Okay, I agree with any reviewer who says it takes a beat to get into the very "meta" writing style of this book. However, I can't encourage you enough to stick with it, it very quickly finds its rhythm and once you adapt to the quirky writing style you will be so glad you went for the ride!

I happily obliged when asked to participate, marking pages and jotting down margin notes so to speak. I fatigued of this 5/6 of the way through at which point, we hopped a fence and picked up the pace. Nice weeknight read. Easy to recommend to a broad audience. Thank you to NetGalley for ARC.

The point of this book is told to the reader from the very beginning. This book was written so uniquely and ingeniously. I did find the writing to be distracting at first. It took me a minute to get into the groove of the story but once I did I enjoyed it.

I wasn't sure I would like this one as it is outside of my typical genre but it was not bad. The writing style was great but the story was not my cup of tea.

Not my type of book. Throughout the book, the author includes sections on how other authors introduces clues, how they plot their murders, basically how they write, which I found annoying caused I didn't care about that and really made the book slow paced and distracted from the story. I actually began to skip over them so I could get back to the story at hand. The actual murder mystery was not bad with trying to figure out about the three deaths. Were they suicide or murder, were they interconnected, what were the motives? A twisted tale of lies, betrayals, secrets and survival, all happening at the hunting club. If not for the "sections on other authors", which I found boring and unnecessary, I would have given this book 4 stars. Was given a free copy by Netgallery and this is my honest voluntary review.

This review is hard for me. The story started out with an interesting twist and got me excited to read it. After all, what mystery fan doesn't like the challenge of solving the case? However, I soon found that I had to force myself to continue reading. As long as the author was talking about the actual plot of the story, I enjoyed it. However, all of the side bits about definitions and other authors quickly lost my interest. I found the characters believable but would liked to have seen them developed more. I really didn't like the ending.

I enjoyed reading this classic whodunnit tale. There are numerous point of views and we see an interesting cast of characters. West Heart Kill is an area favorited by certain families for many years. When financial ruin becomes a topic, the mysteries begin.
I was a bit confused at the ending and not sure if it was me or what. I’m not 100% I understand.
Thank you NetGalley for the ARC.

I have to say that this is one of the most unique mystery novels I have ever read. Shades of Knives Out Columbo, Murder She Wrote, etcetera, it will be very hard to sum up without spoiling it. I will do my best to remain mysterious.

The quick spoiler free highlight is that when PI Adam McAnnis arrives to a weekend retreat at an isolated hunting lodge he meets several interesting characters.

During this story the reader is treated to a play by play of both detective work and the weekend itself.
The author also includes several additional mysteries into the main story creating a novel unlike no other.

If you enjoy a decently paced mystery that will likely keep you guessing, check this out.


I received an advanced copy of this book in exchange for an honest review.

I feel the author was trying a new point of view for the storyline. Unfortunately, it didnt work for me and quickly lost interest. Instead of a page turner it was more of being forced to finish. Certain witty moments could not carry through the whole reading.

The book contains a mystery story, but also many asides and diversions into the mystery genre itself and some of the masters of the craft. In the late 1970s, private investigator Adam McAnnis has wrangled an invitation to a summer July 4th celebration being held in an exclusive hunting/vacation community. His old friend James and his parents have a cabin there, as do many other families. Adam isn't forthcoming about the fact he's been hired to go to this event, so he is mainly interested in gathering information about the main people there. He soon discovers that there has been some tension among the members of the West Heart club. There are financial problems, so in addition to the logging that's going on, some members want to just sell the club and land and get out altogether. Others, bowing to the tradition that has kept the founding families in the club for generations, want to do everything possible to keep the status quo. Since the various families have been using the club for many years, there have been many conflicts and secret alliances that have formed. It is not apparent to Adam what the relationships are between everyone. When there are some deaths and the area is cut off by a storm, Adam determines to get to the bottom of the secrets at the club.

While I enjoyed the various "lessons" on mystery authors, tropes, history of the genre, etc. at times it did feel like a lecture instead of flowing. Of course, it did stop the action of the story and take you outside the action, so then when it came back it could be a bit jarring. There was a list of characters near the beginning of the book, but there were a lot of people (past and present) to keep up with, so it was at times confusing to remember who was who and how they were connected to the rest of the characters. It is certainly a different type of storytelling, and mystery fans of authors such as Agatha Christie and Dorothy L. Sayers will appreciate the nods to the golden age of mysteries.

I’m new to reading mysteries but this one was so interesting and entertaining that I raced through it. The concept was just so fascinating and I was along for the ride. I can’t wait to read more by this author.

I could make this sound like a conventional mystery. It’s the Nixon era, and several WASP-y families have gathered at their private lakeside development for a long Independence Day weekend. They’ve all been going there for years, with the kids enjoying swimming, riding bikes, and all the usual summertime activities, while their parents go hunting and fishing, drink heavily, and engage in adultery. This weekend, there are two non-regulars among the guests. One is a man awaiting the decision on his application for membership—or is he? Another is a friend of one of the young adult regulars, and this friend happens to be a private detective. Not long after the weekend begins, two of the regulars will be dead. A violent storm prevents calling in the police, requiring the PI to investigate.

