Dead End Drive.... I don't even know how or where to begin describing this book! I hardly even know what to think of it...

I guess I can describe it as a dark, twisted and overly exaggerated continuous game of Clue!

It's incredibly satirical pretty much from the start, with the characters entering this horrifying death game with the sole purpose of inheriting the Benedict Estate... it all starts with a highly informal and strange will reading after the owner Agatha dies... and it just gets weirder and more gruesome from there.

Poor 14 year old Kelly, the heir to the estate, finds himself in the middle of a cat and mouse murderous game that he never wanted to be part of, and the entire plot takes place during the night after the will reading...

And... I'm sorry to say this book just wasn't for me. It's neither good nor bad, but the ending felt completely flat and uneventful for me. I expected some sort of shocking reveal or twist but... was disappointed. The ending really took it down for me...

I understand the book is supposed to be a social commentary on greed, on different social classes and the disdain that exists between them... but done in a satirical and over-the-top way, but it was just.... not for me unfortunately.


If you like weird, nonsensical and Clue-like (without mystery...) stories, this is the book for you.

Nothing groundbreaking but I did appreciate the humour. I didn't realise this was a YA novel when I requested it but that didn't detract from the story. It was a good quick read.

The humor and horror aspect of the book reminded me a lot of the movie ready or not. Which is the reason that I loved the book and the humor kept it young adult, friendly, even if the horror was on par with adult. I am very impressed with this book.

This was a wild ride! I don’t know what I expected but this was NOT it. But I was far from disappointed. This book have the perfect amount of spooky but still kept it young adult friendly. Now I want my own spooky house after reading this! Thank you netgalley for giving me the chance to review this

I loved this book, It was laugh out loud funny. It is rare in my experience to have a humorous a novel in which there are murders. I can't say enough about this book with out giving away the a lot of details and the twist at the end was just precious. Who's going to be murdered and how will it be done? This is a very creative and humorous novel. I highly recommend it. The author makes this book so enjoyable I am going to see what else she has written and check out her publishing house and hope there are other books with this kind of humor.

*received for free from netgalley for honest review* Not horrible, fast paced and not boring for sure, but more of a 3.5

When I read this synopsis, I was immediately interested because it reminded me a lot of the base plot of a horror movie that I like a lot, called Ready or Not.

The author has a very good proposal. The idea of ​​a visceral competition for an inheritance, which pits all the characters against each other, sounds very good in theory. In practice, I couldn't help but find several problems in the story, so the good idea was more in potential than in execution. This starts with the characters: right away, we are introduced to several people, all connected to the Benedict house in some way, from the protagonist Kelly, to the employees of the housekeeper, Agatha. With the death of the lady, her will must be read so that it is known who will be left with her assets. However, contrary to what usually happens, the reading of the will in this house means the beginning of a deadly competition into the night, and inherits whoever is alive in the early morning.

It sounds interesting, but it's hard to put up with any of the characters featured. Everyone is annoying, everyone sounds superficial. I know this was partly intentional, but making the story revolve around boring people makes the story itself difficult. And when you have no empathy for any character, you don't care if he lives or dies. And if you don't care who dies, then what is the fun of this competition? Well, I was curious because I wanted to know what the conclusion would be. But that was not thanks to the characters - although some eventually turned out to be interesting. They even bring a certain diversity, but are overwhelmed by stereotypes that, even if purposeful, sound exhaustively forced.

The story itself is ok. It doesn't bring anything incredibly innovative, but it has a good enough narration to make you curious about what will happen at the house. When I reached the end, I was satisfied, because the conclusion was logical and concise. It is a horror book that sounds like a horror movie more or less, but I would say that the flaws in this book are much more evident. Unfortunately, it was not a reading that worked for me, because I consider the characterization and development of the characters essential, and I didn't find any of that here.

I did not hate this book, and there was nothing offensive about it. However, I found it extremely difficult to like any of the characters and it was a struggle to read. It took me a very LONG time to get through it. While the idea was soo incredibly intriguing.. the execution just kind of killed it for me. However, I will still pick up future books from this author!

Dead End Drive is the first novel by American author, Ian Kirkpatrick. Agatha Jane Benedict, the heiress of the Benedict Estate, has died. Her adopted son, a fourteen-year-old illiterate brat called Kelly, expects to inherit her fortune.

The informal will reading, though, holds a surprise: “his inheritance to be left in the care of my personal medium and good friend, Madame Astra, until the boy is of legal age and able to claim it properly. If he and his guardian are unable to care for the property, the house rules will be applied and the individual who is able to care for it will receive it all.”

Apparently, Agatha has been one of the more benevolent heirs to the Estate, “she felt charitable and wanted to offer someone down on their luck an opportunity to prosper, such as the tennis pro she never used. She wanted to give them the basics to help them up, then send them back into the world, but by the time their confidence was restored, they didn’t want to leave the house.”

