What do you think?
Rate this book
Nine Ways to Die
"Anyone is capable of murder, given the right motivation." When a girl is found dead of hypothermia in the middle of an Atlanta heat wave, the police are baffled. But Tara Sharp thinks it may be just the clue she needs to find her missing little sister. As she unravels the complex case, she becomes one of nine suspects, each a different number on the Enneagram, in the murder of Michael Higgins. Each suspect will be true to their Enneagram number as they navigate stressful situations, like meeting a boyfriend's parents for the first time, or planning a murder. Read along to unlock clues to which character is which number on the Enneagram-and, of course, which is the killer!
254 pages, Paperback
Published April 25, 2023
8 people are currently reading
178 people want to read
Ratings & Reviews
Friends & Following
Create a free account to discover what your friends think of this book!
Community Reviews
Displaying 1 - 30 of 41 reviews
August 21, 2023
An intriguing, twisty mystery with many red herrings.
May 27, 2023
This was a fast moving whodunnit! It was written by a local author and set in Atlanta which made the mystery all the more easy to visualize! The author came up with a great story of unique details and twists and a family full of intrigue. People were quick to have motives to murder and quick to fall in love! There’s an enneagram element that was also woven through the story for an added puzzle! Curious to see what this author comes up with next.
June 7, 2023
Story:
When a girl dies of hypothermia (frozen cold) in a park in the middle of the Atlanta heat wave, the police are baffled. But, Tara Sharp thinks this might be entangled with the mystery of her missing eleven-year old sister, Cara. As she attempts to investigate the link she ends up being one of the nine suspects in the murder of a business tycoon, Michael Higgins.
Enneagram adds an interesting layer to the captivating plot as all nine suspects are true to their number.
Review:
Nine Ways To Die by Kate Hallock grabbed my interest right from the author’s note (even before the story began) and made me sit by the edge till the end. The plot is complex and the characters even more. It explores family dynamics, business issues, family pressure, internal conflicts, romance, and ofcourse a murder. I loved how each character had their own motive and were suspicious till the end.
The story is told from Point of View of all characters and changes mid-scene. It was nice to dive into the mind of all characters and try to number them on Enneagram. The writing style is captivating and easy to read.
It is a super fast paced whodunnit and I enjoyed each bit of it. The book takes the reader along a thrilling journey and catches you off-guard at all times. I flew through the book and would love to pick more of the author's work.
I highly recommend the book as a book club pick because there are too many things that you will get to discuss while reading the book.
I received the e-arc via BookSirens and this is my honest review!
When a girl dies of hypothermia (frozen cold) in a park in the middle of the Atlanta heat wave, the police are baffled. But, Tara Sharp thinks this might be entangled with the mystery of her missing eleven-year old sister, Cara. As she attempts to investigate the link she ends up being one of the nine suspects in the murder of a business tycoon, Michael Higgins.
Enneagram adds an interesting layer to the captivating plot as all nine suspects are true to their number.
Review:
Nine Ways To Die by Kate Hallock grabbed my interest right from the author’s note (even before the story began) and made me sit by the edge till the end. The plot is complex and the characters even more. It explores family dynamics, business issues, family pressure, internal conflicts, romance, and ofcourse a murder. I loved how each character had their own motive and were suspicious till the end.
The story is told from Point of View of all characters and changes mid-scene. It was nice to dive into the mind of all characters and try to number them on Enneagram. The writing style is captivating and easy to read.
It is a super fast paced whodunnit and I enjoyed each bit of it. The book takes the reader along a thrilling journey and catches you off-guard at all times. I flew through the book and would love to pick more of the author's work.
I highly recommend the book as a book club pick because there are too many things that you will get to discuss while reading the book.
I received the e-arc via BookSirens and this is my honest review!
April 11, 2024
Honestly, this book is very chaotic, there’s a lot going on. There are too many characters and they are very one dimensional so you never get attached to them. I finished it becuase it was a book club book but it was hard to read.
Read
June 20, 2023The premise of this book was interesting to me, however I found the execution to be less than I hoped. The book jumps around between many character points of view, and these jumps could be very distracting and at some points made following the story to be difficult. I also found the two different story lines of a murder and human trafficking to be a bit distracting, even though they come together in the end.
