"Looking for an anything-but-ordinary whodunit? Welcome to the West Heart country club. Where the drinks are neat but behind closed doors...things can get messy. Where upright citizens are deemed downright boring. Where the only missing piece of the puzzle is you, dear reader.

A unique and irresistible murder mystery set at a remote hunting lodge where everyone is a suspect, including the erratic detective on the scene - a remarkable debut that gleefully upends the rules of the genre.

An isolated hunt club. A raging storm. Three corpses, discovered within four days. A cast of monied, scheming, unfaithful characters.

When private detective Adam McAnnis joins an old college friend for the Bicentennial weekend at the exclusive West Heart club in upstate New York, he finds himself among a set of not-entirely-friendly strangers. Then the body of one of the members is found at the lake's edge; hours later, a major storm hits. By the time power is restored on Sunday, two more people will be dead..."

The question has to be asked, does it really upend the genre?

Thank you to Netgalley and the Publishers for this Advanced Readers Copy of West Heart Kill by Dann McDorman!

West Heart Kill starts by setting the atmosphere, both for the book and for the mystery, and spends a lot of time in dialogue with the reader, describing what a mystery lover feels and why. It's hard to decide whether the asides and tangents are too precious or set just the right sour tone. There are many similarities to Anthony Horowitz's Susan Ryeland and especially Hawthorne and Horowitz books. The mystery at the center is fairly pedestrian, so the novelty must come in the way the "case" is presented, and, for the thoughtful, veteran murder reader, I think it does a respectable and engrossing job.

Beach read. Easy going, nothing complex. I found the characters unrelatable and really didn't feel any strong connection or care what happened.

West Hart Kill features all the staples of a murder mystery: an isolated hunting lodge, a raging storm, a private detective, and a string of puzzling murders. Dann McDorman's book offers much more than the standard mystery novel, however, thanks to its metatextual exploration of the genre.

The book opens like this: "This murder mystery, like all murder mysteries, begins with the evocation of what the reader understands to be its atmosphere." The book constantly calls attention to itself and to its readers, playing with both the expectations of and reactions to stock elements of the mystery genre. The writing is polarizing. Readers will either love or hate the style. I am a fan of texts that are aware of being texts, so I enjoyed the writing style as much as I enjoyed the plot. This was a fun read for mystery fans looking for something completely new!

Thanks to Netgalley and Knopf for gifting me a pre-release copy. Below you'll find my honest review.

I'm really torn on how to rate this one, because it's absolutely unique and brilliant in its own right, but some of that uniqueness turned it sour for me.

I liked the characters - it felt very much like an old-timey, Agatha Christie era murder mystery story. I liked that the characters weren't really all that likeable half the time, even the detective, and I liked that there were a lot of twists in who people really were on the inside.

I liked the mystery - a death, another death, another death, they just kept coming. I liked that one of those deaths was completely and entirely unexpected for me and subverted my expectations.

I liked the unique style choices the author made - at one point, the novel becomes a screenplay, which was a very clever and interesting way to show the scenes.

BUT, all of that being said, the non-stop style choices, the swaps between tenses, the jumping into lessons on the history of mystery writing, the charming-at-first bits about how the reader interacts with the story and has certain assumptions/guesses/etc.... these things all became tedious and distracting. Every few pages, you're pulled out of the story for another aside, and after a while, it just became hard to stay engrossed in the actual mystery.

Couple this with a highly unsatisfying ending, and I just couldn't say I loved it like I wanted to when I started. I still enjoyed the novelty and clever shtick for much of it, so I will give it a solid, yet average, three out of five stars.

I can see this being off-putting for many readers, but I was into the 'deconstruction-lite' playfulness of the story. In that way, it reminded me of mid-century mysteries that tried to do something a little different or unexpected with the usual tropes. The mystery itself wasn't the most satisfying, but I thought the writing was good and it was more than just run-of-the-mill. I'll definitely keep an eye out for what McDorman does next.

My first thought when I started reading this book was that it was going to be really cleverly written. It turned out that that was probably the biggest problem with the book. The author was so busy trying to be clever he forgot he was supposed to be writing a good story about an intriguing mystery with engaging characters. For most of the book I felt like I was in a lecture series with what could have been an enjoyable mystery only referred to in passing. I felt like the author’s main reason for writing the book was to point out how knowledgeable he was about the history of the mystery genre.

Every time the story would begin to pick up some momentum and become the least bit engaging; boom, there would be a totally mood killing break. Do we really need almost a page devoted to defining the word mystery or paragraphs devoted to Dashiel Hammett’s “Flitcraft’s Parable” or the various methods of murder? Besides breaking the already tenuous flow of the story, the unintended result of all these little asides was that it was extremely hard to keep track of the various characters. Of course, if they were to simply be filler, they succeeded admirably because they filled a lot of pages.

