Murdered by James Schannep is a Click Your Poison book. By design, the reader places one’s self in the story-line and dictates the narrative. The premise of Murdered is the reader is on vacation in Brazil for the annual celebration of Carnaval. After separating from friends, you find a murdered woman and the possible killer who flees the scene. At this point, the reader becomes the primary navigator of the plot.
A common problem I find in mysteries is the foreshadowing that reveals the endgame before it is time. This issue was not a problem for me while reading Murdered. Every pathway my choices revealed enough clues to keep me eager for more. My addiction to this book occurred from the beginning. The short chapters spurred the action forward and did not reveal so much it was easy to achieve resolution. I found the way to a fulfilling ending but never became bored on the journey.
It is likely the first read through will not reveal the whole story, I would suggest multiple tries. I made my way through the full story three times before I found all the details of what happened. I had to backtrack more times then I can count after going down a wrong path, or when I died, which I did, a lot. I never did feel like I was wasting my efforts revisiting where I had already gone, I always found a better path. Resolving what worked with each character to get to the truth, or how to defeat them when necessary, was gratifying and entertaining.
It might help to suspend one's disbelief during a reading. How likely would it be for the Brazil police, or the Diplomatic Secret Service, to bring a random American tourist in on a murder investigation? Not to mention give said tourist a weapon, or depend on them in a firefight? These were however minor things. Once engaging in the action of the story it did not concern me much, I just went with it.
I would highly recommend this book to mystery fans. Just remember it is a unique format. I remember reading choose your own adventure stories when I was younger. This book is reminiscent of those novels. Murdered does have a more adult audience in mind than the young adult books I read in junior high, but the essence is the same. I loved them then and find I have just as much fun with them now.
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