I received an invitation to read an ARC of this book and the publisher said in the email that this book will grab you from the start. I don’t think that is the case here. It is a very quirky take on a locked room murder mystery. The author breaks the “4th wall” and takes the reader down lots of paths that seemed unnecessary. Including the history and devices of the classic mysteries, like Agatha Christie, were sometimes interesting but also distracting. There are so many characters with intermingled relationships that I had to bounce back and forth to keep track of them all. The author was certainly innovative in his approach but unfortunately I started to lose interest in the story about half way in and ultimately skipped to the end just to finish. I am sure there is an audience for this book but it really was not me, perhaps I am too much of traditionalist to be able to break away and accept a new approach. I appreciate the opportunity to read this book, all opinions are my own and not influenced by the publisher providing this ARC.

This is the most unusual murder mystery I've ever read! I liked it. A group of families have cabins in a woods and frequently go hunting. Someone has hired a detective to poke around-- we don't know who or why. Someone dies. Is it a suicide? Then someone else dies, making some want to take another look at the purported suicide.

The writing style is so different. I found it appealing and imaginative. I think that if you enjoy the writing of Anthony Horowitz, you would enjoy West Heart Kill by Dann. McDorman.

Thank you to Netgalley for the ARC.

I received a preview of this book for free from NetGalley in exchange for an honest review.

I am a lover of mysteries, especially "locked room" ones, so I was looking forward to this one which promised a new take. However, I struggled around the 20% mark, again at the 40% mark, and again near the end, to simply finish. Perhaps because I'm a frequent reader of mysteries, the details provided in the asides the author offers throughout by breaking the fourth wall to discuss/analyze/teach/ponder the mystery genre, its authors, and more, did not intrique me as it could have and I was simply bothered that my story was being interrupted yet again. I felt more and more the author simply didn't have enough of a murder mystery plot for an entire novel and therefore threw in some well-worn (to me) facts and suppositions to beef it up. I felt pandered to and distracted all at once (yet, perhaps the distraction was on purpose to throw me off the clues?), while the ending was simply a study in frustrating your reader. All that said, the basic premise held water up to the almost-end, and a reader not as familiar with the genre and its history and rules might feel differently and enjoy this format and the special details they will discover throughout.

West Heart Kill started out okay but got more convoluted and confusing as it progressed. I have to say that I really struggled to finish this book as I wanted to give a fair and honest review. First, there were just too many characters, none of them the least bit likeable. I especially didnt like the fact that the writer broke the fourth wall, often jumping the narrative from the reader to the main character. I did not enjoy the style of this book at all.

West Heart Kill by Dann McDorman is a literary murder mystery set at a remote hunting lodge where everyone is a suspect, including the erratic detective on the scene. This is the author's debut novel.

I so wanted to like this book, but I found myself putting it down and going on to other books. It just never captured my attention or held my interest. I did finish the book because I wanted to give the author and the book a chance. I didn't like the book's format in how it was narrated and jumped around.

A 2.75 out of 5 stars (rounded to 3).

#WestHeartKill #NetGalley @AAKnopf

Really enjoyed West Heart Kill so many twists and turns so many suspects.A book I will be recommending to mystery lovers.#netgalley #westheartkill

West Heart Kill reads like a love letter to the mystery genre. Or maybe more like seventeen love letters to the mystery genre. As far as plot goes, it's a classic set-up--a whodunnit at a remote country club with an eclectic mix of characters. But it's so much more: a brilliant literary pastiche, a genre-bending homage to the great mystery authors who have gone before, a metafictional self-analysis of the novel's own plot. To say any more would be giving too much away. If you love mysteries, you'll adore West Heart Kill.

Received a copy from NetGalley agreeing to review. Since my copy is on loan, I plan on purchasing, hopefully a first edition, once it’s published. This is Dann’s debut mystery and I can’t wait for his next one. The plot revolves around a remote hunters lodge established generations ago by some wealthy families but this generation is having money problems, so do they sell or bring in a new wealthy member. We have murder, attempted murder, suicide, suborning suicide, lying, infidelity, blackmail, and extortion. We start with the question “who hired the detective and why”. Uniquely “reader” you are instructed to aid the detective in researching his case. That’s just the plot there is so much more to this book, the author inserts at various points details about authors with instructions on how to write a mystery detailing some dos and don’ts through the years. I would love an index on these sections. I can’t prove it but I believe the author tried to use every trick the golden age mystery writers used. I’m glad the author included a list of all the characters, much needed at the end. Also, supplied a map, not sure why. The book ends with a confession-but by who? Someone tell me please.

Unfortunately, I only made it about 10% of the way into this book before I decided it was not for me. Although I've read a fair amount of postmodern fiction, I found the narrator's asides intrusive and disruptive in a bad way that annoyed me. I didn't find anything interesting in the characters to pull me in and was very disappointed in the flat female characters. The final straw that made me put the book down was when the narrator hinted that the central crime was about to take place only to find out it was a dog killed by a car. That trick just felt cheap and diminished the value of the lives of animals in a way that made me roll my eyes. I was so uninvested by that point that I didn't care enough to be mad about it.

closed-circle-mystery, detective, historical-fiction****

Designed for the mystery genre literati.
The plot is very good, the detection references are really fun for those of us who geek classic mysteries, and there is just enough wit to entertain. But. The format of presentation is so not my reading preference. But a friend gave it a thumbs up after listening to me whine because he really liked it.
I requested and received an EARC from Knopf/Pantheon/Vintage and Anchor via NetGalley.

