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SHORTLISTED FOR THE ILP JOHN CREASEY NEW BLOOD DAGGER 2024

‘Doesn’t so much break the fourth wall as crash through it in a bulldozer’ Guardian
‘Engrossing, surprising, clever, genre bending’ Val McDermid
‘Diabolical’ Chris Pavone

You are reading the blurb for an experimental novel by a debut author called Dann McDorman. It is book set sometime in the 1970s, in an exclusive US country club and if you read the book itself, you will very quickly meet the man you think will be the protagonist, private detective Adam McAnnis. You don’t know who has hired him, but you do know from the very first line of the book that someone will die (maybe him? maybe the driver of the car he is a passenger in? maybe someone we are yet to meet?). But you can’t imagine in what ways this story will unfold. We can absolutely promise you that.

West Heart Kill is an outrageously original and imaginative novel that plays with the very nature of story telling, beginning with a detective but definitely not ending with a solution

‘Well, I have no idea how this ended and need someone to talk to about it!’ Rachel S, bookseller

Publisher Review

A crime novel that unpicks traditional storytelling ... engrossing, surprising, clever, genre-bending -- Val McDermid Phenomenal ... totally unique ... a treat for every murder mystery fan -- Janice Hallett Fun, clever, and innovative. A remarkable novel by a major talent, who has created a crime novel that feels entirely unique -- Stuart Turton A thoroughly original suspense novel that hops across elements of the genre-a diabolical locked-room mystery interspersed with a fascinating primer on the form-while always being tremendous fun to read -- Chris Pavone, author of Two Nights in Lisbon A brain-teaser and a crowd-pleaser. I loved it -- Benjamin Stevenson, author of Everyone in my Family Has Killed Someone West Heart Kill is a brilliantly crafted crime novel that wears its influences on its sleeve, and in doing so manages at once to wrong-foot the reader and the genre entirely. A terrific, thrilling and novel debut -- A. E. Gauntlett, author of forthcoming The Stranger at the Wedding