Thus, apart from the tennis pro forced into retirement, there is a collection of freeloaders: a doctor with many malpractice suits; an ambitious personal stylist; a former cab-driver with a tendency to assault rides; and a gold-digger granddaughter. As well as this Agatha was making her way through a succession of lovers, all of whom she calls Beauregard, the name of her only husband.

“House rules”? It seems that the will-reading green-lights a murderous free-for-all, so that the recipients of her generosity embark on a killing spree to eliminate each other. Within an hour of the reading, one is already dead, and two more follow soon after. All this during a wild storm that has the lights flashing off and on again unpredictably.

What follows definitely has elements of slapstick, and there’s quite a high body count. Meanwhile, loyal members of staff clean up the mess, dispose of the bodies, and try to protect Kelly.

This is a tale populated with violent characters; many are shallow, greedy and nasty; quite a few spout psychobabble, while some are given potted histories meant to legitimise their little philosophical discourses. Intended to entertain, but falls a little short.
This unbiased review is from an uncorrected proof copy (that was liberally drenched in typographical and continuity errors) provided by NetGalley and Steak House Books.

The premise for this book is great - a bunch of people stuck together in a mansion while a storm rages outside, battling it out to be the last one standing and inherit the considerable estate. The story is full of violence, laced with humor, and all I can compare it to is The Hunger Games mixed with Clue mixed with a 90s slasher free-for-all.

The story? Good, good. Fine, fine. But the writing? That's the true horror here. Unnecessarily long descriptions of the rooms in the house. Too many characters, and character descriptions that read more like lists than prose. Absolutely nothing to connect you to any of the characters and make you want to root for them.

Add to this a mile long list of editorial oversights (if I were guessing, I'd say no editing was done whatsoever and readers are presented with a rough first draft). Spelling mistakes, missing punctuation, dates that don't make sense, and lines like this:

"...but it stocked stalked only a handful of the most requested..."
"...the cost to repair fix anything is..."
"....but he possessed reflected the experience and manner..."

Could the author not decide on which words she wanted to use or what?

And let's not forget sentences like this one:

"His vision was red, focused, and his body."

Ummmm....I don't know what that means.

Now, I understand that sometimes review copies are not final edits and a few mistakes are to be expected and will be fixed before publication, but this....the mistakes are so numerous that the reader has to stop and try to figure out what the lines should actually say to make sense. And that's no good.

I hope the final published version has had a heaping helping of editing. The storyline itself, as I said, was pretty good.

Kill your darlings (or in this case, kill almost everyone in the whole book), but PAY YOUR EDITORS.

this was a really good horror novel, the characters were great and I really enjoyed the scary atmosphere, it had me on the edge of my seat reading it.

When Agatha dies, everyone has their eyes on her will. However, the bizarre terms will make it difficult to collect what they “deserve”. It seems everyone tries to kill everyone using extremely gory methods. In Dead End Drive, the last person alive wins the estate when the lawyer arrives the next morning.

“No one fights for equality. They fight and kill for superiority, status, kingdom. Anyone who says otherwise is a liar.”

I love the idea of the plot, Ready or Not mixed with the satire of Clue and the violence and short timeframe of The Purge. However, the execution left a lot to be desired.

The first quarter of the book gives a very surface level look at the twelve main characters of the book. All are vile or obviously meat for the others. Even the ones with a conscience are murderers from previous wills. In addition, there are many repetitive descriptions of the swampy Louisiana estate that is up for grabs.

I think horror fans, particularly fans of The Purge-like free-for-alls may enjoy Dead End Drive. I think there may be a great book in there somewhere with the help of a good editor. Unfortunately, in its present form, I can’t give it more than 1 star.

Thanks to Steak House Books and NetGalley for a copy in exchange for my honest review.

Dead End Drive reminded me a bit of the movie Knives Out. It is a nice short book. Unfortunately, after some chapters it was a bit complicated to follow the story.

I really loved the premise and ideas here but it took a bit to get things going. I didn't really like the main character ver much. Kelly didn't come across well at the onset and that really set the tone for me. I did like the twists and turns and was glad I reas it

I did not enjoy this book. I found it poorly paced, with lazily written characters.
The concept was interesting, but poorly executed. As estate owner Agatha Benedict has passed away, the traditions of the Benedict Estate prescribe that a will reading is to take place. All persons showing up to the reading will have to fight their way through the night. The one who still stands in the morning will inherit everything.

I'm not familiar with the Board game this novel appears to be based on, perhaps I would have enjoyed it more if I was.

I enjoyed this book. I didn't twig at first that it was based off the board game (and I used to play the game a lot!). The concept is enjoyable and the characters are interesting. A fun, light read.

I received an ARC of this book thanks to NetGalley and publisher Steak House Books in exchange for an honest review.

Oh boy, this book was a mess. Originally I was going to give it 2 stars for having a decent premise, but having found out that it's based off a boardgame, that means the only things I liked about it aren't original at all.

