Well hello you my reader chums! I'm a big murder mystery nerd and especially love it when a book is set somewhere local. My partner got me this book and I was very intrigued by the title and how it was about a writing group, and from an author I hadn't heard before.

If you're a fan of dark humour, and honesty and are a writer yourself, you will love The Write Way To Die by Jo Bavington-Jones - and here is my full review.

Plotline

The plot is about Amy who leaves her job at the vets to pursue her writing career. When one of the customers, Jenny comes in one day and mentions she's a writer too, she invites Amy to join her writing group. There she meets many like-minded writers and every week they have the opportunity to share ideas with each other. When the pandemic happens, their weekly meetings are moved virtually and they begin exchanging their murder stories, for everyone to enjoy and critique. Each story has a different tone to it and when it gets to Robert's story, his story is the darkest of them all, with the aim to make a killer nickname for himself.

Characters and relationships

The protagonist Amy is a brilliantly written character of a truly honest woman, who is unapologetically herself - and that's why she was really great to read about. I love how she dared to walk away from her job and pursue her writing dream, even if she struggled in the process. Her obsession with chocolate oranges made me laugh as she was even more relatable. She was typically British in every way and the perfect protagonist for a novel like this. 

Amy's best friend Cameron had to be one of my favourite characters because he seemed like someone who always knew how to have fun and bring joy. I loved their relationship as it was real and honest, and how every good friendship should be. It's one of those friendships that shows you can meet a good friend at work and continue that friendship.

My favourite friendship though had to be between Amy and Jenny because as the plot goes on, you see how it blooms along the way and gets stronger. Whereas with Amy and Cameron, their friendship had already been built if that makes sense. I love that they shared their passion for writing and were essentially the leaders of the writing group.

Overall thoughts 

Overall, I really enjoyed this book and its concept. Initially, when I began reading it, I wasn't sure what to make of it as it seemed quite slow-paced and focused more on the character development side of things. However, as the book continued and the different stories were shared of all the fiction murders, I was hooked, reading all the different perspectives. It's one of those books where you need to sink into it for a while and learn the context before you can fully appreciate it - and then you will love it! 

I loved the writing style of the author and how it was honest, simple and as if the protagonist was just sharing her thoughts. Also, I enjoyed how she was able to change perspectives based on whose story she was telling - a very clever addition to the novel.

Ending

The book gets darker and darker in a comical sense from the middle to the end and I wasn't sure how it was going to end. Sometimes with a book, you get an inkling of how it would end and even though I had an idea of what would happen, I didn't think that would be the ending of the book. It ended in such a dramatic way and completely threw me off guard but that's what I love about this novel, it was very unexpected in many parts of the plot.

I hope you enjoyed this post. What book are you currently reading?

Thank you for reading <3