I greatly appreciate the opportunity to read and review this book. Unfortunately, I wasn't able to finish this book. I just couldn't get into it. I really tried but didn't even make it half way through. I always try to push through and I will try and pick this up again in a little bit. At this time I will not be leaving a review on my Instagram or blog as I would really like to try and give it another go. I will definitely change my review if I'm able to get through it after a second chance.

A wonderful whodunnit packed full of twists and turns. This book leads you up many wrong alleyways of predictions and assumptions. The characters are fun and fanciful. There is an underlying serious theme of murder but this does not get in the way of lots of laugh out loud moments. The author has got the balance of language just right. Not too flowery but with some magnificent nuggets of prose that capture the reader’s imagination. This book kept me guessing right up till the end. The only regret I have is that I realised too late, that this is the third book in the series and whilst it didn’t spoil my enjoyment of the book, I think I would have benefited by reading the previous two beforehand to better understand the references made to them. A dark comedy, with a twist, if you loved Enid Blyton’s Famous Five books, then this is surely the grown up version for those who enjoy clean and wholesome suspense.

I wasn't a fan of The Smart Woman's Guide to Murder but I thoroughly enjoyed this one as it's intriguing, fast paced and full of twists.
I liked the humour and the character development. The solid mystery kept me guessing
Recommended.
Many thanks to the publisher and Netgalley for this ARC, all opinions are mine

I have been a fan of Victoria’s work for a while now. ‘The Supper Club Murders’ is the third book in the ‘Smart Woman’s Mystery Series’. I read and loved the first two books in the series and I couldn’t wait to read this one. So without further ado, I dived straight in. I thoroughly enjoyed reading ‘The Supper Club Murders’ but more about that in a bit.
I was drawn into the story from the very start. In fact it didn’t take me long to feel as though I had been reunited with old friends in the form of Ursula and her mother. I was intrigued by the characters and by the crimes. I had my own theories as to what was going to happen so of course I had to keep reading to see if I was on the right track or if I had wandered down the wrong path entirely. I became so wrapped up in the story that I lost all track of time and just how quickly I was getting through the story. All too quickly I reached the end of the story and I had to say farewell to Ursula and her mother. I found ‘The Supper Club Murders’ to be a gripping read, which kept me guessing and kept me on the edge of my seat.
‘The Supper Club Murders’ is extremely well written. Victoria has one of those writing styles that is easy to get used to and easy to get along with. In fact reading one of Victoria’s books feels more like a chat between friends rather than reading an actual book. I hope that makes sense. Victoria has the knack of making you feel as though you are part of the story and I felt as though I was helping the ladies to solve the crime. This book had a fair bit of drama in it but there’s also a big dose of humour. I frequently chuckled away to myself as I imagined in my head what I had just read in the book. There was a bit of a shiver down the spine moment for me. Mention is made of a bigamist from South Shields in the book and my actual great grandfather was from South Shields and he was a bigamist.
In short, I thoroughly enjoyed reading ‘The Supper Club Murders’ and I would recommend it to other readers. I will certainly be reading more of Victoria’s work in the future. The score on the Ginger Book Geek board is a very well deserved 5* out of 5*.

The smart women are back! Pandora , her sister Charlotte , and daughter Ursula are invited to a supper safari by Lady Marsha Black. Pandora and her snobbish nature is excited to be in the presence of Lord and Lady Black. That is until the bodies begin to pile up and the smart women are once again in the thick of it.
I really enjoy Victoria Dowd’s writing style , it has humour , emotion and murder what more could a reader need?
Highly recommended and I look forward to reading the next instalment in the series.

Thanks to NetGalley and Joffe Books.

This is the third installment in the series about the Smart women - Pandora, her sister Charlotte, daughter Ursula and their friends, Bridget and Mirabelle. The opening chapters of this book were very promising - quirky (dare I say weird), dark and hilarious. The premise of the novel is that the women journey to a small village to visit Pandora's friend, Lady Marsha Black, and her husband in their bizarre gothic castle to partake in a village "safari" supper. This involves travelling around the village from house to house, with a different course of the meal served in each house. Things take a turn for the worse when a miserable and rainy gale descend upon the village, soaking the supper participants. Then events become more grim as murder victims begin piling up.

