A Death At The Party is a slow burning thriller that will have you hooked.
The book is set over one day, it is split into morning, afternoon and evening. This works really well in this book as you get a deeper understanding of the characters and a chance to really understand the history of the characters and what it impedes on their daily lives without really knowing it. Nadine Walsh is married to Paul and have two teenagers, she is hosting a birthday party for her mother, Marilyn Millay, a famous author. Around a hundred people have been invited. The day is also the thirtieth anniversary of Colleen’s death. Colleen was only fifteen years old and was Nadine’s Auntie, Colleen tragically died at a party on her parents farm and no one really speaks of it since. Throughout the course of the day revelations are made and Nadine has a suspect in her sight.
This was a very good read, the book flowed well and the characters were well developed with a well plotted storyline. It was a book I had to keep picking up as I had no way in knowing how this was ending.
I would like to thank Netgalley and Michael Joseph, Penguin Random House for this ARC I received in exchange for an honest review.

I was hooked on this book from the very beginning, when we join our narrator Nadine as she stands over the body of an unidentified man in the basement of her home as a party swings on upstairs.

The novel then takes us back in time to much earlier in the day and we see Nadine stressing over the preparations for the party, which is a 60th birthday celebration for her mother Marilyn.

However, all is never as it seems with this story. Unreliable Nadine slowly reveals that she has been keeping secrets from her husband, that her daughter Isobel’s best friend is lying in a coma after an apparent drug overdose, and that she has been blackmailed by a journalist desperate to get his hands on dirt about Marilyn, who is a famous rags-to-riches author.

As such, we don’t know who the owner of the body could be — and what his connection is to Nadine’s past and the sudden death of her aunt thirty years earlier.

This is one of those books that you want to consume in as short a time as possible, and I was really able to get stuck into it (as I watched my daughter make endless loops around a soft play centre during the school summer break), which I think added to the immersive atmosphere.

I thought it got especially delicious as we went farther back in time to discover what happened to Nadine’s aunt, and I actually would have liked to see more of this part on top of the present-day viewpoint.

If I had one criticism of the book, it would be that it finished a little too abruptly, as it gave the impression of an anti-climax compared to the rest of the pacing. However, I would still highly recommend it to fans of domestic and psychological drama and would certainly pick up another novel by this author in the future.

And as an aside, did anyone else see Susan Sarandon in their mind’s eye every time Marilyn appeared on the page? I know I did, and she would be excellent for the part should it ever make it to the screen!

Many thanks to NetGalley and Penguin Random House for an ARC of this book in exchange for an honest review.

A masterful concoction of tension and mystery, this thriller immerses you in a world of intrigue where nothing is as it seems.

We first meet Nadine in the basement of her house, standing over a man's body. This foreshadowing is a gripping introduction to the story as the reader slowly tries to work out who it is that Nadine appears to have killed and why.
Through the pages that follow, the tension builds up to what is about to happen. There are plenty of people the body could belong to, as family secret after secret is uncovered on the day that Nadine hosts a celebratory party for the 60th birthday of her mother, a famous author.
I was hooked from the start and could not put the book down as I wanted to find out the answer to the mystery.
Nadine's potential for being an unreliable narrator (she'd had a fall some time previously) keeps the reader wondering throughout. It was a great device, potentially throwing the reader off the scent.
I thoroughly enjoyed this novel, I would have given it four stars, had it not been for the clunky explanation as to why her grandparents and aunt are buried in the town where Nadine now lives instead of the rural community they came from. I was also not convinced that a family putting on a party or 100+ guests would leave it to the eleventh hour to get themselves ready.
Thank you NetGalley for an advance copy of this book.

With so many top-drawer authors supporting this title, it can but soar.

The thing I found most interesting was the way the author created an inversion from our normal Poirotian expectations. Instead of working out who among the myriad killers dunnit, instead we are reading to discover to whom it was dun.

It's a discursive list and Amy Stuart keeps the readers' interest as the victims are wheeled on and off stage until the finale.

This will almost certainly be a Netflix blockbuster series.

With thanks to the publisher and Netgalley for letting me have an advance read.

An enjoyable psychological mystery. Thank you Netgalley for the opportunity to read this pre-release book.

A Death At The Party
By Amy Stuart
⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️

Nadine and Paul are the perfect couple with their teenage kids Isobel and Damien. Nadine will do anything for her family, ever the protector.

It’s the day of her famous Mums birthday party where we follow Nadine (the party hostess) who unravels secrets and lies of her family and friends around them as the day unfolds.

Many twists in this story which had the unusual timeline of one day. Lots of coincidence and coming together of past stories which will all make sense in the end! Everyone has something to hide but there is one unthinkable secret that Nadine is determined to find out the truth about.

A very tense read - I really did wonder where this was going to end up but wow - what a finale !

Excellent story line and literally read in a day!

Thank you @netgalley for giving me the opportunity to read and review.

#lovetoread #thrillerread #adeathattheparty #netgalley #netgalleyuk #scotland #busymum #bookstagram #bookreview #books @amystuartwriter

The beginning of this book is also the end and what is sandwiched between is the story of what happened and what led to it.
Although I did enjoy this book, I did feel it was too long, some of the passages
being, in my opinion, too 'wordy'. Saying that. I thought the characters, main and secondary, were well written, as was the plotline. The majority of the characters have secrets, some of which have been buried for years, but secrets have a way of coming out and some coincidences may not be all they seem,

I was drawn to this book by the cover and the title and was so happy to receive an ARC in exchange for an honest review.

