This is a dark, complex and unique book. I really liked the plot, however didn’t fully engage with the 4 main characters. I found that it was fairly repetitive and jumped about between time frames too often which affected the flow of the story.
Overall, an enjoyable and memorable read.

Ok this is a difficult one for me because I did enjoy the story but it was so long and sometimes repetitive. It was also a very frustrating read because I just wanted to know what was going on, what happens?! And also why didn’t they help in the first place?! 😂.

Apart from it being as long as it was, I did enjoy it.

Much like the relationship of the main 4 characters this book is messy. Jumping from varying perspectives from the night of the incident to the present day it was often hard to follow.

All four characters are unlikeable and whilst that's fine if you love to hate them, in this instance I just didn't like any of them finding them all selfish and ridiculous.

The plot was intriguing at first, I enjoyed seeing how everyone had a connection to the woman who was assaulted but it wasn't enough to keep the book interesting.

Thanks to NetGalley for my free copy in exchange for an honest review.

4 great characters, one terrible secret.

This had so many twists and turns to keep you guessing all the way along. Flicking back to the night in question and the present day the story seeps out bit by bit but I didnt find it slow paced. I found that I didn't want to put it down. A genuine page turner.

Four friends, at a festival. Four witnesses to an unspeakable act of violence. Four people who choose not to intervene, or report. Afterwards, one body washed up on the banks of the Thames.

Why did no one get involved? What is going on in this group of friends, and what are the secrets that lurk beneath the facade of their friendship?

The Guilty Party is an interesting book, and certainly made me think, but it's also very disturbing. There's an almost clinical dissection of the pathologically unhealthy dynamic between the friends which is as fascinating as it is unpleasant.

This is a dark, twisty thriller. It takes some concentration to keep up, and it's not always certain where it is going. However, it's well worth sticking with it as the past and the present dramatically intertwine for the denouement.
Although most of the characters are unpleasant, I felt more sympathetic towards Cassie, even though her choice of friends is poor, and was hoping she would find the courage to break away.
Definitely worth a read.
Thank you to the publisher and Netgalley for the ARC

Four friends, Cassie, Anna, Bo, & Dex, witness a crime after a night out but instead of intervening or calling for help, they decide to look the other way. Later on they find out that the woman died and Cassie wants to go to the police, but the others remain adamant that they shouldn't get involved.

I have to hand it to the author as she has written a book where all four of the main characters are almost all despicable. The story is mostly told from Cassie's point of view with interspersed chapters from the other three which move back and forth between present day and that night, and as the story unfolds, the reader sees that all of them have a reason for keeping quiet. It's a great read and will keep you guessing with the twists and turns.

TW: sexual assault, violence.

Thanks to NetGalley & publishers, HarperCollins UK / HQ, for the opportunity to review an ARC.

#AreYouGuilty of standing by and doing nothing?

I guess each and every one of us has been at some point, though perhaps in not quite so dramatic circumstances as the unfortunate characters in this novel.

Best friends since University, Cassie, Bo, Anna and Dex are bystanders to a brutal crime. Witnesses to a stranger in trouble. Cassie wants to help, the others don’t want to get involved. Cassie is persuaded to do nothing.

Each of them has their own version of that nights events and each of them is struggling to live with their actions, or the consequences of their indifference ...

It took me a while to get into this novel. None of the characters are particularly likeable and I found it hard to sympathise with any of them, but I suppose that is kind of the point, as we are forced to put ourselves into their shoes and consider what we would do in a similar scenario.

The Guilty Party is a complicated novel that is hard to review without giving too much away, so I’m afraid my review is deliberately vague.

Four friends meet at University Cassie, Anna, Bo and Dex and form a very close friendship.

However, when they attend a festival for Cassie’s birthday, the group witness a terrible act but make a decision that they will not get involved, even when a body is washed up in the Thames. What secrets are the friends keeping from each other and how far will they go to protect themselves!

I loved how the author flits between the present day where the friends are staying in a cottage to celebrate Bo’s birthday, and the day of the festival. Each chapter drew me more into the story and I loved how Mel very cleverly intertwines the past and the present to reach a very satisfactory but unexpected ending.