The most entertaining character by far is Aunt Charlotte, whose commentary left me cackling and guffawing in my easy chair. A sample: " 'Tony Voyeur, remember? Our resident magician. You'll meet him later. He is doing a very controversial gazpacho.' 'Are we all expected to join in?' Aunt Charlotte looked worried. 'I'm not very nimble.'" The visions and fainting spells experienced by Ursula began to wear on my nerves slightly as the story progressed however, and the friendship dynamics between Bridget, Mirabelle and Pandora were rather confusing since I had not read books one and two. The tone of the book was also rather inconsistent, with the later chapters having a darker and more serious tone than the early chapters. The novel ends rather abruptly, with an obscure reference to events which will presumably occur in the next installment.

Despite some confusion and inconsistencies, I did enjoy The Supper Club Murders and would be interested in reading the earlier books, which might alleviate some of my confusion around Bridget and Mirabelle. My overall impression is that author has not yet struck the right balance between humour, sadness and menace for the Smart women, but I am interested enough to keep reading. Many thanks to Joffe and NetGalley for this entertaining read.

Thanks Netgalley and the Publisher. I really enjoyed this mystery story, great storyline and great characters. I have read a few books like this lately but this was one of the better ones.

2.5 stars

Right off the bat I didn’t realize this was the third book in the Smart Women’s Mystery series, but I can tell you that that does not really hinder the reading from understanding the story and connecting with the characters. The setting and “world” is fully realized but doesn’t feel like you have missed anything, or that you need to the previous books to help fully understand the setting. As for the characters while they were written clearly enough to understand that doesn’t mean they were likable to read about or interesting to read from their perspective. Also, there was a lot of repetitive phrases spread throughout the story and that got to be really grating the deeper you got into the book.

As for the mystery and murder itself, I had a really entertaining time piecing it together along with mother and daughter. Another thing I was a fan of was the creepy isolated atmosphere the author was able to create which just added to the murder mystery setting. And lastly I was very impressed that the author touched on the psychological trauma the characters had developed due to the murders and events from the previous books, so in that I wish I had read the first two books in order to see this character development. Overall I enjoyed the twists and turns of the mystery as well a the setting and atmosphere the author created as the backdrop, but I wasn’t able to give this a higher rating due to the repetitive phrases and the writing style.

This book was provided by Netgalley in exchange for an honest review

The book club is back again in their third adventure! Plain old Marsha Mould is now Lady Marsha Black after marrying Lord Elzevir (rumoured to have bought his title) and resides at Black Towers, formerly Greystone Castle. All the renovations she is making there leave little time for reading but she has planned a weekend event – a supper safari, visiting several homes in the village with the aid of a map very conveniently found on her doorstep. All five ladies have been invited – the Smart women, Ursula and her mother Pandora, who is making a very successful attempt at a blog, Death Smarts, recounting their brushes with murder, together with Aunt Charlotte, and Mirabelle and Bridget who are now living together after Mirabelle felt abandoned by Pandora. Her nose is still out of joint when they all arrive in Dartmoor for the party. After four people died in the Slaughter House and another four on the Isle of Death, surely this must be third time lucky for our Famous Five? Together with an odd assortment of guests, including pagans, historians, a voyeur magician, vicar and handyman, and with tensions already mounting within the group, the supper party ventures out into a stormy night, cut off from the world with no phones or wifi. Each port of call gets that bit stranger and people seem to drop off until at last only our five women remain. The Midnight Gun cannon sounds for the closing of the castle gate. And then the murders begin…
As with the other books in this series, there is lots of superb wit and deliciously dark humour throughout this book, with its wonderful larger than life characters and dastardly plot. I would love to see these books being brought to life on television, such were the fantastic descriptions of the people in it. The scene is set and the main players introduced before the action commences and the killings begin, and the reader is gently led through a cleverly written trail of clues and red herrings to a super and satisfying conclusion. This is an excellent modern twist on the old classic style and I sincerely hope there are many more to enjoy! 5*

Victoria Dowd has garnered plenty of critical and reader acclaim with her fabulous Smart Woman’s Mystery series and she is back with a sharp, witty and thrilling new instalment that has got winner written all over it: The Supper Club Murders.

Being invited to dinner at a beautiful castle by the Lord of the Manor is not something that happens every day – and certainly not to Ursula Smart, her mother and their ever intrepid book group. Dinner at Greystone Castle on the edge of a picturesque Dartmoor village is quite a treat, however, on arrival the members of the book club quickly realise that all that glitters isn’t necessarily gold. Lord and Lady Black can barely stand to be in the same room together, Lord Black bought his title and if the rumours are to be believed is currently engaged in a torrid affair with the maid. Greystone Castle could very easily be a tableau for a murder mystery – and indeed before they know it, the Smart women find themselves having to don their sleuthing hats on because on the stroke of midnight someone is found brutally murdered!

