An Unexplained Death

What an engrossing, expansive, compulsive book this is! Brottman combines an academic's endless curiosity with the capacity for research, no matter the set-backs. I'll say upfront that I wasn't completely convinced by the final 'solution' (for want of a better word) but that's ok because this is a book that is about the journey, not the destination.

Her attention caught, almost randomly, by a missing person flyer, Brottman embarks on a quest that takes her into the lives of the people involved but also, more widely, into an exploration of suicide, of death and of the building, once a hotel, now an apartment block, in which she lives.

With references to Nietzsche alongside Poe and Conan Doyle, this is the story of an obsession - and Brottman is a writer who is honest, self-analytical and just so interesting that I'd follow her anywhere in literary terms. An oddly uncategorisable book which spills over genres - I loved it!

This gripping book has me immersed in the mystery of a body found at the Belvedere hotel, now apartments where the storyteller resides. I was so intrigued to follow the story of the deceased and enjoyed follow the narrator along on their quest to discover the truth about the circumstances surrounding his death.

Brottman is obviously passionate about the story and this shines through. I learnt a lot regarding the history of the Belvedere along with that of other establishments - as a student currently studying a similar subject this book was right up my street! The search for the truth of the story leads us along a winding, diversive path, but I enjoyed each trip down alternative avenues. Brottman kept my attention, and, like many cases, there isn't always an easy explanation. I really enjoyed this book - once I'd started reading it I really didn't want to put it down and kept sneaking off to quiet places to keep reading!

I suspect that people who like reading real life mysteries written in a concise style with the author keeping personal observations to an absolute minimum will not enjoy this book. Personally, I struggled to put it down.

As a much as a journey as it is an investigation, Mikita Brottman’s obsession with Ray Rivera’s disappearance was just as compelling as the circumstances surrounding the tragic case. The book is not told in a linear fashion, going off into related and unrelated tangents, as well as hitting dead ends every so often, which made for a fascinating read.

I really enjoyed Brottman’s approach to this book and wouldn’t hesitate to get pick up another one of her works on the back of it.

This was an ARC in exchange for an honest review. With thanks to Netgalley and Canongate

Author, Mikita Brottman, lives in an apartment block which was once a hotel – the Belvedere. Taking her dog outside one morning, she comes across a poster for a missing man. Rey Rivera left his house one day, seemingly in a hurry, and didn’t return. When his body is found within the hotel , apparently a suicide, it leads Brottman to begin to investigate his death.

Although this sounds like a fairly straight forward true crime book, it is, in fact, anything but. Mikita Brottman tends to veer off the path, discussing everything from missing people posters, suicides that have previously taken place at the hotel, the ways that people kill themselves and endless other digressions during her musings on Ray Rivera. I think it is fair to say that readers will either be exasperated by this, or, like me, enjoy it very much.

Personally, I was perfectly happy to follow Brottman’s thoughts, as they jumped delightfully from one subject to another. Her investigation into Ray Rivera’s death lasted over a decade, as she looked into the company he worked for and the possibility that he was murdered. Like life though, this is not a linear telling of events, nor is it a straight forward true crime book, with easy answers.

This is rather like taking a long walk, along with a picnic lunch, idling along paths, meandering over hills and definitely taking no short cuts. Still, I found this a fascinating read, was very impressed by the author’s style and enjoyed her company very much. I received a copy of this book from the publisher, via NetGalley, for review.

This book is like having a conversation with a voluble friend on her most favourite subject ever! The main premise, as the title states, is an unexplained death, which occurred in the hotel where the author lives. Her interest is piqued before the body is discovered and her enthusiasm for solving the case never wavers. She does however, go off at a tangent on regular occasions. There is a theme running throughout which does link back to the original case but at times the focus changes quite suddenly.

I enjoyed reading this; the author's love and knowledge of her subject shines through and the cases mentioned, both the main and secondary ones, are very well written and researched. Without the additional information this would have been a much quicker read but nowhere near as interesting and enthralling.

I was able to read an advanced copy of this book thanks to Netgalley in exchange for an unbiased review and recommend it for anyone who likes true crime with a little bit extra. I liked following the author through her struggles, especially as she never lost her resolve and was determined to overcome all obstacles put in her way.

What a truly interesting book. The central theme ie. what happened to Rey Rivera, winds all through the book but along the way murders, accidents and suicides are all explored in depth. Alongside this theme there is also the history of the Belvedere, a former grand hotel in Baltimore; a fascinating story in itself. I would recommend this book to a wide variety of readers as it covers several genres in one.

