Half of the time while reading this book, I was confused, the other half I was so thrilled. Every single chapter has the pov of one of the characters (mainly Alan, Roger and Caroline's, as they are the main characters) and so it did help seeing things from their perspective, but it also confused me more. In their chapters there are also many flashbacks and their thoughts are often painted with the memories of their childhood and their adoptive parents.
Furthermore, throughout the book many historical events are mentioned which may be a little hard to grasp if you don't know them. On the contrary, I loved how the three sibilings grew up believing to be living in Camelot and how they pretended to be King Arthur, Merlin etc. (I love the legend of King Arthur and Merlin).
Moreover, I'll say that I did see the ending coming pretty soon, but I wasn't really certain of it because the author gave so many different and contradictory hints which did a great job on my brain.
The story was very captivating yet I found it hard in certain points as English is not my first language and I still am a full C1 level. I am saying this just for those who don't come from an Anglophone country and are interested in this book which, trust me, is worth it!

My rating: full 4!

Huang crafts a delightful mystery with memorable and distinct characters in this really fun novel. The characters were the most compelling part of the story for me. There are three central characters, three siblings, each adopted and raised by the same lord in early 20th century England, a few train rides outside of London. Huang does a great job of making each of these three unique while still showing how they came from one family, one upbringing. Their behaviors and attitudes overlap in the often-undefinable way that happens with close siblings, yet each has grown up to be their own person. It helped that the chapters alternated between different points of view, mostly staying with these core three characters, so we were able to see them from within and without. They are the heart of this story, and I was impressed with them. There are a handful of ancillary characters, some of whom get an occasional POC chapter and some who don’t, and they are all fine, too. The seeds are planted for most to have more compelling life stories and not to be simply two-dimensional placeholders to move the plot along, which means they never felt lazy or convenient.

The story itself is a fun detective mystery, with the siblings working, both together and apart, to find their father’s murderer. I will say that I was able to guess the ending pretty much from the moment we were shown the crime scene, which may be in part due to my consumption of genre fiction. Even with that being the case I enjoyed watching the characters unravel the mystery, including discovering deeper levels of meaning that my broad-stroke guesses had failed to identify. Importantly, the characters always feel like they are making appropriate decisions given the knowledge and tools they have available to them, which is not something that can be said for all stories found in this genre. The story is divided into four parts, which wasn’t entirely necessary insofar as there weren’t time jumps or anything major between the distinct parts, but I actually appreciated the feeling of structure it gave the narrative and the characters. The mystery’s conclusion felt fulfilling and the story wrapped up in a way that seemed fitting with the rest of the novel, it didn’t ever feel like the reader was being cheated or manipulated (which can sometimes happen when mysteries don’t do the work to earn their “twists” at the end).

The writing itself was quite pleasant. I don’t have a strong reference for early-twentieth century semi-rural England, but the language seemed natural and the dialogue flowed well. The writing was tight, not overly flowery or ornamental, but still warm and inviting. Since different chapters offered different POVs time worked in a somewhat back and forth fashion… Sometimes the chapters, regardless of whose perspective they were form, flowed in perfect chronological order. Other times we would see the same day happen three different times, giving us a somewhat back and forth chronology. None of this bothered me, it never felt forced or uncomfortable, and in fact I appreciated the way the three characters all had different experiences of the same rainstorm, for instance. Part 1 of the novel had a lot of place setting and character introduction, but after that the writing had a lot of forward momentum—even when we repeated the same day from different perspectives—and I didn’t want to put it down, it kept driving the story, and importantly the emotional inner story, forward in compelling and enjoyable ways.

I want to thank NetGalley and Inkshares, who provided a complimentary eARC in exchange for an honest review.

This book had an excellent premise and I was really excited to read it, but unfortunately something fell flat for me. I'm not sure whether it was the flot or writing, but I ended up getting bored for most of the book.

I really liked this! The mystery was suspenseful enough to keep me on my toes. A nice summer read that was very entertaining. However, I don't think I will be thinking about this book for a long while!

I loved this book its like a combination of Agatha Christie and Downtown Abbey! It hooked me at the first line and kept me enthralled the whole time. I would recommend running to get this book!