I did participate in the enneagram aspect of this story, but on the whole found it to be a little distracting as if felt like the author was having to push out aspects of the characters personality to leave the clues to their type.
In all the story felt disjointed and in some ways forced, and I didn't feel like the enneagram piece was needed.
I received an advanced review copy for free and I am leaving this review voluntarily.
I did participate in the enneagram aspect of this story, but on the whole found it to be a little distracting as if felt like the author was having to push out aspects of the characters personality to leave the clues to their type.
In all the story felt disjointed and in some ways forced, and I didn't feel like the enneagram piece was needed.
I received an advanced review copy for free and I am leaving this review voluntarily.
August 27, 2023
My feelings about this book are quite mixed for a few reasons. First of all, I was really quite invested in who the murderer was. The story was entertaining and didn’t lag very much, which I enjoyed. However, the writing style in this book was a little amateur, which isn’t necessarily a bad thing, it just made it challenging to stay in te story. I often found myself distracted by not understanding how a character gotten where they were, or cringing at something they said. I was QUITE proud of myself for guessing the killer correctly, which is possibly because they have something in common with me….?
October 16, 2023
I cannot abide by terrible dialogue. This dialogue was 9th grade creative writing workshop dialogue. I'm stunned that a publishing company agreed to this book. Almost nothing made sense. There were typos everywhere. The characters were entirely one dimensional (maybe on purpose?) I don't know.
August 31, 2023
"Nine Ways to Die" by Kate Hallock was one of the most interesting books I've read in a while. The author assigns a task for each reader at the beginning of the book to assign the proper Enneagram personality number to each of the nine suspects. There are nine Enneagram numbers, and each character exhibits the telltale signs of one of the numbers, it's the reader's job to figure out which one is which. Not previously knowing about the Enneagram personality numbers, I immediately looked them up to begin my task of solving the crime. I very much enjoyed trying to match each character with their number and figuring out if they could possibly have done it.
When a young girl is discovered dead from hypothermia during an Atlanta heat wave the detectives are stumped. Tara, whose sister Cara was abducted months ago is told about this young girl's death and immediately thinks there's a connection between the girl and her sister. The abduction of Cara has become a cold case with no new leads so Tara, at her wits end to find Cara decides to find her herself.
Michael Higgins is a very successful businessman who buys and sells companies. He's gruff and tough and has little time for love for his kids. Addison, his daughter is charged with caring for him as he learns he has dementia. Addison dreams of medical school but can't see how she'll be able to attend while caring for her father's increasingly progressing dementia. His sons work for one of his companies and all are unhappy in their positions. Their father is relentless with the demands, and they all resent him for his ruthless business practices. His youngest son, by his latest wife is still too young to go into the office but he too has motive to kill the man whose never really paid attention to anything he's done.
Michael's business partner Sloan owns 49% of an ice cream brand he's developed, and Michael owns 51%, so when Michael decides to sell the brand to Nestle, Sloan balks and does everything he can to stop the sale, but does that include murder? They all have motive but only one snuck up to his office during a birthday party and killed him.
The murder is eventually tied to a child sex trafficking ring and Tara just knows her sister is hidden somewhere and sets out to find her. The whole book was a fun look into the minds of these nine suspects and trying to fit each Enneagram number into each character was challenging but a bucket of fun too. I'd love to read more books by Kate Hallock, if there like this one. Not often an author gives the reader an assignment, but this one was fun. I highly recommend this book to those who enjoy trying to solve the mystery on their own. Happy Reading!
When a young girl is discovered dead from hypothermia during an Atlanta heat wave the detectives are stumped. Tara, whose sister Cara was abducted months ago is told about this young girl's death and immediately thinks there's a connection between the girl and her sister. The abduction of Cara has become a cold case with no new leads so Tara, at her wits end to find Cara decides to find her herself.
Michael Higgins is a very successful businessman who buys and sells companies. He's gruff and tough and has little time for love for his kids. Addison, his daughter is charged with caring for him as he learns he has dementia. Addison dreams of medical school but can't see how she'll be able to attend while caring for her father's increasingly progressing dementia. His sons work for one of his companies and all are unhappy in their positions. Their father is relentless with the demands, and they all resent him for his ruthless business practices. His youngest son, by his latest wife is still too young to go into the office but he too has motive to kill the man whose never really paid attention to anything he's done.