The actual murder mystery itself could have been entertaining had it been given more attention. All the elements were certainly there but it seemed the author was more interested in writing an unconventional book than an enjoyable one.

My copy of this book was provided by the publisher via NetGalley in exchange for an honest review. My thanks to the the author, the publisher, and NetGalley for the opportunity to read and review it.

West Heart Kill is a mystery book that feels like it is intended for a very specific type of reader. If you are not that type of reader then it will feel like a convoluted mess that’s difficult to follow and even more difficult to enjoy. Truth be told, I AM the type of reader this type of book appeals to and there were still plenty of points in the book where I felt it got over complicated. The book is both a murder mystery and a reflection on the genre of murder mysteries in general, alternating between the story unfolding and analysis of different tropes. Quite possibly the most dizzying part of the story is the constant switches in perspective. Part is a third person analysis of the genre. Part is spoken to the reader, as they metaphorically look over the shoulder of a detective that’s a guest of one of the families that owns West Heart. Part of it is told directly from the detective’s perspective. Then after a murder (at least in this case, there is no doubt this particular death was accidental) two new perspectives emerge-a first person plural of all the remaining characters, and that of the reader inserting themselves into the story. It’s clever and creative, but may have been easier to follow if it had only used one of these unique approaches. Then of course, it wouldn’t have fulfilled an opportunity to throw the book at the genre. There were some points of this book that reminded me so much of the movie Clue, both in dialogue and the way the plot unfolded, that I couldn’t help but enjoy myself. But I can also see why this would drive other people crazy. This book is not for everyone, but if you like oddball approaches to mysteries and enjoy Clue, you may enjoy West Heart Kill.

Adam McAnnis is visiting the wealthy clubhouse of West Heart thanks to college chum (and founding family scion) James Blake. West Heart has served numerous wealthy families since its inception and seen a high class of guest over those years. Names like Teddy Roosevelt or Charles Lindbergh are on the roster and have stories told about their weekend visits in the club's halcyon days. For an event like the Bicentennial, there are plenty of special events in store as well as a few surprises and even a handful of deaths. Are they natural, self-inflicted, or murder? That's the big question. And Adam is the one with an appreciation for both questions and answers. He's a detective, after all.

West Heart is home to plenty of secrets and rivalries. The children see it as a veritable playground, and so do the adults—though the latter's preference is toward boozing themselves to the gills, maybe indulging a little weed, and seeing how many adulterous acts they can perform. A prospective member is also present, and he might be turned away because of good old antisemitism.

If a crime has been committed, there will be plenty of suspects and it will take a careful investigator to parse out whodunit, howdunit, and whydunit. Is Adam McAnnis up to the task? Or will a Reader alone be forced to identify the clues and assemble them into a significant shape instead? Dann McDorman assembles a book stuffed with clues, blind alleys, locked rooms, dead bodies, hideaways, caches under the floorboards, as well as plenty of facts about and philosophical ruminations on murder mystery fiction with West Heart Kill.

Thirty plus years ago, I attended Oakland University. For those unfamiliar with the name, OU is a smallish university in Rochester, Michigan. There I earned a Bachelor of Science in Physics, a Bachelor of Arts in English Literature, and a Master of Arts in English Literature. Yeah, I'm overeducated, versed in classic and modern fiction, poetry, and drama (as well as quantum mechanics, thermodynamics, differential equations, and a host of other things). I have a love for fiction, both of the literary and genre worlds—I don't see these as high and low art, they are more different expressions with wildly different appeals. Literary fiction is really just another genre, after all. By the way, "Genre" does not come from the word "generic;" both words contain the Latin term gen, but "genre" is the French origin of "genre" and "générique" is the French origin of "generic," the former meaning "a category characterized by a distinctive style, form, or content" and the latter meaning "having no distinctive qualities." Anyone who's telling you otherwise is either misinformed or trying to sell you something. My suggestion? Don't buy. Sometimes, there are crossovers between the schools of literary writing and other genres, of course. If a writer known for genre fiction slums in the realms of literary fiction, well it's often laughed at by the ivory towers, whereas if it's a literary writer "trying to raise up genre," well then it's lauded. Most often writers who are versed in one style of writing don't have the machinery necessary to cross over and the results are uninspired or outright irritating. John Updike writes beautifully in the stories found in Pigeon Feathers, the Rabbit cycle of novels, and The Witches of Eastwick. However, his thriller Terrorist reads like someone who discovered he could actually have fun writing (and did on an early draft) who then made the conscious choice to revise all the fun out so it seems a "more serious" book. Instead of elevating genre, Updike composed a thriller that doesn't thrill, a wannabe literary work that is written down to perceived genre expectations.

