PI Adam MacAnnis has wrangled an invitation to a private hunting club from an old friend. The friend doesn’t know Adam is there on a case. The club is remote, and a terrific storm is predicted for the Bicentennial 4th of July weekend. West Heart’s members have belonged for generations and there’s more than enough drama, just below the surface and simmering to the top, before the weekend starts off with a dog getting hit followed the next morning by a hunting accident.

Then a club member is found in the lake. Her death appears to be suicidal, but is it really?

Told in alternating points of view—primarily Adam’s p, but occasionally an unidentified narrator’s, interspersed with a study of the mystery genre, this novel is anything but typical. #WestHeartKill #NetGalley

If you are a fan of detective mysteries, this book is for you. Not just because it is a detective mystery, but because it spends a great deal of time exploring the genre.

West Heart Kill is a standalone detective murder mystery novel by Dann McDorman in the vein of the locked room mystery. The thing that made this a 5-star read for me was the atmosphere and the interesting narration.

Adam McAnnis is a private detective who has reunited with a college friend and joined him on his 4th of July weekend family vacation. They are going to the West Heart Hunting Club in New England, where several other monied families are members. The 4th of July weekend is a tradition passed down through generations. But is a nice vacation all Detective McAnnis has in mind? It seems McAnnis has been hired by somebody at West Heart, though we don't know who or why. The families in attendance are all pretty dysfunctional. There are affairs, drug use, shady business dealings... All in all, it was great fun.

The atmosphere of the novel is kind of dark and moody, the characters are all deeply flawed, broken, and jaded. I loved the setting and time period. The narration was interesting because the omniscient 3rd person narrator spoke directly to the reader and would intermittently speak to the detective genre and the process of writing a detective novel. Book nerd that I am, I enjoyed his asides immensely. I was left with some questions at the end of it, but the mood of the book trumps that for me, it was a solid 5-star read.

I want to thank everyone for my gifted copy of West Heart Kill by Dann McDorman.

I thought that this book had a really interesting take on a classic whodoneit mystery book. I liked that the book had "facts" about these types of books throughout the story, and that you, the reader, who a character within the story. It kept me interested for most of the story, but towards the end, I found myself very confused as to what actually happened in the story. lol

An elite hunting club is the scene of several deaths while an outsider private investigator happens to be visiting, but this is as much an exploration of the detective mystery genre as a detective mystery novel, so we also explore the structure and history of the mystery novel, how information is disseminated, how that changes the reading experience, etc. I adored the way it played with tense and perspective and tone to craft both a mystery and a meta-mystery. I can see the final twist being divisive, but I thought it was deviously clever in the best way.

Hmmm. I’m not totally sure how to explain this or my feelings about it. I wasn’t feeling it for the first 15-20% but several reviews compared it to Evelyn Hardcastle, and since I loved that, I figured I’d make it to the end. There were a few times I found myself really frustrated but also thought it might all play out well.

While I applaud the creativity and experimental nature of the book, it honestly doesn’t work. It feels very self-congratulatory and pretentious, as if the writer was way more interested in being like, “hey look what I can do” than he was in writing a good book.

Elements were good. There were some beautiful and insightful reflections I truly enjoyed. At one point, it was starting to pull together very nicely and I almost felt like it was a mix of classic mysteries, House of Leaves, and Gatsby. Since I enjoy all of those immensely, I was very excited to finish the last 15-20%. Then there was a twist that was iffy. But it could have still worked. And then we had a genre and tonal switch, which also could have worked. However, the ending…. Man. Do you want to waste hours of your life only for a writer to basically be like, “aren’t I clever and don’t you feel dumb?” If so, have at it. But it wasn’t earned and made me mad. I consider myself well-read and enjoyed some of the side commentary (almost pedagogical content). But at the end, it felt insulting, and I was left way more annoyed that I’d basically succumbed to this pretentious experiment and thought exercise when I just wanted to read a damn book.

Also, calling out misogyny, anti-Semitism, and racism while perpetuating them isn’t really the solution. It felt more like “hey, what are you gonna do? People weren’t as enlightened in the 70s. Tee hee.”

Ugh. I’m so angry. But it had such potential and the creativity was exciting until it didn’t play out.

Although the tone/narration of this book took some getting used to, I found this to be a pleasing and entertaining whodunit mystery.