Michael's business partner Sloan owns 49% of an ice cream brand he's developed, and Michael owns 51%, so when Michael decides to sell the brand to Nestle, Sloan balks and does everything he can to stop the sale, but does that include murder? They all have motive but only one snuck up to his office during a birthday party and killed him.
The murder is eventually tied to a child sex trafficking ring and Tara just knows her sister is hidden somewhere and sets out to find her. The whole book was a fun look into the minds of these nine suspects and trying to fit each Enneagram number into each character was challenging but a bucket of fun too. I'd love to read more books by Kate Hallock, if there like this one. Not often an author gives the reader an assignment, but this one was fun. I highly recommend this book to those who enjoy trying to solve the mystery on their own. Happy Reading!
August 17, 2023
Nine Ways to Die is a fast paced mystery with two parallel stories. Even though I believe there are usually no “right” ways to read a book, I think there is a right way to enjoy this one: it is to read it as a game. In this game, you have more than one mystery: Who is the murderer? Who is behind the evil human trafficking plot? (And are they one and the same?) Which character corresponds to which enneagram type? So, if that interests you, grab a pen and a notebook and dig in.
The murder victim is the kind that, in a Poirotesque murder mystery, practically “begs” to be murdered, so there are plenty of suspects, and the murder takes place in an isolated house during a storm, contributing to the cozy aspect, the one I was expecting and enjoyed. Something I was not expecting in a cozy: the human trafficking plot is much darker, not the kind I enjoy (no fault of the author), and makes the book distance itself from the cozy tropes, becoming almost a thriller.
Do not expect great characterizations of great lines: as I said, the book is really fast paced and the second plot might just take the fun out of the cozy aspect. The characters are two-dimensional, maybe to help in the enneagram type identification. Just have fun as you would with the Clue game. Granted, you don’t need to know the enneagram to play along: the author gives some pointers about each type (although only for motivations) at the end of the book, but none of that is necessary for the mystery part. A minor downer is that after carefully taking notes and “guessing” which character is which type, you would have to send your guesswork to the writer to see if you are right – there is no key for that at the end of the book. Maybe that would be a good addition.
Many thanks to Kate Hallock, Koehler Books and BookSirens for this ARC.
The murder victim is the kind that, in a Poirotesque murder mystery, practically “begs” to be murdered, so there are plenty of suspects, and the murder takes place in an isolated house during a storm, contributing to the cozy aspect, the one I was expecting and enjoyed. Something I was not expecting in a cozy: the human trafficking plot is much darker, not the kind I enjoy (no fault of the author), and makes the book distance itself from the cozy tropes, becoming almost a thriller.
Do not expect great characterizations of great lines: as I said, the book is really fast paced and the second plot might just take the fun out of the cozy aspect. The characters are two-dimensional, maybe to help in the enneagram type identification. Just have fun as you would with the Clue game. Granted, you don’t need to know the enneagram to play along: the author gives some pointers about each type (although only for motivations) at the end of the book, but none of that is necessary for the mystery part. A minor downer is that after carefully taking notes and “guessing” which character is which type, you would have to send your guesswork to the writer to see if you are right – there is no key for that at the end of the book. Maybe that would be a good addition.
Many thanks to Kate Hallock, Koehler Books and BookSirens for this ARC.
May 19, 2023
I received an advance review copy for free, and I am leaving this review voluntarily. Really enjoyed this one. I liked how the author handled having such a large cast of characters that run the gamut from good person to throughly depraved. The setup was good and unlike the last ARC, I understand why everyone came to the conclusions they did. My favorite character was probably Tara for how stubborn and determined she is. But then I'm probably also biased because those are two of my favorite things about myself.
Overall this is probably a book I'll be buying to share with my mom or maybe my sister. We like bonding over detective shows and the like and I really do want to see what they think.
I'm interested to see who's which enneagram type so I'll probably go back through in a few weeks, writing down key points as I go. Honestly the book was so well written I forgot that was more or less the reason I picked it up.
