Book Review #72 of 2025--
He's to Die For by Erin Dunn. Rating: 3 stars.
Read from October 10th to 12th.
This is pitched as Brooklyn Nine-Nine meets The Charm Offensive which feels pretty fitting to me. We have Rav, a homicide detective for the NYPD, who is investigating the murder of a recording executive when he meets suspect number one, Jack, a musician with the ultra famous band The New Knickerbockers. From moment one, Rav and Jack are drawn to each other, but nothing says forbidden like a homicide detective and a suspect.
Rav is such a fun character. He's a homicide detective for the NYPD but he has a sense of style and fashion that comes from his parents. He's quick witted and speaks with a sharp tongue. Jack is a strangely humble musician in the prime of his career beset with panic attacks. In this one, I found the romance and how they navigate the situation more compelling than the mystery itself. Which I will get into later. There's just something about the concept of someone trying to solve a case falling for someone who may have done the crime. This is now the third book I've read this year that has that as an aspect of the plot. The other two did a better job or if in my opinion, but this one does spell it out for you in the synopsis and cover which I did appreciate. It also felt like a sort of love letter to the city of New York. You can tell this author has lived in the city.
The mystery of it all is actually what brought down my rating. I had a good enough time following along, but there's no way that the reader could solve the mystery with the information we are given. I did suspect the person who did it at one point, however, there are so many red herrings in this book that make your mind jump from suspect to suspect. Once everything unfolds, it does make sense, but the fact of the matter is that it's too convoluted and it's too ridiculous. I get that human beings are convoluted, we're strange creatures and we don't live in a structured plot, but I found the way things unfolded in this novel to be unsatisfactory. I'm sure there are readers who don't mind a mystery like this one, but it's not me. I know there are going to be people who really enjoy this one and I'm excited to see what this author comes up with next.