With the castle cut off by flood waters and a storm raging outside, the list of suspects is very small indeed. But just who was the murderer? Nobody could have got in and out of the castle without being seen and with so much festering resentment at Greystone, it is only a matter of time before somebody else meets a grisly end – unless the Smart women can stop a killer in time!

Can they solve this mystery before the killer strikes again? Or will this case end up leaving the Smart women completely dumbfounded?

The Supper Club Murders might only be Victoria Dowd’s third book, but she’s already on her way to becoming a force to be reckoned with in crime fiction. Her books are razor sharp, cleverly plotted, brilliantly suspenseful and so ingeniously constructed they leave readers on the edge of their seats desperate to find out whodunnit!

The Supper Club Murders is a nail-biting thriller full of tension, atmosphere and humour that sees the Smart women on a spine-chilling quest that kept me glued to the pages of this book. Fast-paced, intelligent and impossible to put down, Victoria Dowd strikes gold yet again with The Supper Club Murders.

The Smarts were invited to a super safari at Greystone Castle by an old member of their book club who is now Lady Black. The arrival is like many murder mysteries with awful weather which cuts the village off from the outside world. An impossible murder occurs then more murders by historical torture. The main characters of the Smarts and members of the book club have history which runs through the series this been the third book. The Smarts have endured psychological trauma in previous mysteries which become a main factor in this story. There are plenty of twists in the solving of this mystery but reading previous books would help with the development of the characters.
I was given an arc of this book by Netgalley and the publisher in exchange for an honest review.

This is the third installment in a series. I did not personally feel like I needed to read the other two to enjoy this one but others might feel differently. I love when a story can merge two genres together, like comedy and mystery. This was a fun read.

The Supper Club Murders is book #3 in the Smart Woman’s mystery series. Mother and daughter, Ursula and Pandora have been invited to a supper party at the castle of Lord and Lady Black. As the pair is joined by fellow book club members, Mirabelle and Bridget, they discover that they have been invited to a safari dinner, where they will travel around the village, dining with different people from town as they go. The more progress they make on the dinner, the more tensions begin to boil over between friends, family, and townspeople. Ursula and Pandora realize that the tension reached its boiling point when they discover the first of several dead bodies.

This book was a wild ride. I have not read any of the other books in this series, but they are on my TBR list now! The imagery alone left me wanting to actually visit the village and castle. I’m a sucker for any story that involves a castle in the first place, but then adding in so many nooks, crannies, and secrets, it was wonderful. The creepy atmosphere was enhanced with the strong use of description and personification. I enjoyed that all of the description and dialog had a very conversational tone because the reader hears everything from Ursula’s point of view.

Now that I have addressed how much I enjoyed the atmosphere, lets get to the important part, the mystery. I spent most of the book wondering when it was going to pick up and have something exciting happen. I’ll admit that I got a little bored reading about all of Ursula’s complaints and pettiness. However, any of my boredom was redeemed at the end. Everything that I thought was just filler, ended up being important. The complexity of the final outcome was very fun and well done. Every time I thought I had things figured out, I was wrong. Once I realized what had actually been happening, I couldn’t stop thinking about it. I love when a good mystery sticks in my mind. The last quarter of the book flew by and left me with my mouth hanging open. The ending was moving and it left me wanting more.

The only parts of the book that I struggled a bit with was the characters. Ursula drove me nuts with her negativity. She seemed to hate everything and everyone. It was so bad that she barely expressed any positivity throughout the novel, taking away some of the roundness of her character. In her defense, she was in a horrible situation, walking around in the dark and in the rain with a whole cast of unlikable people, but one would think that she would at least find someone to think of kindly. Aunt Charlotte and Verity were the characters that I enjoyed the most. I was highly amused at Aunt Charlotte’s ignorance into any sort of references (I loved the Clue call out with all my heart). I will acknowledge that I may feel differently if I had read the other books in the series (I will update when I do). There were many references to things that had happened in previous books that I had a hard time understanding. I think I would have had an easier time understanding more of the supernatural elements if I had read the other books as well. Overall, I enjoyed how much they added to the atmosphere, but I didn’t always understand how they were adding to the plot.

As a last note, there were a few scenes, especially in the beginning couple chapters where I wasn’t sure who was talking. This problem sorted itself out as the book continues, but I thought it was worth mentioning.

3.5 stars, rounded up because of how much i enjoyed the ending

I received an ARC copy of this book from Netgalley and want to thank Joffe Books for the opportunity to read this book and find another interesting series.