This one was another compelling read which tells me I might need to add Mystery to my top favorite genres along with historical romance and fairytale retellings. It's a good feeling honestly.
Hope you pick this one up and that if you do, you don't regret it!
Overall this is probably a book I'll be buying to share with my mom or maybe my sister. We like bonding over detective shows and the like and I really do want to see what they think.
I'm interested to see who's which enneagram type so I'll probably go back through in a few weeks, writing down key points as I go. Honestly the book was so well written I forgot that was more or less the reason I picked it up.
This one was another compelling read which tells me I might need to add Mystery to my top favorite genres along with historical romance and fairytale retellings. It's a good feeling honestly.
Hope you pick this one up and that if you do, you don't regret it!
This entire review has been hidden because of spoilers.
October 31, 2023
I had the pleasure of meeting @katehallock at a literary fair a month or so ago. She is a local author and writer of Nine Ways to Die, a murder mystery with a fun enneagram game woven throughout. This description was enough to hook me and I bought a signed copy on the spot.
Coincidentally I am watching the Netflix series, Succession and this book reminded me a bit of that show. A ultra rich family is controlled by their, seemingly, loveless, business man father through his power and wealth. Each of them is plotting his death, but who has the biggest motive to get the job done?
The story becomes a who done it of suspects and each of these suspects has the personality traits of a different number on the enneagram chart. This is a fun game to play while reading an already fun story. If you don't have any enneagram knowledge, you can read the book, ignoring that piece, and still completely enjoy the mystery.
I am excited to have found a new author and that they are local to Georgia! I hope some of you will pick this one up too!
Coincidentally I am watching the Netflix series, Succession and this book reminded me a bit of that show. A ultra rich family is controlled by their, seemingly, loveless, business man father through his power and wealth. Each of them is plotting his death, but who has the biggest motive to get the job done?
The story becomes a who done it of suspects and each of these suspects has the personality traits of a different number on the enneagram chart. This is a fun game to play while reading an already fun story. If you don't have any enneagram knowledge, you can read the book, ignoring that piece, and still completely enjoy the mystery.
I am excited to have found a new author and that they are local to Georgia! I hope some of you will pick this one up too!
June 5, 2025
I really wanted to like this book more than I did. As a premise and a game of figuring out people's number, it was fun. In practice, there was a lot of things I feel could have been improved. Dialogue was full of saying things to move the plot only, characters were flat (which she warned us they are simplification of their type, but it was still crazy flat), twists were so plentiful they stopped feeling grounded, very few things were shown instead of told, and it just felt like too many things trying to justify the premise.
On the plus side, it is a huge cast of characters with changing viewpoints so it was a big task to take on, and she saw it through. Its also firmly rooted in Atlanta to where the city almost should get its own number, too.
I think it would have benefitted from less plot twists and more grounded characters to be a truly good attempt, but for something light to read, with more eyerolls than I normally give, I kept going to the end.
On the plus side, it is a huge cast of characters with changing viewpoints so it was a big task to take on, and she saw it through. Its also firmly rooted in Atlanta to where the city almost should get its own number, too.
I think it would have benefitted from less plot twists and more grounded characters to be a truly good attempt, but for something light to read, with more eyerolls than I normally give, I kept going to the end.
May 16, 2023
This was a slightly different than usual take on a "murder" mystery and I enjoyed that for the most part. It does center around a very sensitive issue that is sadly prominent in today's society but I felt like the topic was handled well. There were a LOT of characters to keep up with and that distracted me a little bit in the beginning. If you are into Enneagrams then this should be a very fun read for you as the author wants you to figure out which Enneagram goes to each character and that should help you guess the murderer. I did figure out who the murderer was but I have a pretty limited knowledge of Enneagrams so that wasn't very useful for me. It seems like this is a fun new series and hopefully, we'll get to know more of these same characters. I did have the pleasure of receiving an advanced copy of this book and I'm leaving my review voluntarily.
May 22, 2023
This was a fun read, I fully admit I didn't pay any attention to the Enneagrams because I have very limited experience with them, but I do wonder if someone who's very well versed with them would be able to pick out the "whodunit" from the beginning. I think the book is worth a reread to see if I can guess who's which.
