West Heart Kill unfolds like a traditional mystery while at the same time flipping every genre trope on its head with self-reflexive mischief. Sex, booze, and drugs abound, as do ulterior motives, and over the holiday weekend, most characters will prove not to be who they seem. There, a body is found at the lake’s edge just as a major storm closes in, preventing exit. The book opens with the protagonist, detective Adam McAnnis, sitting in the passenger seat of his old friend’s car on the way to the exclusive West Heart club in upstate New York, to celebrate the Bicentennial.

But West Heart Kill, Dann McDorman’s clever debut, achieves this with intriguing tongue-in-cheek confidence. While mysteries can usually be trusted to compel the reader within the first chapter or even the first few pages, it’s rare for them to hook us from the first paragraph.