Ink Ribbon Red - Alex Pavesi

Mystery/Suspense

Rating: 8/10

Six friends gather at a country house for a birthday weekend. They decide to play a game, or rather it’s decided for them. All six of their names are chosen twice, once to star as the victim, once as the murderer. They must write the story and read it out loud.

But it’s supposed to be fun, to be fiction. It’s not supposed to be full of secrets and grudges, to reveal their true feelings for each other.

My fellow reader, know this going in, the author is going to play with you. Shifting narrative timelines, encouraging you to believe in his words as fact, when in actuality that is one thing this storytelling is short on, facts.

The most baffling part, I couldn’t tell you if this book had one murder victim or none. Or was it six.

As with this author’s first book, listed below, this read is full of complexity, further pushing our readerly minds to the brink with the fiction within fiction set-up. Make sure you eat some brain food before cracking the spine on this one!

Book Pairing(s): Eight Detectives by Alex Pavesi, West Heart Kill by Dann McDorman, The Plot by Jean Hanff Korelitz