Really enjoyed this refreshing take on a very popular genre. I typically don't like stories that break the 4th wall, but this was done extremely well. Very meta and forced the reader to consider their involvement with mystery novels, which has echoes of the public's fervent interest and consumption of true crime stories. Just because we didn't commit the murder with our own hands doesn't mean we weren't complicit. Clever, really well done!

2.5 rounded up. Ok, so I actually do LIKE the new sub-genre of "Meta Mystery" books & there are many of these new plot devices that I've found both smart & enjoyable... unfortunately, "West Heart Kill" just tries a bit too hard to be clever and it really lost me in the last quarter or so with the whole "play" thing and it's "reader" ending. There was everything I enjoy here - locked room mystery, call backs to "Golden Age" mysteries, the creepy setting & more - but for me, it just "jumped the shark" into over-the-top. My sincere thanks to Net Galley & the publisher for the "read now" link and complimentary DRC, thoughts are mine...

Could not get through it, but I'm not sure if I was the audience. Felt too clever by half, without engaging in the early pages.

Everyone is a suspect. That is what makes this book so much fun and involved.
A murder mystery with twists and turns.
Well worth the investment, Highly suggested.

Finished this @netgalley on a flight, and think it will be a very popular book when released this fall, but unsure if it was for me. A microscopic look at the mystery genre formula, West Heart Kill follows the recent trend of breaking the third wall and asking the reader to sleuth as well. Here it felt at times condescending and others too demanding of the reader. If you want a twist on the whodunnit and have enjoyed books like “Everyone in My Family Has Killed Someone” you may very well love it.

Well-played, Dann McDorman. Well-played. The witty West Heart Kill takes us behind the scenes of locked room mysteries while enthralling us. It's a dazzling debut. McDorman magnificently tells the tale from different points of view. And, in a twist, provides history lessons along the way. His skill is that these educational asides do not hurt the momentum of the story. I thoroughly enjoyed West Heart Kill and look forward to what the McDorman does next. Thank you to Knopf, Pantheon, Vintage, and Anchor, Knopf, & NetGalley for the advance reading copy in exchange for my honest opinion. #WestHeartKill #NetGalley

Another solid entry to the ‘meta murder mystery’ sub-sub-genre, West Heart Kill follows the footsteps of titles such as Everyone in My Family Has Killed Someone and The 7 1/2 Death of Evelyn Hardcastle, where the narrative overtly examines and deconstructs its own tropes, much like the Scream film franchise does for slasher films. West Heart Kill might be the most ‘academic’ and fourth-wall breaking one I’ve read thus far, providing readers with an abundance of historical facts about the development of the murder mystery genre, as well as a philosophical analysis on why we find comfort in reading about killing people.

At times this commentary overlay can be a little over-powering, especially towards its finale; it felt like I was reading an academic essay and less of a fun whodunit. While I admired the direction of its ending, which completely subverted convention, it couldn't hide the fact while it was conceptually compelling (and supported the 'thesis' that was set up at the start of the book), it didn't quite make for a satisfying closing (I'm too hardwired for murder mystery to end a certain way!).

Whether someone will enjoy West Heart Kill largely depends on their familiarity with the genre; for seasoned readers, the historical facts and analysis would be a welcoming addition, but I can also see by discussing the tricks under the hood, it can be too scholarly for those who just want a straightforward murder mystery. Not a wide recommendation, but there is undoubtedly an audience who will find this thoroughly enjoyable.

I love mysteries, but not this one. It started out ok. It quickly became a class in literature. I never knew when it would go from story to mystery writer facts. I really disliked the confusing end. It should have been two books. One would be a mystery and one would be a textbook on mystery writers.
Thank you NetGalley for this suggestion, but this one was not a winner.

This book has multiple personalities.
Not the characters, but the book itself, as if it just wasn't entirely sure what it wanted to be. Overall, it's a locked-room murder case on a large private hunting camp for very wealthy families.
That's the setting. And it starts out in an interesting fashion, gently leading the reader into the scene and carefully introducing the time and place. All the characters and their relationships are listed as the cast of a play.

But over the course of the novel, the narrator speaks to the reader as if we were together watching a show which needs constant explanation. We follow the detective's moves and observations over the course of the visit in more detail than those of the others.
From time to time there are leaps out of the story and into bits about other books, as well as essays on the history of mysteries and fictional murders. The narrator stops to explain rules of mystery writing. For a while, the story is presented as a script for performance.

Any of these could be interesting in themselves, but the book jumps around in ways that don't seem to be relevant to the story, and after a while became tedious. I much prefer a novel which follows a straight line more than a random collection of knowledge which takes my attention away from the plot.
I rarely attempt to figure out who killed the victim(s) and in this case I would've been totally at a loss if I had tried.

Thanks to the publisher and Netgalley for the opportunity to read this book. I liked the atmosphere of the book and the various techniques used by the author which differentiated it from other mysteries. I wasn't crazy about the sections where the author provided the history of classic mystery writing; I would have preferred not to have had the distraction from the story. I also was a little disappointed in the ending, but I'm sure there are readers who would have found it more clever than I did.