Reviews with content warning for Death - The Decagon House Murders

A great fast paced thriller. I loved the play on Agatha Christie's 'and then there were none' with a twist. I liked how there was two separate story lines that interwove to make up the mystery in the book. The reveal caught me off guard completely and was very clever. On the other hand I did not see a need for the epilogue at the end of the book, I personally could not figure out the purpose of it.

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bilitis's review against another edition

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challenging dark mysterious tense fast-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Plot
Strong character development? No
Loveable characters? It's complicated
Diverse cast of characters? N/A
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.0

oh my god that was excellent. absolute masterpiece.

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laciecatherine's review against another edition

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dark mysterious tense medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Plot
Strong character development? No
Loveable characters? Yes
Diverse cast of characters? No
Flaws of characters a main focus? No

4.25

Non-spoiler review:

To set the scene, on a strange island and in a strange house, a quadruple murder-suicide took place six months prior to our story. Members of a mystery-fiction at a university visit the island and have no access to the outside world (this is the 1980s so no cell phones). The plan is to stay there for a week and re-examine the aforementioned homicide/suicide case. However, one by one they are picked off and killed.

To be honest, I have never read And Then There Were None by Agatha Christie, but it is on my bookshelf waiting to be read. This novel is a self-claimed reminiscent homage to Christie's famous work. Since no one person is the narrator, it focuses on the plot and gives you just enough character details to become attached and interested (there are about ten characters you meet and have to remember and it is a relatively short book for all it accomplishes). I found myself getting attached to the characters, finding myself in each of them and not wanting any of them to be the killer.

One of the things I did not like about the book is that the usual spacing of conversations was off from what I usually read and it was sometimes difficult to tell who was talking, which can get ultra confusing when you have seven characters to juggle. I am finally getting back into reading after some grueling college years. I am currently applying to graduate schools and this is the second book I have read and finished in quite a few years so my rating system is quite generous. I would give this a 4.5 rounded down to a 4 because of the sometimes confusing conversations and because I was not ENTIRELy satisfied with the ending, although it did shock and infuriate me (in a good way??). I honestly think I will be thinking about this book for quite a while.

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libbyhb's review against another edition

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dark mysterious medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Plot
Strong character development? No
Loveable characters? Yes
Diverse cast of characters? Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.5

This was a really well done homage to And Then There Were None, and I think I enjoyed it even more than the original. The mystery was so much more fleshed out and personal and felt more satisfying. I liked how it switched between the two different narratives, one with only pseudonyms and one with real names. It made it feel almost like the events occurring on the island were fiction, but the ones on the mainland were "real" in a way. And the balance between the simple and complicated parts of the mystery was perfect for understanding what was going on and why.

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