I tried so hard to get into it but I really struggled with the style of writing and it just didn't work for me.

I loved this book. It was completely magnetic and I could not put it down.

It was full of mystery and kept me guessing until the end.

The characters were really likeable and the plot well thought out and flowed really well.

Highly recommended, 5 stars from me.

I would first like to say thank you to Penguin Random House for providing me with this ARC.

I have to say, I enjoyed this book, I empathised with Nadidne, a woman trying her best to hold it all together while inside she is crumbling. The storyline had me gripped from the beginning and I kept thinking that I knew who the victim was, only to realise that that could be the case. I found the duel storylines of River and Colleen really well written and again I couldn't work out the correlation and I certainly didn't see the family bombshell coming!

I give this book 4 out of 5 stars.

Well this was interesting, very different genre for me. It was very character driven with so many secrets in this family some going back over 30 years.. The way that the book was written in three parts (with a hint at the beginning on how it was going to end but not who and why) just kept my attention throughout and I just needed to know why and who. Every character seemed to be someone that might be killed.

I was given an advance copy by netgalley and the publishers but the review is entirely my own.

The story starts with a bang and the reader is thrust into the middle of the drama with a woman, standing over a body........the story then winds back and builds up, with hints along the way to a terrific finale! One to read.

A Death at the Party is a domestic thriller, a fast-paced read that covers the usual arc: affairs, long-held family secrets, and of course, murder.

The story opens at the party (no surprise given the title) with Nadine, the hostess with the mostest, watching life ebb away from a man on the floor of her bathroom. He’s begging her to help him, but she refuses, walks away, and rejoins the party upstairs. But who is this man?

Next, we are taken back to the morning of that same day; Nadine wants tonight’s birthday party for her mother, Marilyn, to go perfectly and has a huge task list for all friends and family members.

Marilyn is turning 60, and she’s a famous murder mystery novelist who struck it big when Nadine was a teenager. They continue to live close to each other, but on a personal level, they're perhaps not as close as the picture-perfect picture portrays - secrets linger aplenty. Particularly concerning to Nadine is the death of Marilyn’s younger sister Colleen many years ago. There's nothing as tangled in webs of lies as families, right?

But they're not the only ones with secrets; in fact, Nadine's alone are considerable, and many men around her are potentially out to hurt her in some way, but as the day progresses and the party plans come together, we determine who the night’s murder victim is going to be.

With short tantalising chapters, A Death at the Party is easy to binge-read and would make an excellent poolside pick, but it felt too stereotyped, too predictable and overall fell a little flat for me.

Fans of B.A Paris, Lucy Foley and books of that style are bound to devour this one. 3⭐

Thank you to the publisher and NetGalley for the chance to read this advance review copy in return for an, as always, honest review.

At the very beginning of the book you are thrust right into the thick of it. Then it takes you back to that morning and as the main character, Nadine gets ready for the party you find out all about her life. I really enjoyed the book, it’s rich and full of life. I really enjoyed the writing style. All through the story I was trying to work out who it could be from that first scene. The author makes sure to leave enough bread crumbs for most of the characters that it wasn’t till close to the end that I’d worked it out. I recommend this book and I’m waiting patiently for Amy’s next one! Thank you #netgalley

The narrative is told from Nadine’s point of view, who is getting ready to host a party for her Mum’s birthday. Mixed in with flashbacks to a party which happened 30 years ago, Nadine realises she has been hiding a secret about what happened that night.
I really enjoyed this book and couldn’t put it down! I would highly recommend anyone to read this.

I really enjoyed this book. The story starts with Nadine standing over a man's dead body in her basement. Above them a great birthday party for Nadine's mother is in full swing. The main part of the book reveals Nadine's relationships and connections with a number of different men, all of whom she might have hated enough to kill, but of course we only find out his identity at the end! There are some great characters in this book and it will keep you guessing up to the final revelation. Thanks to NetGalley for a preview copy.
Copied to Goodreads.

I really loved this book. It grips you from the very first sentence and keeps your interest right until the end.
The story is told from the perspective of Nadine, a 40-something woman who is dealing with recently resurfaced trauma. She's a great character - very relatable and interesting.
The story takes place over the course of a day when Nadine is planning a 60th birthday party for her mother, a famous author. Throughout the day we meet the key people in Nadine's life and learn a lot about her past. Nadine is haunted by the death of her aunt, Colleen, at a previous party for her mother 30 years ago. The story sees her putting the pieces together to find out the truth about Colleen's death, and her identity.
Amy Stuart does a great job of creating characters, particularly Nadine's husband Paul and her two kids. The dialogue between them is I think very realistic, and the reader feels they are right there with them.
The plot of the book is great but I'd have read this just for the character of Nadine alone. I would definitely recommend it, and will be reading more from Amy Stuart.

I am new to this author and sadly am not overwhelmed by the writing.

A death at the party follows a family planning a party to celebrate the 60th birthday of the main character’s mother, a famous author. The last time this family threw her a birthday party, it ended in a death! Will this party have the same outcome?

A tale of deception, family and murder. How far would you go to protect those you love?

I enjoyed this book but wasn’t blown away by it…some of the peripheral characters were confusingly similar and lacked the depth to keep them separated.

I really enjoyed this murder mystery and raced through to finish it.

The narrative is told from Nadine’s point of view, who is getting ready to host a party for her Mum’s birthday. Intertwined with flashbacks to a party which happened 30 years ago, Nadine realises she has been hiding a secret about what happened that night.

Thank you to Netgalley and the publisher for my arc