I did sometimes confuse myself because there are so many characters that you get information from, but it was handled very well.
I did like there was, of course, the murder mystery but also the missing child, a very dysfunctional family, and multiple motives, which kept me guessing throughout.
I received an advance review copy for free, and I am leaving this review voluntarily.
I did sometimes confuse myself because there are so many characters that you get information from, but it was handled very well.
I did like there was, of course, the murder mystery but also the missing child, a very dysfunctional family, and multiple motives, which kept me guessing throughout.
I received an advance review copy for free, and I am leaving this review voluntarily.
May 30, 2023
I really enjoyed this book. I didn’t want to put it down. I have recently started exploring enneagrams and I found it fascinating to see how the author spun the different aspect of the enneagram for the different characters. There were quite a few characters but I didn’t forget who was who as the author did a great job of keeping them unique and distinguishable. I actually enjoyed the bouncing back and forth between characters. It kept things fresh and interesting.
The book was full of quirky people and I wouldn’t have blamed any of them for commuting the murder! I loved the writing style and I looking forward to more from this author.
I received an advanced review copy for free, and I am leaving this review voluntarily.
The book was full of quirky people and I wouldn’t have blamed any of them for commuting the murder! I loved the writing style and I looking forward to more from this author.
I received an advanced review copy for free, and I am leaving this review voluntarily.
July 16, 2023
This book intrigued me. I enjoy mysteries and the concept of this book was quite original. When I read the synopsis I wasn't quite sure how the enneagram aspect would play out, and frankly once I got hooked on the storyline, I forgot about trying to figure out that part.
The writing was great and there were many twists which had me guessing. I enjoyed the main characters and the location very much. If I have a tiny criticism, there were so many characters it was a bit confusing who was who, at times, but this in no way impacted on my overall enjoyment.
Because I can never leave a puzzle undone, after my first reading, I started it again and took notes to figure out the enneagram of everyone.
I received a free arc copy and am leaving this review voluntarily.
The writing was great and there were many twists which had me guessing. I enjoyed the main characters and the location very much. If I have a tiny criticism, there were so many characters it was a bit confusing who was who, at times, but this in no way impacted on my overall enjoyment.
Because I can never leave a puzzle undone, after my first reading, I started it again and took notes to figure out the enneagram of everyone.
I received a free arc copy and am leaving this review voluntarily.
July 21, 2023
I don’t think I have read such a contrived murder mystery based on so many unconvincing two-dimensional characters. The number of plot twists coupled with multiple failed murder attempts on the principal hate figure in the story (who was far from being the principal villain of the piece) made it a dizzying read.
Underneath it was the Enneagram method of analysing people’s motivations and characters, which I guess is used to help teams and organisations understand a bit better the people within them. This was intended to give the reader a bit of an extra challenge in working out which character was which in the nine archetype matrix but sadly I quickly lost interest in that guessing game.
Sadly not my favourite book of the year.
Underneath it was the Enneagram method of analysing people’s motivations and characters, which I guess is used to help teams and organisations understand a bit better the people within them. This was intended to give the reader a bit of an extra challenge in working out which character was which in the nine archetype matrix but sadly I quickly lost interest in that guessing game.
Sadly not my favourite book of the year.
April 24, 2023
As someone who loves mysteries, I think Nine Ways to Die is my favorite! Once I started reading it, I had a hard time putting it down. I love the use of the Enneagram Personality types and that we as the readers were encouraged to try and figure out what number each character is. I thought that was a fun twist and I think it actually helped me figure out who the murderer was. I did my best to try and figure out which character was which Enneagram number, but I don't think I was 100% correct.
It sounds like this is the first book in a series so I'm super excited for the next book!
I received an advance review copy for free, and I am leaving this review voluntarily.
It sounds like this is the first book in a series so I'm super excited for the next book!
I received an advance review copy for free, and I am leaving this review voluntarily.
June 5, 2023
This book was really enjoyable. I found it brought childhood memories of playing Clue! with modern day crimes and a dysfunctional family. There are so many characters, but the story is written so well that keeping track of everyone and their storylines was very easy. Every character was introduced in the correct order to peak my interest. I knew nothing about ennegrams before I read this, and you don't need to at all (which the author explains).
