Murder in the Family

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!