But this isn’t a conventional mystery. It’s careens all over the place, with shifting points of view and many interspersed asides about the greats of Golden Age of mystery. When in omniscient narrator mode, there are often observations about what experienced mystery readers will be expecting at this point, and what they likely think of what is happening in the book. Then, when you’re over three quarters of the way through the book, the investigation takes a completely unexpected turn, as does the presentation style, which oddly turns into some kind of script, with the regulars turned into something like play characters who answer questions from a Reader (who is supposed to be the actual reader of the book?).

Looking at just the whodunit element, I found the book satisfying. I didn’t guess the whodunit, but there were enough clues that it felt like fair play. It’s the style of the book that makes this one different. Most of the time, I liked it, especially the observations about what the readers must be thinking. They were usually spot on and amusing. The veering off into script-land didn’t work as well for me, though it’s understandable why the author did it. There is also one mystery left unsolved—or at least I think it was, and that’s not so satisfying in a crime fiction book. Overall, though, for me this was an entertaining read, and I think it will appeal to many readers who are well versed in the history and conventions of mystery writing, especially from the Golden Age.

If there were an engineer equivalent of a mystery writer, I feel like I’ve just spent a few hours with him. West Heart Kill has a cast of characters trapped by a storm in a rural hunting club. Developed many years prior, the club had the descendants of the original founders. A detective is presumably invited by one of the members to spend the weekend. In quick succession a dog is run over and a series of human deaths ensue. The writing style is unique, to say the least. I slogged through it, but I can’t see myself recommending it to anyone, unless it is an engineer who is obsessed with mystery stories. Thank you NetGalley for providing me with this ARC - it was a trip.

This is nothing like your average whodunit mystery. This is a mystery written within the framework of a lesson about writing a whodunit mystery. You have your murder(s) and your likely suspects, but you also get a synopsis of the plots by famous mystery writers and how clues can be masked. The historical and biographical information was very interesting and entertaining, but I also found it somewhat distracting to the mystery that I was trying to solve. And the conclusion had me both laughing and growling. It was not the ending that I wanted or expected, and it left me a little frustrated. All in all, it was entertaining and had a lot of good information in it that would be helpful if you were trying to solve a mystery or even write a mystery of your own.

This book was super interesting.

(I don't mean "interesting" as a euphemism for I hated it but don't know how to say so. I mean genuinely interesting, like I've never read anything like it.)

This novel was, strangely, both craft book on writing whodunnits and an actual whodunnit. It goes meta. It switches formats. It changes POV—multiple times. It kept me on my toes and I couldn't wait to see what the author was going to do next. I never got so sucked into the story and characters that I forgot I was reading a book, but I think that was intentional. And I actually....learned stuff?! I would say this is not for every mystery reader, but if you are looking for something that pushes the boundaries of the genre, this is it.

What a unique mystery novel! I finished the book last night and it continues to consume my thoughts! McDorman upends the classic whodunnit tale by incorporating multiple writing styles as well as breaking the 4th wall to help the reader solve a murder mystery spanning a 4 day weekend at an exclusive hunting club. I surprisingly enjoyed the various case studies and history lessons interwoven in this novel. I felt like I not only was being entertained but I was also learning at the same time. I believe I will be thinking about this book for weeks to come!

This book was so interesting to me and I don’t know quite how to rate it. The more I think about it, the more I like it, but it’s very interesting to think about. I think I’d recommend to a select group of people.

This was a very different book that I have ever read. I am not sure how I feel about it. I liked it, but then again I didn’t. IDK.

I'm genuinely sad to be giving this book 3 stars. I spent about 80% of it thinking it was a 4-5 star read.

This book is a love letter to murder mysteries. I'd say if you are not well-versed in your Agatha Christie (I mean, you need to have read ALL the Poirots at least), your Arthur Conan Doyle, even Chesterton's Father Brown, this book is not for you. Do not read it. And if you haven't read this book and want to, stop here because SPOILERS AHEAD.

The jumping between third person, first person, and even the rather unique "we" was confusing but refreshing. I actually loved reading a murder mystery in which the author stops to geek out with me over murder mysteries themselves, their structures, and the examples of them from the greatest authors of these stories.

But it dropped me like a hot potato at 80%. When we switch suddenly to a script, inserting a nameless "reader" who is at first audience member, then cast member, who knows everything but we don't know how or why. No. I'm sorry, it just did not work. And here's why it didn't work: I actually love that we don't know the "whodunnit" that we most desperately want to know. I love that we don't know who killed Adam, or rather, that we do know, really, it was the author who killed them all.

This is the kind of ending that you love for infuriating you. Or you would, if you'd not just waded through about a fifth of the book suddenly being a script, wrapping up everything with "Reader" who has zero reason to have all the answers. I think he could have left the book as a narrative; maybe sweet, weirdo Ralph comes in with interrogation and answers, perhaps assisted by Emma who I think saw more than she gets credit for. Or that last 20% could have been all these horrible people outing each other and their secrets.

So yeah, it loses 2 full stars for switching to a script. I just think the author broke one too many rules in doing so.

Thank you to NetGalley and the publisher for an electronic copy in exchange for an honest review.

this book was a refreshing take on a classic locked room mystery. I was so invested the whole book and it was quite literally a page turner