Sir Lawrence Linwood is dead. More accurately, he was murdered—savagely beaten to death in his own study with a mediaeval mace. The murder calls home his three adopted children: Alan, an archeologist; Roger, an engineer; and Caroline, a journalist. But his heirs soon find that his last testament contains a strange proviso—that his estate shall go to the heir who solves his murder. Set in the early 1920's, this story portrays the era nicely and with much of the secrets and the mystery shrouded in the past, that time period is well portrayed too. While I knew who did fairly early on, it did not detract from the mystery at all. Thank you NetGalley for the advanced readers copy for review.

Thank you to NetGalley and Inkshares for providing me with an E-Arc of this book in exchange for an honest review!

Everything about this book caught my eye, the name, the stunning cover design and the intriguing plot.

Let's break it down:

Set in 1921, we soon meet our main characters: Alan, an archeologist, Roger, an engineer, and Caroline, a journalist – the three Linwood siblings return to their family estate in Yorkshire for their adoptive father’s funeral. Their father, the late Sir Lawrence Linwood, had been bruttally murdered in his study with a medieval mace by an unknown attacker.
Upon the reading of Sir Lawrence’s will, the siblings learn that there's a clause in their father's will that states that in the case of an unnatural death, the one who can solve his murder inherits his estate.

The novel it's crafted with multiple threads that does require a bit of patience on the part of the reader, specially if your not into historical novels, but the author does a brilliant job in bringing all the characters and their stories come alive.
This is a lengthy novel, written with meticulous attention to detail, in terms of the historical and physical setting of the story as well as descriptions of the dysfunctional dynamics within the Linwood family.
It shows how much work the author has put into the story and the setting to make us feel for the characters, whatever emotion that maybe be, even when they do questionable things.
The twists and turns as well as the character dynamics kept me hooked until the very end, wanting to turn the page to know what was going to happen next!

Unnatural Ends by Christopher Huang is a smartly crafted murder mystery set in 1920s England with an interesting and diverse cast of characters. An intriguing look at family, identity, and betrayal. Each of the main characters is well fleshed out, even the most unlikable ones.
I would definitely recommend this book if you like historical novels, as well as gothic and atmospheric novels, also Agatha Christie and Daphne Du Maurier fans might enjoy this book!
I'm looking foward to read more books from Christopher Huang in the future.

Unnatural Ends by Christopher Huang comes out July 5th 2022!

Set in 1921 and related by various narrators, each with their own point of view, UNNATURAL ENDS takes the reader into the twisted machinations of Sir Lawrence Linwood and his continuing effect on his three adopted children – Alan the archeologist, Caroline the journalist and Roger the engineer.

It seems Sir Lawrence was bludgeoned to death with a medieval mace and his heirs have returned to the dilapidated family mansion that overlooks the town of Linwood Hollow to pay their last respects. Sir Lawrence’s last will and testament holds a surprise for the three prospective heirs. It is they, not the police, who are charged with investigating his murder and solving the question of “who done it”. The one who is successful will inherit. Oh, and did I mention that Sir Lawrence was a great believer in eugenics and suffice to say that Alan, Carolyn and Roger must battle a variety of individual demons in confronting the origin of the Linwood family power.

By the time readers have stood in the shoes of the various narrators the turn from well- mannered mystery to aberrant tale of horror will seem as inevitable as the oft dreaded logic one experienced when reading the Brothers Grimm or more recently Stephen King.

I was not a fan of this book mainly because I feel as if I have read this type of story in other books. It is a personal problem because I can feel myself being burnt out on this type of story and so I feel if I read it in a different time I could've enjoyed it more. The writing style was good and the way the author set everything up was done well. This is the reason I gave it three stars.

When the Lynnwood children are called back home and told him not only was the father murdered but they must solve the murder and whoever does get the inheritance. Not all is as it seems though and the competition and discord so Lawrence Lynwood wanted to create between his adopted children isn’t happening. While growing up with the abusive certain warrants all they had was each other and they’re not going to turn their backs on each other now. This is toll from different points of view and I thought it was a smartly written book I also thought the author did a great job with character development and I must admit I didn’t see the end turning out the way it did it was clever and well put together the part moves along nicely it’s easy to read and as far as mysteries go it’s one I highly recommend. I was given this book by Net Gally for free but I am leaving this review voluntarily please forgive any mistakes as I am blind and dictate my review but all opinions are definitely my own.

