ShortBookandScribes #BookReview – Can You Solve the Murder by Antony Johnston

Captain Quirky here to tell you about Can You Solve the Murder by Antony Johnston which is published by Bantam and is out now. My thanks to the publishers for the proof copy.

What’s your detective name?

You arrive at Elysium, a wellness retreat in an English country manor, to investigate a murder. You find the body of a local businessman on the lawn, with a rose placed in his mouth.

When you examine the body, you learn that he fell to his death from the balcony above. But that balcony can only be accessed through a locked door – and the key is missing.

Everyone in Elysium is now a suspect, but who will you interview first? Be careful what you choose, because every decision you make has consequences, and some of them will prove fatal…

Do you have what it takes? Can YOU solve the murder?

Experience a gripping new type of story, unlike anything you’ve read before, from Antony Johnston, award-winning crime author and veteran games writer.

Like the author (in his Acknowledgements) I remember enjoying the Choose Your Own Adventure books in the 1980s so when I heard about this grown-up version I had to give it a go.

You are the detective investigating the murder of a man found on the lawn of a wellness retreat. Who killed him, how and why? That is what you must try and work out by reading the first chapter and choosing from two (or sometimes more) options as to where to go or who to interview next.

It makes for a fun and interesting read with a cast of largely unlikeable characters who may or may not have been up to no good. The storyline itself is more simplistic than many crime novels; it’s not about having a convoluted plot but it is about the novelty of trying to solve the crime yourself.

Did I solve it? Err…..well that would be telling (read that as no) but I did at least do fairly well with my clues and according to the points system at the back of the book I’ve made it to the heady ranks of Detective Inspector!

There were a few things I would do differently if I read it again. First of all, when I put it down for a while I would write down the number of the last section I read, mainly because I would have liked to have refreshed my memory but also so that I could pick up the thread of my journey through the book if needed. There are some coded messages and I wish that I had at least written down where they were as later on I had to try and find them again (bad detective). Oh, and don’t start trying to decode them when you’re laying in bed at night!

I enjoyed this quirky and entertaining novel and would read another one if more are in the pipeline. Maybe I’ll make DCI next time.

For associated reading, I recommend The Boy in the Book by Nathan Penlington.

Antony Johnston is the award-winning, New York Times bestselling author of more than fifty books, graphic novels, and comic series, including the popular Dog Sitter Detective murder mysteries. His graphic novel The Coldest City was made into the multi-million-dollar blockbuster movie Atomic Blonde. He is also a celebrated videogames writer, and is credited with many franchise-defining titles. Johnston is a former vice chair of the Crime Writers’ Association, a member of International Thriller Writers and the Society of Authors, a Shore Scripts screenwriting judge, and sits on the Writers’ Guild of Great Britain’s videogames committee. He lives and works in Lancashire.