This is a dark and compelling tale of a friendship which at the core is rotten and no one is innocent.

The Guilty Party makes you think about your own morals and values. What would you do? Following the story of one fateful night and the four friends that night affected. Having witnessed a violent rape on a night out all of the friends know they should report the offence but they all have differing reasons as to why they did not do so. Are these "close" friends really as close as they thing they are? What secrets and lies are hiding under the surface? This book will keep you intrigued as well as making you think about your own morality.

The question you will be asking yourself throughout this book from the moment the key occurrence happened is - what would I do in the same situation?

Cassandra and her 3 three friends all witnessed something horrible, but none of them stepped in and tried to help, or even rung the police. They all stood back and were party to it.

The book is told from the four viewpoints, with Cassie's voice being the main one. We see the happenings of that fateful night, play back in reverse, from all the friends, each time revealing just a little bit more, and keeping you even more hooked.

And we also have the present story which is the friends on a weekend away where the happenings of that night are the elephant in the room.

I'm not really sure that I liked any of the characters but I was very interested to see how their moral compass was effected. And whether anyone would admit to anything.

I'm being deliberately vague, so you have no preconceptions going into this, as it really does work best with no prior knowledge.

I'm not even 100% sure I had read the blurb, rather come across the book in a showcase event, figured it looked like I may be interested in it, and promptly read it once I had a copy!

This was certainly an interesting look at the human psyche, and how people cope when they feel the need to hide other more minor wrongdoings, thus causing a much bigger problem.

Thank you to Netgalley and HQ for this copy which I have reviewed honestly and voluntarily.

A unique and fascinating book. Makes the reader really question their own thoughts and feelings. One which will stay with me for a long time.

At the opening of this book four friends in their 30’s witness a woman being assaulted and it looks like she is being raped. Although Cassie, the main character, wants to help the other friends all persuade her to do nothing and tell her that it is probably just a couple enjoying themselves. They walk away offering no help. A few weeks later the four friends to celebrate Bo’s birthday by going to whilst they are away Cassie reads an article in the paper about a woman being pulled from the River Thames alongside an image of the dead woman earlier in the night. Cassie realises that it is the same woman they witnessed being raped.
This is a fascinating book which tackles a challenging subject and looks at questions of guilt, responsibility and makes you consider what you would if you found yourself in the same situation. It is important to concentrate as the book moves from the night of the rape and is told from the point of view of each of the friends who witness the event. There are a number of twists and turns and many secrets are revealed as we wind back through their friendship.
It is hard to imagine a group of friends who would behave in the way that the characters in this novel do I am sure there are awful people like these out there I am just glad I have not met any of them. A well written, thought provoking book about characters with no apparent moral compass.
Many thanks to the publishers and Net Galley for the opportunity to read this book.

‘The Guilty Party’ by Mel McGrath is an intriguing read and initially centres around four friends seeing a crime being committed and deciding to do nothing about it.

Cassie, Bo, Anna and Dex have been friends for some years and have shared their sexual experiences amongst themselves by the photographs and input to the Big Black Book. Although they have moved on and have other relationships, including two being married, they still meet up, go away together and share their fun and games. They call themselves ‘The Group’.

It all goes wrong when they witness a rape after attending a festival together. Should they intervene, call the police, help, or ignore. The decision to ignore then leads to a spiralling effect.

This is the first novel I have read by this author and the issue she addressed and ask the reader to think about is, ‘what would you do?’

In today’s society and what goes on this is a difficult question to answer. I loved the jumping around from the main character, Cassie, narrating the story in the first person to the others intervening in the third person. As the story unfolds the clarity of ignoring something is tantamount to participating in the act, however we all know this is not straightforward.

Many thanks to NetGalley, and Me McGrath for my ARC in return for an unbiased review.

Complex and brilliant. Highly recommended.

This was such a unique book that really centre's around the reader and what would they, or shoud I say What woud YOU do if you were in the same situation as the main character Cassie.