West Heart Kill by Dann McDorman is a mystery with a slightly different format. The setting is a hunting lodge, and everyone is a suspect, including the detective. The first part of the story is narrated by the detective. Then the next part is narrated by an unknown character. There’s an interview format and even a play format included. I enjoyed all these differences, but the story itself was lacking a bit. Thanks to NetGalley for the free digital review copy. All opinions are my own.

The set-up for West Heart Kill is a great one. Rich New Yorkers at their private country club retreat in the 1970s. Everyone has secrets. But who would kill to protect their own?

Author Dann McDorman took an experimental approach to telling his story. And while playing with story form is admirable - especially with a genre like mystery that has specific formulaic beats and well-worn tropes - I was constantly wishing this tale was told to me straight.

I found myself struggling the most with the third-wall-breaking narrator. Always speaking directly to the reader as “you” and stopping to interject what the reader must be feeling or thinking. It’s very jarring to be wrongly told what I’m thinking while reading a story.

Even the publicity around the release of West Heart Kill admits that this book is not for everyone. And I agree. It most certainly was not for me.

[Definitely read a variety of reviews before picking up this book. I have a friend who reads a ton of mystery and rather enjoyed the dissection of different writing styles and tropes in the mystery canon.]

Thank you to Knopf and NetGalley for sharing this ARC.

I really wanted to get into this book. I loved the premise of it, but it fell a bit flat for me and I couldn’t get into it. I love how the author writes directly to the reader and was saying what I was thinking.

West Heart Kill is a MUST READ for fans of the murder mystery genre! It is such a fun and creative take on the typical murder mystery: it is very meta, breaking the fourth wall and inviting the reader to participate in the story. It interrupts the narrative with commentary on the genre itself that will make you ruminate on why we enjoy murder mysteries so much, why do we derive entertainment from murder? It changes POVs and has multiple formats. I was completely hooked and loved every minute of it. You will be too if you enjoy outside the box storytelling.

⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️

I received a digital ARC from the publisher, but started reading it as an audiobook. Audiobookers, this is phenomenal in that format. Two hours in, I loved the book so much I had to order a physical copy for my shelf.

Remember watching movies on DVD and scouring the DVD extras section for entertaining tidbits like bloopers, etc.? Remember the one thing you never watched, because it was so annoying? Yup, the option to watch the entire movie accompanied by the director’s (or various actors’) commentary. Well, this book basically feels like that. The whole time we’re reading, there’s a meta-y commentary breaking the fourth wall to address the reader about the tricks of the genre. It’s all very knowing and at some level amusing, like the author knows we are wise to how these things work but is going to fool us anyway. This had the potential to make things more impressive, the way it’s fun to be fooled by sleight of hand even if we think we are too sophisticated to be tricked. The problem is that is makes reading the actual mystery kind of a pain. It’s hard to stay interested when there is a momentum-breaking interruption every chapter or so calling attention to the narrative trickery that’s happening right in front of us. This would have been more effective for me if there had been just some kind of introductory chapter challenging the reader to figure it out, followed by the actual uninterrupted story. (And maybe a final “here’s how I fooled you” summation.) Instead was left appreciating the cleverness at an intellectual level but without actually having fun reading the book. It took me almost ten days to get to the end—not a sign of a compelling entertainment.

Thanks to Netgalley and Knopf for a digital advance review copy.

West Heart Kill was a super fun take on the cozy mystery, kept me guessing, and a really interesting play on structure. Loved it!

West Heart Kill by Dann McDorman is a unique debut novel. The author seems to try and emulate the classic mystery style of early mystery novels. He plays with point of view in ways that make you wonder if the story has begun or there is another introduction. The book is unique and creative but probably not for everyone. I received a digital copy of this book from the publisher with no obligations. These opinions are entirely my own.

I was so excited to read a good mystery novel during the fall season, and I thought this was going to be exactly what I wanted/needed… I was way off the mark.

Firstly, there were too many characters to keep track of (unless you’re taking notes, of course). Second, it was relatively boring as well. How is this a murder mystery when it feels like there’s nothing happening? Maybe this was just due to the pacing.

Even with all that, I would have given this a 3.5/5… but then the ending happened. And it was SO STUPID!!! Even as someone who occasionally likes a bit of a different ending… this was just dumb. So that dropped it a whole 1.5 stars. Still not the worst book I’ve read, but I was pretty disappointed. Best part of this book was the cover - it’s gorgeous!

