Reviews with content warning for Murder - Umacı'nın Peşinde

Reviews tagging 'Murder'

Umacı'nın Peşinde by Richard Chizmar

34 reviews

scockroft's review against another edition

dark mysterious tense fast-paced

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

4.0

A unique story that feels as close to a “true crime” book without actually being true. The author writes himself as the main character in his journey to help solve the string of murders in his small town. Chizmar uses photos at the end of each chapter to bring the non-fiction feel to this story which heightens the tension and feeling that these grizzly events really happened to his neighbors next door.

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minimicropup's review against another edition

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dark emotional mysterious medium-paced

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

4.0

Setting the Scene: 🇺🇸 The town of Edgewood, Maryland

POV: We are reading a true crime and memoir from the author’s perspective as they revisit their youth and the dark events that unfolded in their hometown.

Mood Reading Match-Up:

-Metafiction memoir (in a non-fiction style)

-Coming of age nostalgia, friendship, serial killer whodunnit, not all was as it seemed

-True crime alternative history

-Exploring themes around nostalgia, memory, growing up, self-preservation, true crime consumption, community, life experience, investigation, motivations, and mystery

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🐺 Growls, Howls, and Tail Wags 🐕

🗣️ Tale-Telling: This was a cool narrative style I haven’t read before – it’s part memoir, part fiction, but it’s meant to be read as a true crime book pretending it covers real cases. It was like a high-end meta approach that initially sounded self-centered, but nope. The first-person narrative from the author’s perspective added a personal touch that didn’t feel narcissistic so the events felt more intimate and impactful. It is part memoir (and some of the memoir is truth since it’s the author writing themselves into this alternate universe). The audio was great, although the narrator didn't have a wide range for doing the voices so everyone sounded the same in voice (not in dialogue). Also, if you’re here for crime fiction only, then some parts could feel a bit like when podcast hosts chat a lot ahead of their topic.

👥 Characters: The characters felt like real people. The book had photographs of the victims, the author, their friends, and family, and the crime scene photos (nothing graphic) after each chapter the way a true crime non-fiction would. I sometimes forget this was blurring the line between fiction and reality because it felt so vivid and lifelike.

🗺️ Ambiance: Edgewood felt real (okay, it is, but you know what I mean) and some of the places you could look up on Google Earth if you want to enhance the immersiveness. But it isn’t necessary to do that to get a sense of the atmosphere and layout of different places. It also didn’t have info-dumping of street names or routes etc.

🔥 Fuel: The mystery of the serial killer’s identity is the driving force and their ability to get away with the crimes made it especially unnerving. It felt like a true crime investigative podcast with extra filler (kind of like CBC or Wondery style) where we get to know the host and their opinions along the way. There is lots of guessing and second-guessing throughout about who (or what) is committing these crimes and I wanted to re-read it when I found out at the end.

🎬 Scenes: The pacing starts off slow, primarily focused on the author’s childhood and hometown dynamics. The slow burn was okay for me since it laid the groundwork for the story and characters. When we aren’t getting facts or memoir bits, we get background on the victims and where they were prior to going missing. The storytelling captured the essence of the 1980s without being heavy-handed. The later parts of the book avoided common crime fiction tropes and had a grounded and realistic view of investigative work.

🤓 Random Thoughts: If you don’t mind slow burn character studies alongside a serial killer crime fiction mystery, I think this will be enjoyable. The character study is not of the victims or the serial killer though, and sometimes I felt like I was losing interest a little bit in the day-to-day life of the author or his journalist friend when I was desperate to know more about the evidence or what is going on with the case. But ultimately the blend of personal narrative and mystery was creative and captivating. I hope more authors will play with metafiction this way.

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Content Heads-Up: Serial murder. Gender-based violence (against teen girls). Body decomposition. Medical (cancer; recall, quick mention). Death of a parent. Death of a child. Grief.

Rep: Cis-gender. Heterosexual. White American experience and characters. Black American characters. Ecuadorian ancestry.

👀 Format: Everand Digital and Audio
The audio was so annoying to pair with text because there are chapter breaks that are titled, then within each chapter there is a sub chapter 1, 2, 3 etc. The audio chapter numbers don't match the text chapter numbers.

“Reviews are my musings 💖 powered by puppy snuggles 🐶 refined by my AI bookworm bestie ✨”

Content Warnings

adventgeekgirl's review against another edition

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dark mysterious tense medium-paced

3.0

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hanyaya's review against another edition

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dark

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

3.75

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madrog's review against another edition

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dark mysterious reflective tense fast-paced

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

4.0

Content Warnings

chupacobbruh's review against another edition

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dark mysterious tense slow-paced

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

3.25

Content Warnings

rachelunabridged's review against another edition

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dark mysterious medium-paced

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

2.75

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kylionsfan's review against another edition

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adventurous dark emotional hopeful informative inspiring mysterious fast-paced

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

4.5

Content Warnings

jadstersuperinvader'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? No
Diverse cast of characters? No
Flaws of characters a main focus? No

4.0

I liked the premise of the book and found it a fun read, but really did not like the main character who is based on the author. I found his perspective of everything to be almost cringe and annoying, I really wish the book was in a third person's perspective and not the main character's. And at times his inner monologue is so incredibly dull and gives major second hand embarrassment. The story itself, if you enjoy true crime, was very enjoyable still. I liked how focused it was on humanizing all of the female victims.

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bellestallard's review against another edition

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dark mysterious reflective medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? A mix
Strong character development? Yes

4.5

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