I had a very difficult time trying to get into the story. I couldn't finish reading it because it didn't hold my interest.

Ursula Smart and her mother are invited to a supper club hosted by Lord and Lady Black. As the dinner party begins, Ursula and her mom notice that the hosts seem a tad bit unhappy. Seems like Lord Black .. who bought his title , by the way... is flirting relentlessly with the maid. Where there's smoke there's fire?

Then as midnight strikes, someone is found brutally murdered and the Smart women find themselves investigating another perplexing crime. It's a dark and gloomy night, the castle is cut off by flood waters and there's no way in or out. Phone lines have been disabled.

Who will be the next to die? It was a locked room ... how did the victim die?

There's plenty of twists and turns along the way with the mother-daughter duo spewing sarcastic, dark humor at each other from start to finish. The mystery plot is intriguing. Although this is 3rd in the series, it is easily read as a stand alone. It's a locked room mystery reminiscent of those thrillers I read as a child. Looking forward to seeing what comes next for these sleuths.

Many thanks to the author / Joffe Books / Books n All Promotions / Netgalley for the digital copy of this crime fiction. Read and reviewed voluntarily, opinions expressed here are unbiased and entirely my own.

The Supper Club Murders by Victoria Dowd is the third installation to her Smart Women’s Mystery series. Ursula R. Smart and the other Smart women accept an invitation to dine with a Lord and his Lady at a castle on Dartmoor only to become entrapped in a village of perpetually discontented characters and a series of murders. This is a caustic tale full of maddening events and twisted, nonsensical, alcoholic characters anointed with tongue-in-cheek names. The disquieting narrative is sharp witted and drilled with biting humor but is sometimes redundant and overdone. Unfortunately, the first murder does not occur for several chapters, so by the time the corpse is discovered, the reader, like some of the book’s characters, may not care. The story is thickly layered with sarcasm, anxiety, and bickering, which often effects a slowly paced narrative. Recommended for adult readers who enjoy tales of continuous discomfort.

I finished The Supper Club Murders last night and still can’t quite pinpoint how I feel about it. I just don’t think it was my type of book.

I found it to be quite predictable which was disappointing in a murder mystery for me. Full transparency, I haven’t read any of the other Smart Woman’s Mystery Series, so maybe more backstory on the characters would have made a difference in my enjoyment of this book, I’m not sure. It was a quick read with short chapters so no complaints there but overall I’m not tempted to read the rest of the series.

The Smart Women return in this third addition to the series.

Ursula, Pandora, Bridget and Mirabelle what a strange mixture of totally unique characters. I will be forever curious how the author: Victoria Dowd thought them up but they have developed well over the course of the series but there is still the implication that they have much more to give.

The story begins as the 4 women arrive at Greystone Castle for a Supper Club Meeting. They are met by the housekeeper and so we are introduced to another set of weird and wonderful characters. The evening doesn't go to plan it is raining the women are taken on a wander around the homes in the vicinity of the castle getting wetter and more bedraggled all the time. When the evening is finally at an end they arrive back at the Castle to be confronted by the body of Lord Elsevir.

The women immediately put their investigative skills to work but they find that the locals to Greystone Castle have many secrets and even more lies to be uncovered.

This is a very intriguing book with many twists and turns and red herrings that the reader has to keep turning page after page all the way to the shocking ending.

A very interesting and intriguing read humour and murder go hand in hand in this series in a way I have never seen (or read) before. More please.

ARC from Netgalley

This is the third book in a series, but it felt readable as a standalone for someone who hasn't read the other two. I thought this was a fun, twisty murder mystery that really got going in the second half of the book. There were several times reading this that I was certain I had figured it out, but ended up totally wrong.

Most of the characters in this book were pretty unlikeable, including the main group of women who are in each book, so I didn't feel particularly attached to anyone. The group of villagers who are being murdered and being investigated for murder were almost entirely awful people, so at a certain point I didn't care who kicked the bucket I just wanted to find out who did it.

Members of a book club are invited to the newly married home of Lady Black but what seems an uneventful evening turns into a murder mystery. Ursula Smart and her mother Pandora are no strangers to murder and since they are stranded they decide to solve it. knowing the murderer must be amongst them. It seems the whole village wants Lord Black gone but then another body is found.
This is not a stand alone book, since I had never read a book by this author I felt like starting to read the book from the middle. The story seemed to revolve around people who disliked each other and continuously fought and argued. The mystery part of the story was very clever and interesting but it was simply not my cup of tea. Others might love the characters but I wasn't impressed.