The recent boom in Netflix true crime documentary series has perhaps led to certain expectations for shock revelations and finger-pointing, even if in reality of such cases in The Staircase and Making of a Murderer can never answer the basic questions of the unexplained deaths at the heart of their true-life crime dramas. Anyone expecting a definitive answer in Mikita Brottman's investigation into the mysterious unexplained death of one man in her home town of Baltimore is going to be disappointed then, but just as those Netflix series throw a fascinating light on the American legal system and processes and reveal underlying social issues and prejudices, so too Brottman's An Unexplained Death likewise has other worthwhile avenues of interest to explore.

Not everything can be explained, particularly when it comes to the motivations and state of mind of a man who leaves home unexpectedly one evening in 2006 and doesn't come back. His body is found eight days later in the annexe to a tall building, apparently having crashed through the roof in a suicide jump. There are however no witnesses, no clues and only a strange note left by his computer that doesn't look like a suicide note, and there were no indications in the run-up to his death that Rey Rivera, a freelance video producer and budding filmmaker, was depressed, suffering from financial or marital problems, had any history of mental illness or reason why he might contemplate taking his own life.

The nature of Rivera's death is initially recorded as 'undetermined', but doubts about whether it was really as suicide or a homicide linger among family and friends and the case remains open, even if no one is officially investigating it any longer. There is in fact a curious reluctance from anyone involved in the investigation to speak about the case on-record or even off-record, as Rey's wife and friends find out, and even some warnings not to ask questions and watch your back are intriguingly offered when the writer Mikita Brottman starts to probe further into Rivera's background and his association with a certain secretive financial investment organisation.

Brottman's personal interest in the case is freely discussed, almost as much as the case itself. She lives in the apartment block of the historic former hotel, the Belvedere, the same tall building that Rey Rivera threw himself from, and Brottman even recorded in her diary hearing a loud crash the night of his fall. The author also admits to her own insecurities as an "invisible person", and her interest in the lure of crime and mystery, citing observations by Edgar Allan Poe, Agatha Christie, Arthur Conan Doyle's Sherlock Holmes and even the X-Files in relation to Rey Rivera's mysterious unexplained death. "All my life I've wanted to experience something like this, something inexplicable", she confesses.

Brottman however is methodical in her more conventional research and investigation - almost morbidly so in relation to suicide, its causes and statistics, the methods used across the world and specifically with regard to the macabre case studies associated with the Belvedere. As downright bizarre as some of those cases are, none of them are as strange as the case of Rey Rivera. Or at least not as far as Mikita Brottman is concerned. To the reader there's initially little that stands out in the Rivera case as suspicious, nothing that would lead you to believe that it was anything but just another suicide. Essentially, by the time you get to the end you don't really find out anything more than you knew at the start of An Unexplained Death. And perhaps that's what is strange about it.

There are however a number of intriguing avenues explored by Brottman along the way. Rivera's involvement with Agora, a dubious investment advice and tax avoidance company connected to William Rees-Mogg, raises some troubling questions, but since no one from there is willing to talk about Rey it's another dead-end that only adds to the mystery. Brottman fills the book out with her own personal responses and anecdotes, with research, theories and case studies that are tangential and sometimes seem to have little relevance. The lack of any real discoveries, revelations or conclusions then is inevitably disappointing but An Unexplained Death remains a fascinating read. Perhaps it's simply accepting the fact that we can never truly know what another person is going through and that there are some things we can never know that may be the real point here.

The Belvedere used to be a hotel but had been converted into flats. In one of these lives Mikita Brottmany and when the body of a man is found at the flats it becomes her mission to solve the case. However, the Belvedere has many dark secrets and after 10 years she is still trying to piece together how and why he died.

A wonderful find of a book, thoroughly enjoyable. Whilst keep returning to the central theme of the investigation into the unexplained death we meander down lots of loosely related other interesting stories of things connected with the hotel or procedures of police and other authorities in the case of a found body. A book you don't want to end and it leaves the family of the dead man and the reader wanting the book to continue. The curious mind and its wanderings and I could read lots more from this author, hearing her thoughts and progress into other investigations. One to recommend,. a delightful read from cover to cover. More please.

This is an interesting read. It is well written and has obviously been well researched. Mikita has obviously spent a long time trying to work out how Rey died. In many ways this is a sad story about the fragility of human life.

Thank you to Netgalley for my copy.

The author is intrigued when she notices a Missing poster for a man who disappeared in Baltimore, and when his body is found in the Belvedere (the converted hotel where the author lives), she becomes involved in trying to find out what happened. The case is deemed a suicide but many are not convinced that Rey Rivera, a man seemingly with everything to live for, would take his own life.

The writing style is best described as meandering, as the book not only discusses this case but also the histories of previous unexplained deaths and suicides which took place at the Belvedere over the decades. I, personally, found the detours interesting but some people may not. This was definitely a strange case, and I'm not sure that I entirely agree with the author's conclusions. It leaves too many unanswered questions for my liking, but I guess we will never know exactly what happened.

Thanks to NetGalley and Canongate Books, for the opportunity to review an ARC.