I would love to see another story of Tara and Besty saving the world from the bad guys ;)
I would love to see another story of Tara and Besty saving the world from the bad guys ;)
May 26, 2023
I actually really loved this book. I loved the chaos of the actual murder itself, it reminded me of the movie Glass Onion. It was a lot of different things happening at once, but in a way that felt like you sort of knew what was happening? I don’t know how to describe it. It was really really good. I loved it. I stayed up for an extra hour reading it last night to finish it. It was overall a really good book and I’d definitely recommend it.
May 28, 2023
Such a great premise!
I LOVE the Enneagram so the premise of this book intrigued me. I know we shouldn't type other people but this book challenged and encouraged me to do so! Some were very obvious and others were more of a challenge plus trying to figure out the murder. Such a good read. I look forward to emailing my guesses to the author to see if I figured it out correctly! Ms. Hallo I please write more like this one!!!
I LOVE the Enneagram so the premise of this book intrigued me. I know we shouldn't type other people but this book challenged and encouraged me to do so! Some were very obvious and others were more of a challenge plus trying to figure out the murder. Such a good read. I look forward to emailing my guesses to the author to see if I figured it out correctly! Ms. Hallo I please write more like this one!!!
June 16, 2023
4.5 Rounded up to 5. I really enjoyed this mystery that was a cross between a cozy murder mystery and a thriller. The characters were well developed and although they were based on Enneagram personality types, the subjects had more depth than what the number describes. The book is the first in a series and I look forward to reading more from this author.
I was fortunate enough to receive an advance review copy for free, and I am leaving this review voluntarily.
I was fortunate enough to receive an advance review copy for free, and I am leaving this review voluntarily.
July 13, 2023
I have to admit that this book took me a while to get into it, and I struggled to read it. There were so many characters to keep track of and to get an understanding of each one. Once I had a knowledge of each of the characters, I could not put the book down. I loved the Clue-like structure of the book, and I loved trying to figure out who had done it. My favorite character was Tara. I enjoyed trying to figure out who was number 1-9. I can't wait to see if I was close.
May 3, 2024
The story takes place five days before the murder when another murder is committed. The story delves into the lives of nine characters who could be the true killer, showing their Enneagram traits through their struggles. Their lives are looked into long before the case moves on. There are various character perspectives and they switch very quickly. This makes it difficult to connect with them.
I received a free copy and am leaving a review voluntarily.
Thank you to Booksirens and author.
I received a free copy and am leaving a review voluntarily.
Thank you to Booksirens and author.
Read
April 10, 2025Very easy to read book, kept my attention. I think that was largely in part due to how ridiculous it got. This was very much a ‘everything and the kitchen sink’ book, there were constantly new plot points getting added and red herrings. It got pretty messy and by the end I honestly couldn’t tell if the book was supposed to be satirical or not.
Solid effort from a first time author, I loved to hate on it. It was entertaining.
Solid effort from a first time author, I loved to hate on it. It was entertaining.
May 2, 2024
This is a DNF. I made it 10 minutes in, and it’s just very clunky, no emotion, unbelievable characters and situations. Wish I could get through it because I am curious about the premise of dying of hypothermia in a heat wave, but I can’t stand it. Feels like the writing was a side note to the gimmick of the Enneagram, which I should have expected.
April 25, 2023
This was a great mystery with multiple points of view. Nine different suspects with nine different personality traits. The end is a complete surprise. I was given this book free for an honest opinion.
May 6, 2023
Such a fun read with lots of twists and turns! I was a little confused the first couple of chapters but then things started coming together and trying to figure out the murderer AND the Enneagram types was really fun.
July 6, 2023
3.5 / 4 Stars A fun mystery read with several twists I didn’t see coming. I also enjoyed trying to figure out the Enneagram of each character as part of the “game” at the end of the book. Overall a good read!
November 29, 2024
I think my biggest issue is that i wish it was longer/more fleshed out!!! Really fun, really interesting, and I've never read anything like the enneagram aspect in a book before. I hope she writes more in the future!
Displaying 1 - 30 of 41 reviews