A Murder Most Camp by Nicolas DiDomizio Review
⭐️⭐️⭐️.5
A Murder Most Camp is not as camp as I was hoping. The story follows Micky, a disillusioned nepobaby as he works at a summer camp to fulfill his trust requirement of completing a singular good deed. This gets complicated as he winds up in the cross hairs of a decade old mystery, but solving a mystery counts as a good deed right?
The main issue I found with this book is that it was more of a story that I just wanted to finish rather than enjoy. The mystery was only interesting enough for me to want to know the outcome rather than enjoy the process of it unfolding. I think this was because this mystery seemed more interested in misdirection and the most surprising twists rather than properly unraveling a mystery. This did lead to me guessing the murderer purely on the fact that it would be the largest but still somewhat logical twist.
I also found Micky okay as a character. I felt like DiDomizo was trying too hard to make him sympathetic. As if he felt that the audience would not like him on sight due to him being a nepobaby, so he had to be cheated on, lose his mom to cancer, and be isolated his whole childhood. When honestly the best improvement that could be given to Micky is for him to not give me second hand embarrassment every other line.
The children characters were ok. I just felt like none of them were particularly memorable or distinct outside of Anna.
The relationship between Jackson and Micky felt like it came on a bit fast, even if I liked the dynamic a little.
Overall, this book was not the campy summer romp that I was expecting and is more a mediocre mystery with a lot of 90s movie references.
Thanks to NetGalley and Poisoned Pen Press for an advanced copy.