This grabs you from the get-go and really has you questionting what you'd do in the situation and you get to constantly revisit this question as you read more and more through the book. This is told in different time-lines and from different perspectives, although the main one we get is Cassie's. I loved that it ws told this way; it helped to unfold the full story bit by bit and in a way that made complete sense. I didn't feel lost with what was happening and the twists themselves weren't outrageous and were so well-placed that it was difficult to get bored reading this!

The characters definitey weren't likeable, but they aren't meant to be so if you like books with likeable characters then this isn't for you! I think the characters being as unlikeable as they are definitely played into the story. I did think they were fleshed out well, and although it was slightly confusing at first to try and gather what exactly was gong on in the book, this got so much better and easier as the story went on and you got to know the characters more.

I really enjoyed this book and would definitely recommend this. It has a much deeper meaning behind it and makes you think so much about what you'd do in the situation within the book, and would you stick by that decision as time went on. It also makes you realise the consequences that your decision can have on others who you've never met before and makes you think about the power of your words.

A book that brings separate strands of a story about four friends and their individual reasons for doing something and then shows the full twisted picture.

I did not get into this book straight away, but I admit the intrigue of where the story was going gradually entranced me.

True Friendships are for life and can overcome anything right?
This is a book about lifelong relationships between four friends and it takes you into a journey of what a toxic friendship looks like.
If you had witnessed a crime what would you do?
After a night out at a festival four friends, Cassie,Anna Bo and Dex, witness a woman being brutally raped and then discover that she had been murdered.
They decide to do nothing and the consequences are life changing.

This is a well written book, which keeps up the pace throughout. However, I have never come across a book with such an unpleasant group of individuals. Each one of the four main characters are self serving, selfish people. I can not understand why they stayed friends, or why they would continue to meet up for weekends away in their thirties, when some two of them have partners - who are never invited.
I also had to suspend disbelief about a teacher/teaching assistant (it wasn't made clear which Cassie was) going away for a long weekend in term time.
That said, I was gripped from start to finish, and I did want to find out what happened to these unsavoury characters in the end. The book is also written in a more literary style than is often used in thrillers of this kind, which was a welcome change.

Four old friends witness a terrible crime, individually and finally, collectively, there are numerous opportunities where they can make a difference to the outcome, but they don’t.

The story moves forward to a different group gathering when they inadvertently find out the outcome of that night. Should they have acted differently? Are they guilty? Why did they react in the way they did?

Switching between timelines and different points of view the dilemma is revealed and painstakingly unravelled. This complex story is suspenseful, intense and dark. Delving into the dark secrets people keep hidden from the world, their friends, and the way we lie, even to ourselves.

There are many plot twists and the ending maintains the story’s dark ethos. Don’t expect to like the characters, they have few redeeming features. Maybe they are a reflection of a contemporary society that focuses on self and the individual whilst promoting a blame culture? It makes you think, and the question posed is what would you do?

I received a copy of this book from HQ via NetGalley in return for an honest review.

I'm a real sucker for novels that are both thrilling but also explore loftier themes, and this is a perfect example of that. It follows a group of wealthy Oxford-educated, morally-dubious individuals who befriend a poorer gifted student and she joins their friendship group. The characters are stereotypically what you imagine affluent, upper-class girls to be like - self-absorbed, selfish and rather annoying; I would've really liked McGrath to have reversed this and at least made one of them morally sound.

If you find you need characters to be likeable to engage with them, then this may not be for you; the group of friends are all difficult to support as they have tunnel vision thinking of themselves rather than anyone else. It could also have been edited down a little without damaging the tale it tells. Readers need to be on their toes to keep on top of the changing viewpoints and timeline, and the multiple stunning reveals will leave you shocked to the core.

It paints a rather disturbing picture which mirrors real-life, sadly. It's thought-provoking and makes you question the reasons why those who bear witness to something so horrific would choose to keep it a secret. It almost feels as though people won't report something unless they are getting something out of it themselves. It certainly appears that altruism is dead. A thoroughly enjoyable, chilling read, and the tension constantly rises to create a very atmospheric story. An absolutely riveting exploration of the human mind and the motivation behind keeping quiet or speaking out.

Many thanks to HQ for an ARC.