I didn’t vibe with this book. There were way too many characters to keep track of what was going on. I liked the concept ( communications via email/text/etc) but I couldn’t keep all the moving pieces straight.

Really enjoyed this book the story the format the writing style.I picked it up to read a few pages and wound up reading for hours.Will be recommending.#netgalley#reddoor

I really liked the premise of this book but struggled with the format and writing. I normally love books that have untraditional formats, but this one was not for me.

It started off bit slow but I’m glad I didn’t put it down. There are a lot of characters so you must pay attention to not get confused. I usually don’t like novels that includes a lot of letters, emails and texts, but the author did it in such intriguing way that kept me invested.

This may be one of my favourite books that I've read this year. This book is a collection of a selected correspondence between various characters including Wen, a young British-Chinese woman; Lomax, Wen's co-worker and hopeful novelist; Julian, Wen and Lomax's irritatingly rat-like boss; and Fifi, Lomax's eventual friend. The book navigates the lives of these characters as they experience love with others and each other, losing or leaving their job, moving to a new country, and eventually murder. One thing is certain: one of these characters ends up murdered.

Starting with Wen, I found her character to be quite enjoyable and relatable. She struggles with a form of Obsessive Compulsive Disorder that manifests as Wen having constant thoughts of murdering others. Through Wen's correspondence with her mom, therapist, friends, and boyfriend (eventual EX-boyfriend...), it is shown that Wen is constantly worried that she may, in fact, be an eventual serial killer. I find her willingness to push through life, despite her OCD getting in the way, quite heartwarming. She proves to be a true and loyal friend to Lomax, and I always was looking forward to whatever correspondence she was going to have next.

Next, I found Lomax to be quite comical. He is a man who wishes to become a bestselling novelist, but it struggling to get there. He is also struggling with loving a Sicilian woman who, quite frankly, abuses him like there is no tomorrow. He eventually decides to take a sabbatical from his job as a notary and moves to a flat in Italy to be closer to Aurora (the aforementioned Sicilian love). Through his correspondence, you can really tell he is just a man who is struggling but trying to keep himself from drowning, so to speak. I find his story quite endearing and realistic.

Considering Wen and Lomax were my two favourites, I still liked the side characters. I found their correspondence to be equally as important as well as fascinating. I like the idea of a novel being a compiled list of correspondence between people who are somehow involved in a murder. I think the only disappointment that I experienced was... well, the murder! It was slightly anticlimactic and I think made it almost too much of a happily ever after. I can't be too mad at it though, because it was a marvellous book that I literally could NOT put down.

I have read 12% and the format provided is just not working for me. If a more polished format is available I would love to continue reading it in exchange for an honest review. As it is now I will not continue and will not post any reviews.

I enjoy epistolary books (books written via correspondence not narratively), and I had high hopes for this book, but it just didn't deliver.
The book is well written and the author does a good job of establishing the character's voices, and thedifferent tones for different types of communication (email, text messages, work messages). However, the characters and plot have potential, but they felt flat. The plot dragged - and kept alluding to a murder that happened in the last 3 pages. I was hoping it would wrap the minimal plot together, but instead it just stopped.
There was also too much going on - it took a while to realize which characters we were supposed to follow, and with it incorrectly placed as a thriller I was overly critical of each character's correspondence looking for clues. I think this would be better placed in literary fiction, and the 'publisher' interludes reminding the reader about a murder removed.

Netgalley ARC

I had very high hopes for this book.
It was well written, as it had me captivated and unable to put it down.
The Characters building and personalities, the variety, the mental problems. All was my jam.
But by the end....it was a huge disappointment.
It has kept on dragging and going into details of the characters' lives and stirring away from the main point. The killing. (as it was the last two pages and not even detailed or important and didn't need all this building and counting down)
Just read 300 pages of a supposed thriller with zero thrill.

Wow. This book ended up being really, really good! It started off a little slow in the beginning but once it picked up, it had me on my toes! And that ending! I’ll probably go back and reread at some point just to get a new perspective.

I did enjoy this read, I haven’t read many books in this style of writing. The actually story was good and got me wanted to see how it all ends.

Wen Li is a deeply kind and sensitive twenty-nine-old British-Chinese woman who suffers from severe Obsessive Compulsive Disorder, which manifests itself in an incessant, overwhelming fear that she might have murderous impulses. Unlucky in love and emotionally scarred, Wen falls for colleague, Lomax Clipper, a tremendously frustrated and delusional Englishman. He’s in love with a Sicilian young woman he met while working in Italy, but he and Wen do share a mutual loathing of their boss, Julian Ponsonby. Julian’s struggling too – with a toxic relationship and his father’s refusal to accept his sexuality. On his return to Sicily, via a sabbatical, Lomax befriends Fifi de Angelis, a vulnerable Sicilian man with restricted growth who has been ostracised by his family. It’s definitely an unforgettable story and it just gets more beautiful and moving as it goes on until it reaches its conclusion……

Countdown to a Killing by Tom Vaughan MacAulay is an interesting murder mystery told entirely through correspondence, emails & WhatsApp messages.
I was quite intrigued when I read the blurb. I am the biggest fan of epistolarian novels so this seemed like it would be right up my alley.
I will admit I struggled getting into it because there were so many characters & relationships established quickly that I had trouble figuring out everyone. I would also like to add that with reading an arc, while I find always a fortunate experience, might have made this more confusing with this type of book because the lack of perfected formatting was trouble on my brain differentiating people & conservations. This could definitely be a me problem. I have a foggy brain & chronic illness, so please forgive me.
Between the toxic relationships, judgmental people & dragging story, I kept anticipating action, but I was met with more mundane conversations. I would’ve liked a little less of the middle to end & more of the climax & reveal. It all came together in a couple pages & I wanted more explanation.
I wanted to love this so much beceauze I thought the concept of this was absolutely incredible & unique, but I had trouble with it. I’m going to give it 3 stars for innovation & cleverness.
I would like to give the author props for such an inventive premise & gutsy storytelling with breaking the fourth wall. I think that takes extreme intelligence, wit & determination & for that, I offer my respect & applause.
I’m always very appreciate for the inclusion of mental health struggles. This is one of the first books I’ve read that has a character with OCD. I know someone who has this & I’m always grateful to authors for representing & including mental health in their work.
Countdown to a Killing by Tom Vaughan MacAulay comes out July 7, 2022!