It might seem to be a rambling way to get into the novel at hand today, but it's in keeping with Dann McDorman's first novel's spirit. He gives us rambles aplenty as well.

So, here comes West Heart Kill, a book that is ostensibly a mystery novel about people in a cozy setting trying to solve a murder. It's got a detective, clues, interviews. It also has a real sense for the genre—history of topics such as "the howdonit," "the whowroteit," Locked Room mysteries, etc. appear with the regularity of chapters on whaling in Melville's Moby Dick. It breaks the fourth wall with occasional second person narration, and even abandons traditional narrative altogether in its final third for a mode that both pays homage to the mystery plays or yore as well as actualizes the chamber play qualities of that chapter of every Agatha Christie book where Hercule Poirot calls together all the suspects and then covers the crime from top to bottom and throws out his accusations. It offers quotes from a wide variety of literary sources as dialogue.

It's clever. And it's self-conscious about its cleverness, and that can come across as rather tacky. Some will find its tone cynical as hell, appealing to those readers who'd prefer to have their genre narratives served deconstructed atop a bed of rice instead of served neat as a fine aged single malt. I found the novel rather precious, which is among the worst offense any written work can be guilty of.

Is it funny? Yes. Is it smart? Sure. Is it a good read? Well, that depends on who is reading it.

Whenever the thing was rattling along in third person, giving me a glimpse into the lives of the strange folks at this outrageously wealthy locale, I was intrigued to keep the pages turning. When it broke the wall and tried to show me how clever it was being, I tended to roll my eyes. A different reader will have a different response. Many readers of traditional narrative will hate this. Many readers with a love for experimental narrative will enjoy it. A portion or each camp will have the opposite reaction to the rest. And folks who want a mystery that doesn't cheat (as the text itself declares to be the worst kind of fraud) will probably be disappointed with the book. Spoiler alert: West Heart Kill doesn't cheat, but it doesn't play completely fair either. When listening to a con artist, one has to pay particular attention to the words they say, and not our interpretation of them in order to be able to hold them liable for their actions.

Needless to say, this is a book that will be divisive in its readership.

One of the real challenges readers have with second person is taking all this "you" nonsense personal. In fact, a novel is not like a live theater show or stand up comedy performance. It cannot read the room and figure out who is being talked to, the reactions coming back, and make fine tune adjustments for a personalized experience. So when an author is writing to You or to The Reader, this is yet one more character that we the actual reader are invited to play. It can be off-putting to have a text try to tell you what you're thinking or how you're feeling about a variety of topics. People who have zero experience with tabletop RPGs or Choose Your Own Adventures have quite the hurtle to get over to figure out what the hell the book is trying to do. There's a knee jerk response to say, "No I don't/won't." But it's just another character. And in the latter half of West Heart Kill this fact is made all the more explicit when the narrative shifts into a stage play with a character named Reader who is specified to be A Woman with wardrobes that match the audience (in Act I) and the characters (in Act II). Isn't that precious?

In the final analysis, I did not quit reading West Heart Kill. And when I was done, I did not hurl the thing against the wall—such an action would only have broken my Kindle or dented the drywall. I did decide then and there that my earliest instincts had been accurate. Just as the car delivers detective and friend to the cozily isolated location, I got the inkling that this was not going to be a book for me. Still, my physics background recommends that every hypothesis must be tested if it's to be disproved, so on I read all the way to the end. There are moments of beauty in the book, and some wonderful passages showing solid research (or believable fakery) on a variety of non-fiction topics. But West Heart Kill just left me rolling my eyes far more often than makes for an enjoyable reading experience.
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Thank you to Alfred A. Knopf and NetGalley for the opportunity to read an eARC in exchange for an honest review.

The description of this novel make it sound pretty enticing to me, but unfortunately I found it to be a huge letdown. It was very, very difficult to follow the storyline — probably because of the ever-changing format in which this novel is written. What I thought was going to be a real page turner turned out to be a book that I found myself being forced to finish. (IMO, the whole book read sort of like an instruction manual, and then the ending was awful.) I applaud the author for trying this unusual format, but it was just too weird for my reading taste. Others may very well enjoy it (it does have some pretty witty moments).

Not a fan of the writing style. The second-person POV isn't something I have ever tried to read before and I don't think I'll be seeking it out ever again. That accompanied by the fourth wall breaks really pulls you out of whatever is going on. DNF.

