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

This book is, in many ways, a love letter to mystery fiction. And not in the way "Knives Out" is a love letter to Agatha Christie - it's a LOT more direct than that. You think you've seen genre-awareness before? You haven't seen it on this level. The author breaks the fourth wall to address the reader's own experiences with the genre, commenting on general things any avid mystery reader has probably learned by now or making allusions to specific mysteries the reader may be familiar with. The narrative is also constantly interrupted so that the author/omniscient narrator can discuss topics tangential to the story, like the origins of the word "mystery" or the interpretation of something Dashiell Hammett wrote in The Maltese Falcon. These interjections are sometimes interesting but often seem to be offering the reader a surplus of knowledge, much like Victor Hugo waxing poetic about the Parisian sewer system in Les Misérables.

Now, as someone with a lifelong love for mystery fiction, I found the tangents and the referential nature of this book mostly entertaining - but I think these attributes could be a serious stumbling block for someone who isn't as deeply entrenched in the genre as I am. There are also a number of jarring structural shifts throughout that could make this a difficult read. To be honest, this book is just more complicated than it needs to be, and that frustrates me because I really did enjoy it. What it lacks is an accessibility factor. This is a great book for a very specific demographic, and it might be a terrible book for everyone else.

But at the end of the day, it does earn those four stars - it would probably earn five from me, if not for the concerns touched on above. McDorman's prose does exactly what it intends to, the characters are well-drawn, and the narrative subverts expectations (in different ways than one expects from a mystery novel). If you're a mystery geek like myself, give this one a chance! You might love it; you might hate it. Just don't ask me how it ends...

3.5 stars

This was fun and unique and a bit outside of the box. I dont think it will be for everyone but I found it to be quite exciting. I felt like I was a part of the story, and I really enjoyed the narrative/narration (I’m reaching for the right word here and coming up wrong, I just know it 🤭).
Anyhow, if you’re looking for something a bit different but a ton of fun with a great mystery this just might be the book for you!

This was definitely an interesting read! It’s a clever mystery that is constantly changing the narrative style. We see a detective investigating and then suddenly it’s in first person, with a narrator pointing our attention to something else. I thought it was a fun read, but I’m not sure I really understood the ending!

I received an advanced copy from Netgalley, but all thoughts are my own.

It's a rare but thrilling find when one well-read in the genre can call a mystery novel, in all honesty, exciting. This is one of them.

Meta and self-referential without being smug — itself a rarity that denotes immense wit and skill in proper hands — West Heart Kill is a unique, original, and utterly delightful ride that knows well the art of stealing to create the something better, something different (integrating the canon and history of its predecessors into the narrative; these are not mere inspirations or winks towards, but fundamental parts of, the narrative). A brilliant experience for lovers of literature in all its forms, this debut novel is a triumph, serving as both a tribute to and marvelous addition to the art of murder and mystery.

That said, while I cannot recommend this enough to avid readers of the genre, I must also temper expectations by saying that this novel absolutely has the capacity to be divisive; readers who dislike the uncanny, are put off by the meta, and believe the fourth wall is a critical part of the experience they seek while reading will want to skip this one. The characters here are all takes on the classics, slightly to the left; the reader is one of these characters. For some, who do not understand what they're in for and would have avoided it if they had, this might be unsettling. While I do believe that fair warning is necessary in helping West Heart Kill find its most appreciative audience, I admit that I'm glad I, personally, went in blind; to me, this was a marvelous surprise. I cannot recall a time when I read the entirety of a novel (though to refer to this as a novel is, perhaps, itself misleading; it plays fast and loose within its written mediums) with a grin on my face. This is, perhaps, the first in a long, long time.

West Heart Kill is a stunning, exceptional, and, critically, thoroughly enjoyable novel which will be devoured by devotees and casual enjoyers of the murder mystery alike. It's not for everyone, but those it's for are in for great fun. A terrific success.

Expected publication 24 Oct 23 ❦ Thank you NetGalley!

This book "takes place over the course of four days during the Bicentennial weekend"--that's a direct quote from an imagined review of this book, in this book (quote taken from the ARC, so it may appear differently in the published version).

As that might imply, this book subverts a lot of novel traditions and is pre-occupied with a sort of navel-gazing meta-approach to writing a murder mystery. While some may love this take on the mystery genre, it felt forced to me, like I was watching someone do their research before writing their own mystery book, and they really, really wanted me to know how much work they had put in.

McDorman clearly has a hearty appreciation for mysteries and wanted to make a unique contribution to the genre, which he has accomplished. Whatever else I may think, the writing was strong and the concept was intriguing and engaging.

Not the usual type of book I read but I found this to be refreshing and different. McDorman is a talented writer and he does his storytelling in an unique way. I thought the book was well done. Thanks to NetGalley for the ARC. Four stars.

I appreciate the uniqueness of this book and what it was trying to accomplish, but it just didn’t quite work for me. It reminded me of Everyone In My Family Has Killed Someone with the narrator talking directly to the reader but this one took it even further and the reader was even more involved. I can see how some readers will like this a lot but it was just a bit too forced quirky for me. It was an entertaining read but I wish it had been toned down just a little.

I loved this meta- detective/mystery story that simulates a Knives Out sort of story at a hunting lodge. It's a murder mystery with all of the accruements - there is intrigue, money problems, romance and jealousy. Big gambling, big debts and big cheating -bring in a great storm and everyone is stuck at the lodge with the murderer!

Dann McDorman takes the well known mystery and turns it inside out, all the while giving us lots of fun facts about mystery history and mystery writers in general. This is a must read for any Agatha Christie fan or fan of serial detective stories. It is guaranteed that Dann will entertain you, stump you and teach you! This is a book I recommend and will read again for all of the Easter eggs, history and layers of clues. If you like detective stories, meta writing and amateur sleuthing, West Heart Kill is for you!
#knopf #Pantheon #WestHeartKill #DannMcDorman

One of my favorite mystery subgenres is that of the meta-mystery, which plays with the whodunit form. Authors like Anthony Horowitz, Elly Griffiths and Peter Swanson have done a great job of subverting the well-worn tropes of the traditional mystery. So when I saw that "West Heart Kill" was being billed as a meta-mystery, I rushed to read it.

"West Heart Kill" gives us all the ingredients of a good old fashioned crime novel, with a bunch of WASPs gathering at their isolated hunting club over the weekend of July 4, 1976. Of course, all of these people, who have mostly known each other their whole lives, and are often second-generation club members, have lots of good reasons to hate each other, but it's all simmering below the surface -- until one member accidentally (?) kills another's dog, and then someone winds up dead. Enter Adam McAnnis, a private eye who was brought to the club to investigate someone or something, but just what he's up to is not immediately clear. Will McAnnis be able to unmask the culprit before there's another victim?

The book's narration careens from third person to first person to second person, digressing into notable points in the history of the genre (Agatha Christie's disappearance, Sherlock Holmes' post-Reichenbach Falls resurrection etc.). When McDorman actually presents the reader with the etymology of the word "murder," I had to applaud his sheer audacity. At least he didn't try giving us, "Webster's defines 'mystery' as..."

The denouement is pretty bonkers, but my main problem with the book is that I felt all of the WASPy men were sort of interchangeable. (The women are far more interesting.) "West Heart Kill" is nothing if not meta, but it didn't quite work for me.

An interesting mystery tale, told from several perspectives. An ending without a solution, at least for this reader, and I don’t have the time to go back and re-read to see what I may have missed.