West Heart Kill by Dann McDorman (2023)

West Heart Kill by Dann McDorman (2023)

A meta murder mystery where the reader feels like a character in the story.

Laura’s Rating: 3.5/5 Stars

Plot: Detective Adam McAnnis is invited to the exclusive West Heart country club for a weekend of revelry. The story has all the makings of a great mystery: a remote hunting club, a suspicious cast of characters, and a morally gray detective. Be ready for the author to take you on a journey to uncover the truth.

Analysis: The narrator analyzes and dissects mystery stories, how they’re written, the history of the genre, common tropes, etc. I took a detective fiction class in college, and I really enjoyed that the book brought up a lot of things that I had learned about in that class such as the evolution from Sir Arthur Conan Doyle and Agatha Christie, with proper and tidy murder scenes, to more hardboiled fiction and eventually crime fiction focused on the perpetrator. It felt almost academic in a way that I quite enjoyed, but might not be for everyone. There are also some light spoilers of famous detective novels as a warning. 

I found myself enjoying those parts of the book more than the actual plot at times. Due to the interjections about technique and plotting, it felt like not much had actually happened in the story, even when I was well into the book. The narrative style makes for a feeling of detachment from the characters.

Now to the conclusion: it was too meta for me and not very satisfying. I felt like I’d been guided on a journey and then abruptly left by myself at the end. I still enjoyed the book, but I’m not sure I’d recommend it to someone looking for a straightforward mystery.