West Heart Kill by Dann McDorman

2/5 stars

West Heart Kill was an interesting concept, but not overly well executed. We all know the cliché: the “Good Old Boys” Club with antiquated ideals, the infiltration, the corruption and scandal, and finally….the murder.

I thought that the style of West Heart Kill was extremely unique. It reads almost like if the old Clue movie was a book that had a baby with a play. It has the same almost over the top satirical style of Clue and the 4th wall breaking narrative of a play. Really interesting for a book, however, it didn’t allow me to get a good sense of the characters.

I don’t feel like I got to know these characters at all. There were so many and I don’t think I could even name half of them, let alone their relationships to each other. I never felt like I had good descriptions and a sense for who they are, so none of them solidified as characters in my mind. I couldn’t feel bad about the deaths other than a passing vague sympathy because there was nothing there for me to feel. I really wanted these characters to develop more and be more of a focus so I could have a good understanding of things.

The mechanic of not revealing the murderer in the end is frustrating; I didn’t enjoy it at all. It struck me as lazy and uninterested in finishing the story. The entire book struck me as very highbrow, like I needed to be at a certain IQ level to read it. Unfortunately for me, I don’t think I was. I couldn’t figure out who did what or what the secrets are, though clearly I wasn’t meant to if the ending is any indication. It was hard for me to keep up with the story due to the sheer amount of random exposition about things only tangentially related to the book. I felt that as soon as something was happening, we took a 180 and went off on a long tangent on the history of literary concepts in literature, espousing the virtues of other mystery books, etc. Once the action resumed, there were times I struggled to remember what I had left it on.

This has a lot of potential to be something new and genre-defining. But as it sits, only those who are much smarter than me will have any solid merit from this book.

Thank you to NetGalley for the early review copy. All opinions in this review are my own.