This book is intertwined with the writer interjecting expertise how authors use different genres when writing murder mysteries, thus making the reader a participant in trying to solve the multiple murders that happen over the holiday weekend at West Heart Kill. There is also a second voice throughout the book, detective Adam McAnnis who has been hired by an individual to attend the weekend at the hunting camp and report anything suspicious back. Everyone one there has their reasons as to who could be the killer. The book was written in a very unusual story line and was a little different to follow.

Is this a book, a play, a TV script? Who can tell? I tried to decipher what is going on in this book but it fails me. Its like being on the outside looking in and then you're in and back out again. Totally inconsistent and fails to grab attention because its a matter of the old cliche...'who's on first?'. I admittedly did not finish tis book because there was no determination of what is the book,what is narration and the myriad of characters to keep straight. I suppose the descriptions were the reason I chose to read or it was recommended. Just not my cup of tea. I was provided an advanced reader copy and was under no obligation to write a review. The opinions expressed are my own. Thanks to the author. publisher and NetGalley for the opportunity to read this book despite my being unable to understand it's content.

This is a very odd book, and I had high hopes for it. The author is explaining the finer points of the mystery genre while writing a mystery novel. There are many interesting (to me) asides concerning the masters of various devices used in the mystery world (locked rooms, poisons, small sets of characters, etc.). These asides would likely not be of interest to anyone expecting a standard "whodunit". These asides are rather long and by the time you've read through them you've forgotten what was happening in the mystery novel portion of the book. I was constantly confused by characters in the "novel"; they were very 2-dimensional and I really didn't care for any of them (except the detective-he did have some depth). The story concerns an enclave of wealthy individuals cut off from the mainland in a storm. Murder happens, investigation begins...but never actually ends. It's a rather unsatisfactory ending, really more of a non-ending. I do understand (I think) what the author was trying to convey in this book, but I am unsure if it will satisfy the expectations of many mystery readers.

This book isn’t what I expected, and that isn’t a good thing.

First, this isn’t a murder mystery in the traditional sense, which makes this book unique but also is its weakness. The book concentrates on how a murder mystery is written, and the mystery itself is secondary. Various points of view are also employed in the book-first person, third person, and what really put me out of the story-second person. Second person is used to tell the reader what assumptions the reader is making and when those assumptions were wrong, it really disrupted what was already a complicated read. Another format used in the book was that of a play. Personally, I don’t like reading plays to begin with. The format was used to make the reader a participant in trying to solve, at this point, multiple murders, but it added another layer of difficulty in trying to keep straight what was going on.

A multiple number of identical characters also made for a difficult read. There is really nothing to distinguish one from another—they are all unhappy, can’t cope without alcohol or drugs or both, cheat on their spouses, and are just difficult to keep straight. I really didn’t care about any of them.

Recommendation
This book wasn’t for me, but if it sounds like something you might enjoy, give it a try, maybe by borrowing a copy from the library or a friend.

Thanks to #NetGalley and Knopf, Pantheon, Vintage, and Anchor, for providing a copy of the book. All opinions are my own.

This is the silliest book I have ever read. I don’t know why I finished it, except it was a NetGalley copy & I felt I should finish it. DO NOT like the structure of the book, especially the removal of the fourth wall & trying to engage the reader. The ending is a total cop out.

This was a very different kind of "country house" murder; a hunting club for rich people, tensions in the group of long-timers, bodies showing up. But in between is a narrative explaining the whole genre and the story switches off between an omniscient narrator and the first-person narration of a detective on the scene. I don't think it will be to everyone's taste but for lovers of Agatha Christie and other classic mystery writers, this is an homage to the genre.

In Dann McDorman’s West Heart Kill, a newcomer detective (who doesn’t state himself as a detective to most of the characters) joins a group of wealthy, bored, entangled people in an exclusive camp that is then cut off from society during a storm. As we all know, storms are perfect covers for murder. When bodies start popping up, things get sticky.

It is set during the bicentennial (so late 70s), easily explaining the lack of cell phones and internet with which to contact the world once they are stranded with a murderer. It is SORT OF a locked room mystery, but more than that it is a VERY stylized, metafiction, with direct-to-reader addresses, very stylized writing, and a bit of self-congratulatory adulation. I found it a bit challenging to keep track of the characters and their relationships without having a physical copy to reference the character list at the beginning. I had a fine time with this, but I don’t know that I feel particularly compelled by it and it is probably too stylized for my readers.

Readers of West Heart Kill will find themselves on a unique mysterious journey. The narrator/author transforms readers into insiders from the outset, incorporating an exclusive club in a remote setting, dangerous weather, a mounting number of murder victims, and a cast of wealthy, eccentric suspects.

While this book may not be everyone's cup of tea, in the right readers' hands, it is a rare gem.