Dead End Drive is about a family where, when someone dies, the battle for inheritance is a literal battle to the death. After the reading of the will, the person left alive in the morning will inherit everything. How can such a premise go wrong? Well, for starters the premise isn't actually introduced well within the book itself. People just start killing each other with no real explanation, which would have been very confusing if I hadn't read the blurb recently before starting it.

This book has two major problems. Firstly, the writing is not great. The pages are littered with both actual editorial mistakes (understandable for an ARC but there are a lot, far more than any other ARC I've ever had) and just poor writing choices. The characters are bland and, in the worst cases, harmful stereotypes. There is a gay stylist who constantly uses the word 'honey' and who, after murdering a black woman, insists on fixing her 'coarse dark hair'. I'm almost certain the racial implications of this were accidental but yikes.

The pacing is similarly poor. You get introduced to all the characters in very repetitive chapters, and then the one with the most personality instantly dies so you don't have a character you have a connection with. Far from being a bloodbath, the rest of the deaths are then paced very oddly. There is no real sense of tension or fear and none of the characters seem particularly scared or bothered by their situation. Again, the only character who wasn't aware of the bloodbath beforehand is murdered straight away so you don't get the benefits of following an outsider in this horrible situation.

Overall, I sadly can't recommend this book. I ended up skim-reading everything after 50% as I just didn't care enough. It's a shame because a book like this has such potential and some of the humour/horror elements were alright. It just had too little going for it.

Overall Rating: 1/5 stars

This is the kind of book where you will hate all the characters but still root for them. A wonderful remedy of knives out and murder. This is not a book to miss.

The premise reminds of Agatha Christie's "And then there were none"
Twelve people in an estate … by the morning, who of them will be gone?
And who'll have survived the nightly murder party and follow Agatha Benedict in her wake
By becoming the new heir of the landhouse? Discover it in this book with a humorous take


It starts really well …

The blurb promises an enthralling story laced with humour.
And in the beginning the book lives up to this expectation. Some of the main characters are introduced one by one. Although they're represented quite caricatural, the author manages to evoke suspension of disbelief thanks to good dark humour.


But then there's the will reading

As estate owner Agatha Benedict passed away, the traditions of the Benedict Estate prescribe that a will reading is to take place. All persons showing up will have to fight their way through the night. The one who still stands in the morning will inherit everything.
And it's at the exact moment of the will reading that the author begins to lose the attention of the reader.
There are too many characters at once from who only a handful gets to speak and another handful wasn't properly introduced yet in the former chapters. That's why it begins to feel like they're only staged when the author think it's required for the story and totally forgotten at other times.
On top of that, the characters don't seem to get their own distinctive voice, which makes them exchangeable.
When their reactions are increasingly implausible, the cardboard impression they give becomes totally complete and the reader couldn't care less what happens to them anymore.


The bad pacing

A book with such a good premise and start, should be unputdownable and spark the reader's interest at any time.
Sadly, this isn't the case because of a serious problem with the pacing.
Every time the reader suspects some action, (s)he first has to struggle through long descriptions of the room. What does it matter what sort of furniture stands there or how the ceiling is decorated?
It's understandable that those kind of extensive descriptions appear at the beginning of the story, to create a certain atmosphere and at the same time give the reader an insight in the decor where the action will take place.
But once the plot is well underway - and especially on decisive moments - it's only slowing down the whole and can be considered as pure page-filling.


And the editorial errors

Last but not least, this book needs a good editorial review.
As this was an ARC, it may already have occured. But if not, it's highly recommended.
Sentences that aren't correct, synonyms featuring beside each other, … contribute to a less smooth reading experience.


Conclusion

Although the basis of the story is implausible, the author manages to evoke suspension of disbelief in the beginning.
It's too bad that this couldn't be maintained throughout the entire story.
But as this is only Ian Kirkpatrick's debut and she proves to have real potential in the humorous field, she's definitely an author to keep an eye on.



*Thanks to NetGalley and Steak House Books for providing a digital ARC of this book in exchange for an honest review.

I was provided with a complimentary copy of this book so I could give an honest review. The opinions are entirely my own, and any quotes are taken from the ARC and may be different in the final published copy.

Ian Kirkpatrick's debut novel, Dead End Drive, is challenging to review. It reminded me of John Dies at the End. Not the subject matter, but at the conclusion of both, I shook my head and said, "I think I liked it." Neither are works that you are likely to forget.

Agatha Benedict passes away and, according to house traditions, family and employees are all invited to the reading of the will. Attendance is not mandatory, but you forfeit your inheritance if declined. It is not your typical reading and is more like Battle Royale or Lord of the Flies. Whoever is left alive in the morning inherits the estate.

This book is not for everyone. It contains extremely dark humor and a lot of murder. I rooted for some of the characters to survive and cheered when some were killed.

According to reviewers, the book is inspired by a 90s board game, 13 Dead End Drive. They noted the book contains some of the same characters from the game.

The copy I received is an Advanced Reader's copy. I hope the published copy fixes the grammatical and spelling errors. Either way, it is a dark comedy worthy of your time.

This 200-word review will be published on Philomathinphila.com on 10/13/20.