Woops- I forgot to post this review after finally reading this arc… I think mostly because I was kinda disappointed in this book after feeling so excited at it (mostly based on the cover art).
Meh. This book was all over the place. I felt like I skimmed a lot of these random sections about other murder mysteries and famous investigators and the generalizations of mystery writing because I just wanted to know what was actually happening at West Heart Club.
I didn’t care for our investigator. I didn’t believe that all these rich people at this exclusive and faraway club would ask this investigator about his investigating so much, but I did really like the cast of characters and the descriptions of them and the the club/grounds in general.
The investigator’s feelings toward his friends daughter really creeped me out also (random sidenote).
This book feels snooty. Maybe I’m dumb, but I’m pretty sure I’m not and this book seemed to assume I’m dumb and the writer is the ultimate in clever.
Liked the ending, though. Very meta. The whole thing and I can see where some (probably very smug) people would really love this book. It mostly just bored me and jumped around too much.

The novel is written in a mixed media format in the style of a meta literary manual or textbook. It weaves in occasional history facts of the mystery genre in between the main story of murder mystery.

The reader is brought in as sort a student with the professor (narrator) giving lessons on the how’s and why’s of writing structures. Ways in which to process and analyze the plot, dialogue, characters and actions using examples of past novels while actively trying to solve the current murder. Although quite jarring at first, there was fascination and intrigue.

What started as a promising different take on a murder mystery, lost its flame by the halfway point. My investment quickly started to waver.

The further it went, the more pretentious and dry it had become while containing a lot of projection from the narrator onto the reader. There’s only so much patience I could have after being told what I’m feeling and thinking at every point of the story when it wasn’t case majority of the time. Very patronizing.

Every time it jumped out of the story to give history lessons on anything related to the murder mystery genre as a whole, I lost more and more interest in it when the narration finally made its way back. Add in the many switches between 1st, 2nd and 3rd person, and I was over it and no longer cared about the characters or plot points. I’m not going to spoil the ending but just know that I think it wasn’t worth the time to get there.


Thanks to NetGalley and Knopf for providing a copy for an honest review.

I was immediately drawn to the cover of this novel, as well as its classic “whodunnit” plot & premise. West Heart seemed like the perfect secluded place for extraordinarily wealthy people to literally get away with murder.

I like how the author broke the fourth wall often when discussing common murder mystery tropes, but was unsure how this would / could be used to trick or influence the reader as the story went on. I thought this was unique and it definitely added to my experience and engagement in the story while reading.

I think fans of classic murder mysteries should absolutely give this one a shot! I am still unsure about how I felt about the format of the ending, but I think for the right audience it would actually be a great read.

Thank you so much to the author and netgalley for my E-ARC to read and review!

3.5 rounded up

Definitely not a book for everyone. The choice of narrative voice has created a "love it" or "hate it" duality. For those of you looking for a straight-forward, everything as expected mystery novel, please look elsewhere. For readers who might be interested in something a bit more unconventional, give this a try.

My original interest in this book came from the setting. I live in the Catskills of NY and have lived near and hiked the West (heart) Kill, and have "hunting clubs" around. I thought it would be an interesting mix of mystery and local location for my patrons and requested the book for purchase for our library. I had no idea about the different narrative voice, but wasn't put off by it. Actually, I think the voice was the only engaging part of the novel.

A novel concept for a mystery novel that is sure to charm some, but it's definitely an acquired taste and not for everyone.

Ostensibly, this book should have been a perfect fit for me. An isolated hunting lodge with a Southern setting in the mid 1970s. Lots of naughty country club people who spend a lot of time together and are far too involved in each others lives. A snow storm that creates a locked room mystery atmosphere. I expected to love this book, and I think many people will.

The author uses a "breaking the fourth wall" device, where an omniscient narrator gives his sage viewpoints on how good mystery stories are created, sometimes referencing books from the past. He explains what is happening and how this applies to the story we're reading, in regard to the mystery genre in general.

He gives a lot of interesting information about the world of mysteries here, but for me, it was too distracting. When I read a book I like to be immersed in its world, and the world described here is one I would have enjoyed inhabiting for a time. But with the narrator constantly breaking in to give his viewpoints, I was abruptly snatched from the 1970 hunting lodge.

I think there will be people who love this style of writing and this book. The writing was good. The characters were well drawn. The setting was superb. But unfortunately, the narrator device spoiled it for me.

Thank you to NetGalley, the publisher, and the author for allowing me to read this book in exchange for an honest review.