Murder in the Family

2.5⭐️ absolutely loved the mixed media in this book but the story just fell flat for me

2.5

cool formating, great audiobook but the story was just basic and very confusing (on purpose i'd imagine). i didn't guess who done it but I think it was impossible to do so despite the books tag line

I was so excited about the idea of this book. But the first half was confusing and hard to get into. By halfway through it started getting interesting but the ending left so many things unanswered, which I hate. Cool concept but definitely not my favorite murder mystery.

This format was so fun and best experienced through audio. That being said, I don't think I would have enjoyed (maybe even finished) this book had I not had the accompanying audio. With a full cast, it gave the story more depth. I found some of the layers confusing and had a bit of a hard time keeping up with all the different characters. It was also VERY British which I usually have a hard time getting into, but I appreciate the author explaining terms I may not be familiar with. I did love the alternating between filming and broadcast. The fake reveal was  obvious, and I was pleased with the killer's actual identity. Very Halloween/Michael Myers

Format is clunky - maybe would've been better for me as an audiobook. Had to suspend a lot of disbelief throughout the book to go with the end.

3.5 stars

I was gasping constantly at the end, but at the same time a lot of loose ties are left.

That was an unusual one. And I relly enjoyed it.

I love reading mysteries in a unique format that pulls you into the story more. Murder in the Family is set up as a season of a true crime show. However, they're not just trying to relay what happened, they're also trying to solve the cold case. The season's director is the victim's step-son, giving the crew unprecedented access to the family and where he was murdered.

I found the format of the book very fun. I thought it was done very well overall with conversations in screenplay format with other information in emails, texts, newspaper clippings, maps, subreddit-like posts, and other images detailing the original case.

The cliff hangers from one episode to the next were done so well a handful of them had me audibly gasping. However, I liked those and the other reveals along the way a lot more than the actual resolution to the actual murder. Somewhere along the way we start to find out more about the background of the victim and I found that to be more interesting than the murder.

One downside of the format is that it got difficult for me to tell the people from the investigative team apart. It made it difficult for me to keep track of their backgrounds, and they really all started to blend together.

I think this might be a book best read in physical format. It could really benefit from taking notes and sticking tabs to keep track of everything and also help you feel even more like you're a part of the story, trying to solve this along with them.

All in all, I found this to be a very enjoyable experience. It was an immersive experience, an easy to read page-turner with many twists and turns, and while the final resolution (for me) was a bit of a let down, I still thoroughly enjoyed the journey and would recommend it, especially if you like mysteries with unique formats like The Appeal.

Thank you so much to William Morrow and NetGalley for the eARC!

A very lively and entertaining read. Loved the mixed media approach and found it a real page turner from start to end. Highly recommended.

I really liked the format of this book and found it to be a really interesting way of setting out the story, but definitely feel like it could have been used more to give more clues, although this wasn't really needed as it was easy to guess who it was within the first 20 pages. That being said, the ending garnered an extreme eye roll from me, even though I had suspected that person for most of the book. It was just a bit ridiculous. The way in which the characters are involved in the case also became ridiculous and just removed any plausibility of the story for me as it just went too far.

I spent a lot of time at the beginning of the book poring over the CVs and other documents and quickly realised this was a waste of my time. There were lots of things unresolved at the end which frustrated me.

4.5 stars. That was such fun. Couldn't put it down.