Thank you to NetGalley, the Publishers, and Dann McDorman for an ARC of West Heart Kills. This was definitely a different style of writing and it is not for everyone. I did try my hardest because I love the “whodunit” aspect, but it was a bit of a struggle to get through. The story was a bit hard to follow along with the switching of talking to the reader and telling the story that it didn’t flow as well as it could’ve been executed. I do greatly appreciate having the chance to try out this new type of mystery!

Based on the publisher's summary of West Heart Kill, I was looking forward to an entertaining locked room mystery. But instead it struck me as an unfortunate example of style over substance.

Set in the 1970s in a remote hunting lodge and men's club where a storm prevents anyone from leaving and suspicious deaths start occurring, it's a promising premise. But too many characters, combined with ever-shifting points of view, made reading it more of a challenge that I wasn't prepared to meet. In one of the POVs, the didactic narrator speaks directly to the reader, seemingly determined to deliver endless opinions and information that soon became tedious to me. I wasn't able to engage with any of the characters, and I found myself skimming instead of reading.

I applaud the author for his ambition, but his style was such that I lost interest quickly and couldn't get any further than halfway through the story.

My thanks to NetGalley and Knopf, Pantheon, Vintage and Anchor for the opportunity to read and provide an honest review of this book.

As an avid mystery reader, I appreciate what the author was trying to do here--address the reader as a participant in the mystery and make connections with the tropes and historic moments of the mystery genre. However, I think the very end--the final reveal by which every mystery lives or dies--fell a bit flat and failed to live up to the potential promised by the rest of the book. The setup is great, but the execution, for me, left a little bit wanting.

Wow!

Now, you're asking yourself is that a good wow or a bad wow. It got your attention. Mission accomplished.

WEST HEART KILL has a most unusual beginning. Rarely are we privileged to read the author's thought process while writing his book. The expected body of the murder victim, a rash of clues, a red herring or two simply isn't part of the text. We are given tantalizing glimpses of what might come later and are disabused of what we might be thinking. In other words, this unique book is aimed at the murder mystery aficionado who questions every death. If I may borrow the words of Winston Churchill such fans read to solve "a riddle wrapped in a mystery inside an enigma."

The esoteric WEST HEART KILL may not be everyone's cuppa, but I found the author's interjections of what I should be feeling, coupled with interesting TED-like talks, a quirky change from the run of the mill whodunit.

West Heart is a private hunting enclave for the rich and powerful or, at least, for those who count themselves among the rich and powerful. A private investigator has been invited to attend an annual gathering of the West Heart families. He notes that there is one road into the compound over a rickety wooden bridge that spans West Heart Kill… kill being an old Dutch word for stream or creek. A murder occurs and a storm takes out the bridge and turns West Heart into an oversized locked room mystery.

Although quite different in its telling, this book compares favorably with the clever execution of THE 7 ½ DEATHS OF EVELYN HARDCASTLE, by Stuart Turton. The commonality with WEST HEART KILL is the need to read through the fascinating chaff to get to heart of the matter.

WEST HEART KILL is a book for anyone who loves a good mystery, or a good family saga, or an interesting take on both. I can't recommend this book enough. Just read it!

#WestHeartKill #NetGalley

Super disappointing, to be honest. The narration is... well, it's insufferable, or at least it was to me. I'm growing so weary of this super-meta "we know all the tropes, look how smart we are for knowing the tropes and pointing them out" trend and this book is perhaps the apotheosis of it, so maybe the waters will start to recede from here. This book gets off on its own cleverness and while that *can* be appealing, here it just comes off as smug -- I prefer more matter, less art.

West Heart Kill contains a historical murder mystery. Conversely, and in alternating chapters, there is the elucidation of the reader of all things pertaining historically to the mystery genre. Both are interesting however to the extent they crossed over one another ended up being too much.
I enjoy the fourth wall being used in a mystery where it feels the author is winking at the reader. As the novelty wore off, the chapters in West Heart Kill devoted to the fourth wall felt more like a class than entertainment. I appreciate the effort but ultimately it was a distraction to the mystery at play.

Thank you to Knopf for access to an early copy via Netgalley. All opinions are my own.

I cannot accurately rate/review this book. I apparently do not enjoy western type books BUT I tried and this was my first go around. It took me a couple of months to read, but that’s my own fault due to me not personally being interested. It was well written and the mystery was great!

WHK promised intrigue and murder with a twist, and delivered confusion and two murders, two deaths, and unnecessary conflagration. In an effort to pay homage to all the great (and I do mean ALL) mystery writers of the late 19th/early 20th centuries, McDorman loses his own voice and story. Moments that the narrator spoke directly to the reader mocked the arm-chair sleuth for thinking ahead or attempting to solve the puzzle (with phrases amounting to "surely, you think, this is how it would play out"), instead of just letting the plot narrate and instruct. There are interesting sections on the history of the murder mystery as a play or novel, and how various authors tackled scenes, but everything was so overladen with a pretentiousness, and the sections were so randomly interspersed through the novel, that instead of truly adding to the narrative it served more as a distraction.
McDormans journalistic background is felt in those sections and I would rather have read an entire nonfiction book about the history of the mystery novel. If the plot had been more developed and only told as a third-person, I would rather have read that. The denouement was done in an interesting format but resulted in a "whomp-whomp" of "I read the whole thing... for this?"

Thank you to NetGalley and Knopf for this free ARC.

This style of writing is not for everyone but I absolutely love it! A very unique idea of breaking up the story with little bits of facts on how and why mysteries came to be how they are.

