West Heart Kill by Dann McDorman Book Review

About the Book:

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 novel is really different and the style did not appeal to me at all. The author seems to be explaining the concept of a murder mystery as he, in fact, writes the mystery. I felt like I was receiving a lecture about how to write a mystery. This is a novel for people interested in the construction technique of writing a mystery rather than just reading a well crafted one. I was disappointed the all too often used storm cutting the people off from the rest of the world was a part of the action. And then the end, or rather a sort of non-end, was really unsatisfactory.

McDorman is a clever author and this is unique in its style. The literary asides were not for me. The novel did not keep my attention as I was looking for a mystery, not a book about mysteries. It would be interesting to read a traditional mystery by this author. He is clever and has the ability to write a captivating mystery, I think. This one was just not for me.

My rating: 3/5 stars.

About the Author:

Dann McDorman is an Emmy-nominated TV news producer, who has also worked as a newspaper reporter, book reviewer, and cabinet maker. He lives in Brooklyn with his wife and two children. Photo: © Beowulf Sheehan

Knopf, 288 pages.

I received a complimentary egalley of this book from the publisher. My comments are an independent and honest review.

(My star ratings: 5-I love it, 4-I like it, 3-It's OK, 2-I don't like it, 1-I hate it.)