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Review: West Heart Kill by Dann McDorman



Blurb from Goodreads:
LOOKING FOR AN ANYTHING-BUT-ORDINARY WHODUNIT? Welcome to the West Heart country club. Where the drinks are neat but behind closed doors . . . things can get messy. Where upright citizens are deemed downright boring. Where the only missing piece of the puzzle is you, dear reader.

A unique and irresistible murder mystery set at a remote hunting lodge where everyone is a suspect, including the erratic detective on the scene—a remarkable debut that gleefully upends the rules of the genre.

An isolated hunt club. A raging storm. Three corpses, discovered within four days. A cast of monied, scheming, unfaithful characters.

When private detective Adam McAnnis joins an old college friend for the Bicentennial weekend at the exclusive West Heart club in upstate New York, he finds himself among a set of not-entirely-friendly strangers. Then the body of one of the members is found at the lake’s edge; hours later, a major storm hits. By the time power is restored on Sunday, two more people will be dead.
My Review:

This book is as much a study in all tropes and the history of mystery novels as it is anything else, including its own mystery novel. It was interestingly written between the teaching about mysteries in general and its on mystery although perhaps, at times, a bit cerebral.  However, I enjoyed the mystery up until the very end, which was a big unsatisfying.  That said, the book was paced well, and it was unique.  Would definitely read more form this author!

West Heart Kill comes out next week on October 24, 2023, and you can purchase HERE!  This book is unique!
"How many families?"

"Maybe three dozen? More? They all have their own cabins, all over the property. Every few years, a member leaves, a new one is added. The dues are steep."

"And what does all that money get you?"

"Hunting grounds. A lake stocked with fish and canoes. The club-house. Meals prepared for big parties."

"Like this one."

"Yes, fireworks on the Fourth of July. Also, Memorial Day ... Labor Day ... New Year's. Any excuse, really, to drink too much and ogle other people's wives."

"There are less expensive ways to have an affair."

"These people have money to burn. Or did. But what they're really paying for is separation. Privacy. Miles and miles of empty trails. Graves in which to bury their secrets."

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