I love me a good mystery novel. West Heart Kill, my friends, is not that.

West Heart Kill is set at a hunting lodge in the 70s. The bodies start piling up, and our ace detective, Adam, just happens to be there for the holiday celebrations.

I knew from the first few pages that I did not like the writing style of this book. I thought it might grow on me, or prove interesting in other ways. Perhaps there would be some decent characters, or an interesting plot twist. Well, turns out the joke's on me, the writing style is the plot twist.

The novel is written, in part, in the second person, 4th wall breaking, POV, that on certain TV shows, I love. For a mystery novel, not so much. This alternates with some bits written in the third person following our detective Adam. And then, interspersed within all this, are some reflections on the history and tropes of mystery novels.

The character list is lengthy, and even with a list of who's who, it's hard to keep them straight. The novel is too set on it's inventive writing style to devote much time to character depth, or arc. The writing style detracts from the overall story. Which may or may not be a good thing, given that the story isn't very interesting, the characters are all pretty ugly and unlikeable, and in the end, it doesn't really matter who killed who, I was just glad it was over.

★

Thanks to NetGalley and Knopf for an advance copy in exchange for sharing my opinions. All opinions in this review are my own.

Not your average mystery novel.

Set in a remote wealthy enclave devoted to hunting during the Fourth of July weekend, 1976, there is murder afoot in the aptly named West Heart Kill. The book opens with two young men, friends from their college days, driving from the city to spend the weekend there. Adam, who left college and ultimately became a private detective, will be the guest of his friend James’ family, the Blakes. Adam and James haven’t been in touch for years, but recently reconnected and decided to escape the city for the weekend. The people who own “cabins” (which of course are not really cabins at all) at West Heart Kill are from a certain segment of society, with money (generally of the “old” variety) and interesting family histories. As Adam tries to learn the lingo (“Sixers for the drinking hour, “The Necessary” for the bathroom, etc.) and meets the Blakes’ not entirely welcoming circle of friends, the reader begins to sense that this is more than a casual, social visit on his part. Liquor flows freely (as does marijuana amongst the younger set), there is a fair amount of bed hopping, and definitely some past tragedies and buried skeletons exist that the group would rather stayed buried. A hunting accident, followed quickly by two deaths, has Adam poking about. But will the tight knit group of long time friends open up enough for him to discover the truth of what is going on at West Heart Kill.
An intriguing premise, a well-developed if less than likeable cast of characters, snappy dialogue and frequent references to classics of the genre, there is much to like about this novel. The challenge comes in its format, which is deliberately not the typical, straightforward telling of the story. Instead, the narration pops around, at time in a second person format, at other times as dialogue between characters, and still others as a play complete with stage directions and costuming notes. Different, clever, but in the end for me the devices were distractions from the story itself, even a barrier from connecting with the characters. I struggled a bit at the beginning to get invested enough in the story to continue, but kept going and began to find a rhythm to the story. Then, towards the end, new narrative structures again appeared and disrupted the flow. So, the best I can do is give it a mixed review….for me, the framework of the novel was a distraction from the content. Others may view it very differently, but that is my own experience. Many thanks to Knopf, Pantheon, VIntage and Anchor/Knopf and NetGalley for allowing me access to an advanced reader’s copy.

This was an interesting read, definitely not a typical mystery. The writing style was unique, and sadly at times it was very confusing. I did enjoy the overall plot, and was invested in the storyline. I just felt it did not flow easily and I often found myself rereading to understand.
If you are looking for something different, this may be the book for you.
I received an advance copy of this book in exchange for my honest review.

Thank you to the publisher for the arc!


This unfortunately just wasn’t for me. The writing was hard for me to get into the story.

I really liked this book. It was a really good read and well written. Thank you for the ARC! I really appreciate it!

Thank you to Knopf and NetGalley for the eARC of West Heart Kill in exchange for my honest review!

This definitely wasn’t for me, the blurb says that it’s mischievous and subversive but what that led to was an almost confusing storyline with a lot of elements that I couldn’t keep up with. We, as the reader, are brought into the story through narrative beats, the voice of the story directly speaking to us, and being included in the play. At times, we are outright told how to feel.

I think someone smarter than me will likely enjoy this.

The story here was good, I was invested in the goings on. The writing style, though, wasn't for me. There were some creative ways of filling the pages, which I applaud for trying new things, but there were too many different techniques used and the tangents were distracting and unnecessary for moving the story along. They felt like creative writing practice stuck inside a book in order to lengthen it.

I enjoyed the mystery and the setting of the story.

This book tried hard to subvert common mystery tropes while also paying homage to them, and I think the concept got a bit muddled. I appreciated the concept, and I enjoyed the tidbits about the history of mystery authors and the mystery genre. Overall though, I think the book became too complicated and felt much longer than it actually is.

Thank you to NetGalley and the publisher for the opportunity to review this book.

This one was just a little too weird for me with no real resolution to the mystery. The reader is often told what they are supposed to be thinking and the point of view keeps changing. Cannot recommend.

Had a really difficult time getting into this novel, not sure if it was because of the flow of the story and the point of view of telling you what you are seeing vs telling the story but it just wasn't for me.

i’m going to be completely honest here. i don’t like the writing style at all. McDorman bounces between 1st person POV and 3rd person POV. i can’t read books that are 3rd person POV. I’m assuming the goal was to make you feel like you were there with the characters, but it didn’t do that for me. another thing, there was way too many characters to keep up with. i couldn’t keep them straight and who belongs to which family.