A fun read with twists and turns embedded within a historical fiction setting. The family is weird, the murder happens before the will can be changed, and the setting is a spooky manor. Perfect read for a stormy day with some tea

This book was a really enjoyable whodunnit! The setting of the English countryside in the 1920s was very enjoyable, as were the shifts in perspective between characters. While I did not find the numerous characters tough to keep track of, I know others who may struggle with the cast of supporting/side characters, so it may be helpful to keep a list of everyone as you read. The prose Huang uses is very descriptive and helps to immerse the reader in the ride he takes us on. Huang does a fantastic job of weaving together each of the perspectives, plots, and twists to deliver a great story that is an equal mix of Knives Out and Agatha Christie vibes. I would certainly recommend checking out this book! (4.5 stars, minus 0.5 stars for the somewhat foreseeable villain)

I was immediately very interested in the premise of this one. There was a lot of Agatha Christie vibes in this one. But it dragged on a little bit. It's more character driven than plot. Overall interesting premise and I think people more patient than me will enjoy it more. Thank you NetGalley and Inkshares for the advanced reading copy.

The three Linwood siblings live in Linwood Hall, set in many acres of beautiful countryside. The family are respected and revered by all the local villagers, but there are dark and disturbing secrets of mental and physical abuse, with coercion a matter of course. As they get older the three move away from home and the influences there, but they are drawn back to Linwood Hall to attend a funeral, though even that is not as it seems.

This book is mainly set in the early 1020’s, with the horrors of war still at the forefront of most peoples minds. The language is that of the period, and both that and the setting are well done, reminiscent of the popular detective novels of the day. The story holds much promise and expectation. Unfortunately the book needs a very thorough editing, as it is long winded and repetitive, which makes the reader lose interest. With the extraneous waffle taken out it would be a much easier and pleasurable read.

Thank you NetGalley.

Mixed feelings about this one. It was very well written, but dragged quite a bit. Reminded me of an Agatha Christie novel. I loved the historical setting, but just couldn’t fully get into the mystery.

3.5 - I enjoy a good murder mystery, and this one was quite pleasing. The setup was intricate and suspenseful, and I thought it did a good job of transitioning POVs from character to character. I also liked that it wasn't the type where it's totally unsolvable - the reader can have a little fun trying to figure out the mystery as well, and there's enough plausible information given that I could piece together my own theories.

I thought the pacing could use some work. I think the author made a considerable effort to immerse the reader in the 1920s setting, but it just didn't do it for me. I guess I didn't find that time period particularly interesting, so when there was a lot of context building related to that, I tended to unconsciously start skimming.

Received a free copy from Netgalley.

Unnatural Ends is a murder mystery in the style of Agatha Christie's novels. Set in the 1920s, it tells the story of Sir Linwood's three adopted kids returning home after their father's murder and being tasked with finding his killer in order to receive their inheritance. The book has multiple POVs in which we switch primarily between the main 3 characters and sometimes even get an insight into other side characters (the detective, innkeeper, etc.).
It's an interesting murder mystery that has pretty solid writing and I found it overall enjoyable but not necessarily anything I'd recommend or remember down the line. As a result of the multiple POVs and how they're done, the story comes across as incredibly slow-paced; we often discover things numerous times, once through one kid and then through the other, or when the author wants to make a point (for example, about the child abuse), he makes it multiple times, really emphasizing something. This makes it so that the reader has more time to process everything and is, for the most part, ahead of the characters. The reveal in the story loses some of its touch because you've had the time to think out all scenarios and arrive at it well in advance.
There's also one thing I have to mention as it bugged me quite a lot when reading the book and that was the fact that Caroline (one of the siblings) keeps referencing The Taming of the Shrew in her POV chapters. The first few times were fine as she is shown to be a dramatic and literary person but at some point she's explaining everything through how it compares to characters in The Taming of the Shrew and which character lines up with which one and it just seemed like such a bizarre move for the author to do so and to, basically, map out his thought process for the readers. It's almost as if the West Side Story movie had a character that kept looking at the audience and saying "this character is supposed to be Romeo, this one's Juliet".
The writing, as mentioned, is quite well done. It's very similar to books written a hundred years ago and truly makes you feel like you're reading a classic. I haven't made my mind up about whether that's a good thing or not. It could be, if you're looking for something recent that has the same vibe but ... for me, I just kept thinking that maybe I should read those classics instead.
All in all, the story is interesting and the characters are well developed. Were this to be adapted into a TV show with a much faster pace, I can see it being done well and truly captivating the audience, especially through the multi-dimensional characters and how well built they are.