Massive thanks to NetGalley & RedDoor Press for giving me the opportunity to read an arc of this in exchange for an honest review.

Trigger warnings: This book mentions &/or contains gore, bodily harm, violence, murder, racist jokes, homophobic comments & addiction.

Countdown To A Killing by Tom Vaughan MacAulay is a quirky "mystery" told through the WhatsApp messages of the main characters. This book entertains with its eccentric characters and their odd friendships. This is a quick read, best if you're looking to enter the lives of some oddball characters.

The story centers on Lomax, Wen and Julian, all employees of a notary office in London. Through their WhatsApp messages with each other and others, the story of Lomax's Italian lover, Wen's debilitating OCD and Julian's unhappy relationship, and eventually, a murder unfolds. MacAulay tells the story with humor, introducing some of the oddest characters I've read in a long time (see Fifi, the biting dwarf).

The characters are at times frustrating, but I think that's the point, since they are unerringly human. We know from the start that a murder occurs, but we are reading the messages from months before the inevitable death. We do not know who is murdered or how, so the reader is left guessing (hoping?) which character does not survive.

The premise of the book is interesting, with some "editorial interventions" throughout to remind the readers of the impending murder. It's not the first novel to use letters/texts/emails/messages to unravel the story, but MacAulay does so in an intriguing way. Some of the messages are written to characters we only meet as recipients of the messages. Again, all of this is in preparation for the murder.

This murder, though, and the ending of the book overall felt rushed. The reader has just slogged through message after message, becoming invested in the lives of these quirky humans, only to have the murder almost be a footnote. Again, perhaps that's MacAulay's point. But I finished feeling like the author had gone over their allotted word count and was forced to finish up quickly. Sadly, a disappointing ending to a fun read.

Thank you to #NetGalley and #RedDoorPress for an #ARC of #CountdownToAKilling

Epistolary novels are quickly becoming a favorite of mine. I think it is a unique way to tell a story and have the readers make their own determination about the events taking place in the story and about the characters themselves. In this book, the main characters are Wen Li and Lomax Clipper. They are both obsessive about things in their own ways. Wen has been diagnosed with Obsessive Compulsive Disorder and Lomax is obsessed with writing his novel at any cost. They are coworkers and friends and the story mainly covers their correspondence to each other and to other people. There are some other minor characters that show up in this book and we get to learn about them through their own correspondence, but mostly the story is focused on Wen and Lomax’s lives.

The author did a great job of weaving everything together. There were only two issues I had with this book. The first was the “editor’s” comments throughout the book to remind the reader that a murder was going to take place during the story. It felt repetitive and a little unnecessary to be overly reminded throughout the story. Having this happen once would have been sufficient enough to get the point across, but for some reason the author felt it wasn’t enough. The second issue that I had with this book is that it suddenly ends after the “murder” occurs. The murder happens and then the story ends. Not much is resolved afterwards and I felt like there could have been a little more of a conclusion as there was so much build up to the actual murder.

Overall, this book was fun to read and it did keep me guessing as how everything would play out with the impending murder. I really enjoyed learning about Lomax and Wen’s lives and how they handled everything with their relationships, work and families. I highly recommend this book to others and encourage others to seek this one out if you are looking for a different take on a murder mystery. This is MacAulay’s second novel and for it being only the second book he has written, this was a good read and one that I had a lot of fun reading.

Overall Rating: 4.5 stars
Author: Tom Vaughan MacAulay

Series: N/A

Publisher: RedDoor Press

Publication Date: May 26, 2022

Pages: 352

Genre: Mystery/Thriller

Disclaimer: This book was given to me by the publisher, through NetGalley, in exchange for my honest review. I reviewed this book without compensation of any kind. All thoughts and opinions are solely mine.

This was not an author or publisher that I have ever read before however the premise of the book was too good to not to read. Janice Hallett, in The Appeal, used a similar story telling device using emails, texts, WhatsApp messages between the main characters rather than traditional prose.

Here we have an assortment of unusual and eccentric characters, we are told that a death will happen at some point in the future which will involve one of our main characters.

I always think the use of personal communication between characters works really well. It gives a great insight into the characters that you sometimes don't get in traditional story telling.

The communication between characters is generally one way. There are many characters who we never meet and we can only learn about them through emails and messages which are sent to them. Despite this you do feel a connection with the characters being corresponded with and it was a great job by the author to make you love/hate people who we are never introduced to.

A thoroughly brilliant novel with an excellent twist on traditional story telling. Thanks to Netgalley and RedDoor Press for an ARC in exchange for an honest review.

Enjoyable although a tad too slow burning for my liking.
I liked that this spanned across so many genres, it's an epistolary novel, a romance, a murder mystery and a humour book all rolled in one and with good diversity too! I was especially fond of Wen Li's character she was the one who kept me reading. She felt so real and I could relate to her as I too suffer from OCD. It was good to see a representation of the disease that was more focused on intrusive thoughts and deep seated anxiety. I got really caught up in figuring who the killer was going to be so I read the book fairly quickly.
I nearly pissed myself laughing reading the little "interludes" and even if Lomax's character drove me insane, I overall had a pretty good time!