The Word Is Murder

This...review is not going to make a whole lot of sense. Logically, I should not like this book. I hesitate to recommend it to others for most of the reasons I shouldn't like it. For SOME reason, I had a good time reading it? 🥴 Basically everybody is a bit of an asshole, except for Hawthorne who is HUGE asshole. I dislike books centred on unlikeable characters as a rule. The characters are regularly unlikeable, or rude, or offensive. Bits of the plot feel melodramatic, or predictable. And yet, I merrily trucked along with the mystery, I was amused at the plight of the part-self-satisfied, part brought-down-a-peg narrator, and I KEPT trying to see the redemptive pieces in Hawthorne even though certain things he said are just unforgiveable without hearing the same character actually profess they were wrong and will do better - which he didn't! The camaraderie isn't really there, each glimmer of it had a sort of darkly humourous counterpoint soon after. I feel questionable for having been entertained! 
Will I be reading the next in the series? Yes! Don't, don't ask me why. 🤷🏼‍♂️🤦🏼‍♂️
⚠️ Homophobia, fatphobia, ableism