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BOOK INFO
Title: Guess Who
Author: Chris McGeorge
Publisher: Hanover Square Press
Publish Date: September 18, 2018
Genre: Mystery Thriller
Series: na
My Rating: 3/5
BOOK BLURB
The rules are simple.
But the game is not.At eleven years old, Morgan Sheppard solved the murder of a teacher when everyone else believed it to be a suicide. The publicity surrounding the case laid the foundation for his reputation as a modern-day Sherlock Holmes. He parlayed that fame into a gig as TV’s “resident detective,” solving the more typical tawdry daytime talk show mysteries like “Who is the father?” and “Is he cheating?”
Until, that is, Sheppard wakes up handcuffed to a bed in an unfamiliar hotel room. Around him, five strangers are slowly waking up, as well. Soon they discover a corpse in the bathtub and Sheppard is challenged to put his deductive skills to the test. One of the people in the room is the killer. He has three hours to solve the murder. If he doesn’t find the killer, they all will die.
An ingenious, page-turning debut, Chris McGeorge’s Guess Who matches the high-wire plotting of classic “locked room” mysteries into the unstoppable pacing of the modern-day thriller.
Purchase Links: Amazon
MY REVIEW
A group of strangers awakens in a locked hotel room, and soon discovers a dead body in the room with them. To escape the room, they are tasked with identifying the killer, who is one of them.
The main character, Morgan Sheppard, hosts a detective show on television. He is the primary target of the madman who has kidnapped them and locked them in a room with a corpse. The kidnapper appears on the room’s TV to address the strangers, and tells Shappard that to prove he is a good detective, he needs to solve the mystery. Since the punishment of not solving the mystery in the allotted time is death, the others are, obviously, trying to identify the killer too. Lots of drama, distrust, and arguments.
Throughout Guess Who, flashbacks of Sheppard’s childhood appear. When he was young, Sheppard solved a mystery, and that case brought him a lot of attention and fame. Ever since then, he has struggled with desiring the attention that fame affords, but also battling with personal demons.
Guess Who is a locked room mystery that started off strong. I enjoy this type of mystery, and was curious how the story would end. This one does have some twists, though I felt the story was a little too long and drawn out. Really, the ending was over-explained, and, for me, that took something away from the story. A good read for fans of locked room mysteries. Dark and twisted.
Books by Chris McGeorge:
- Guess Who
- Now You See Me
- Inside Out
- Half-Past Tomorrow
Typically the authors of these stories tend to overwrite them. They become dull and full of fillers. I have a problem with that. Ugh.
This one didn’t hold my interest as much as I had hoped it would. I loved the first half of the book though. It’s the second half that lost me.
I actually really enjoyed this novel. The backstory came as surprise to me. Great review lovely!
Thank you! Glad you enjoyed this one!
Great review, Darinda! Too bad it had issues for you.
Thanks, Jonetta!