I didn't love this. I felt like there was a lot of repetition when it wasn't necessary and the characters weren't likeable.

If you go into this book hoping for a lush historical mystery, you might not exactly find it. That isn't to say that it is a bad book. It just turns the dial way into the mundane details that contribute to establishing the time period and setting. So I will recommend this not for mystery lovers but for more slice of life lovers with a bit of mystery.

I thought the author's writing style was captivating for the time period and he wove together some wonderful characters, however, the story itself fell short for me as this plot has been done so many times before, and for a mystery/thriller, I was not very suprised/thrilled. I predicted the ending very early on. For avid thriller fans, I would probably not recommend this book for that very reason. However, for historical fiction fans, this was an interesting period piece. Very reminiscent of Agatha Christie. Thank you to NetGalley for providing me an ARC of this book in exchange for my honest opinion.

Ok, I really enjoyed this book. I loved the twists, turns, dead ends, and questions that kept popping up. To me, it was like a giant game of "Clue". I loved how new evidence and background kept being found and given to the reader making me continually change my mind about who I thought was guilty. The story grew and developed in a way that made me constantly want to know what happened next and which characters were acting suspiciously. I also really loved how the three siblings grew into themselves more as the story went on and how they were able to grow and learn about who they each were without their father driving their lives. The reason I did not give it five stars is that I found it hard to read/ confusing at times. I had to reread some parts over again to understand them. Overall, though, I really enjoyed the book and am grateful that I was able to read an advanced copy of it!

I'll be honest, I went into this book expecting a typical heir-inheritance war, probably with a slow-burn romance subplot thrown in.

Thankfully, my expectations were completely wrong. When you think you've had the whodunnit moment (essentially a case of scorned-lover-takes-matters-into-their-own-hands), the book takes a complete 180 and ties in multiple subplots to lead up to a massive plot twist (I quite literally cleared my entire evening to finish the book). The subplots themselves were also interesting to follow, if occasionally a tad confusing. The various points of view definitely helped; I really enjoyed reading from the POVs of side as well as main characters. Character-wise, the story was not lacking: each character was multifaceted and unique, and I loved the bond between the Linwood siblings. The setting, although generic-sounding (I mean, how many murder mysteries take place in an ancient location?), was actually very fascinating, especially given the way Mr. Huang described the scenes.

Overall? I'll be waiting with my money for the physical copy to come out.

I absolutely loved this book. The illustration of the family dynamic and the power of the patriarch was dynamic and kept me invested in the siblings’ story lines. The biblical and historical references were creative and added a foreshadowing layer to the plot that was fun to piece together.

3 adopted siblings return to their childhood home, when their father was brutally bludgeoned to death. Upon reading of the will, they find out in order to get the inheritance left behind, they had to solve the mystery of who killed the patriach.

This book was very much like The Inugami Curse and had Poirot crime vibes. However, the difference to me was that Unnatural Ends was really slow. Slower than a slow burn, honestly. I somewhat got bored along the way. The writing was alright, it suited the 1920s feel that this story was set in. Maybe because i have read stories along this same premise, it got me comparing thus feeling that this could have been executed better.

TWs for abuse.

2.5 stars!

Thank you NetGalley for this ARC in exchange for an honest review!

This one was a tough one for me to get through. It just wasn’t fully what I expected a historical murder mystery to be. However, it picked up towards the end. I felt that the beginning had too many irrelevant details that did not contribute to the book as a whole making it hard to follow. I found myself being overwhelmed by the long descriptions making it incredibly slow and dry for me. I found the characters hard to relate to as well.

This murder mystery was set in the 1920s and 3 adopted siblings were reunited after hearing of their fathers death. It came as a surprise to the children when they were told their father was murdered and whoever could figure his killer out would inherit the estate entirely. Along the way they find out who they really are instead of who their father wanted them to be. I felt like it focused more on the character development than the actual murder investigation itself. I did enjoy where the story ended up going, and the ending was worth getting to. Just took me awhile to get there.