Evelyn Stanley is accused of murdering her close friend Alex Riboni, a horrific crime. Along with their friend Nicole Horrowitz, the three girls were university students and the best of friends sharing a house together. I love a good murder mystery thriller - but this one was a little slow to start for me. I felt like some things were implied that weren’t fully explained so there were times I felt lost.

This is the first book I’ve read by Sarah Bailey and I’m always happy to support an Australian author. Thank you to Netgalley & Datura Books for the ARC in exchange for an honest review!

Rating: 3.5 stars (rounded up to 4 stars)

An intriguing thriller. I read an eARC of this book on NetGalley so thank you to the author and the publisher.

We have a thriller set in Australia with two timelines set a few years apart. The earlier story, the immediate events of a murder of one of three housemates. The later, the case resurfaces with new information and events bringing it back to front of mind for Oli, a journalist and our main character.

To be honest, the case itself unveiled a bit slowly for me and I didn’t find as interesting as I expected. What I did find engaging though was the storyline of the podcast surrounding the case, and the conflict in Oli’s personal life.

Oli is now living with what she feels is her dream man, and his two daughters. His wife, the investigating officer of the case in question, was killed. Oli feels she should be happy and grateful for her new life but she’s struggling with her partner’s continual requests for her to give up her career to to look after his kids and take care of the house more. With such a big story in progress she needs to work more, but she’s forced into a spiral of guilt due to the continual hints that she should be putting the family first, and given the money that her partner makes, there’s no need for her to be working. Oli’s inner conflict here and growing unease was the most interesting thing in the book. Her concerns about having her identity chipped away at, her feelings like she doesn’t quite fit in with her new life, those were the moments that were truly engrossing.

A fascinating character study that would have been truly thrilling with a bit more pace around the central investigation.

Melbourne-based journalist Olive Groves was a junior reporter when she worked on "The Housemate Homicide", which saw one young woman dead, one missing and the other convicted of murder. Now, almost a decade later, the missing housemate turns up dead on a remote property, and Oli is once again assigned to the story, this time reluctantly paired with precocious millennial podcaster Cooper Ng.

Even though I was very intrigued by the plot, I definitely found this to be a bit of a slow burn. It took me a lot to get into the story, and I struggled to get through a lot of it. I did find it interesting, and I was very curious to see where the story would go, but it did feel long and confusing at times, with way too many characters to keep track of. That said, the story did take a direction I did not see coming, and some of the twists really got me, which I always appreciate, and the ending tied up everything pretty nicely. I do think it's worth the read, especially if you enjoy an insightful perspective on investigative journalism and that whole world.

Many thanks to Datura & NetGalley for the eARC. All opinions are my own.

I received this book free from netgalley!

The Housemate by Sarah Bailey has two timelines. One, which is minimal, follows Alex after the murder of her "housemate" Evelyn and gives some context to her movements. The main timeline follows Olive Groves, or "Oli" a reporter who originally reported on the "Housemate Homicide" when it first occurred ten years ago. She is to report again on this after the body of a woman at a rural home is found. She is also set to work with a young podcaster named Cooper. She starts investigating and remembering and uncovering things both professionally and in her personal life.

What I loved! I loved the character of Oli, even though she is still flawed. The hints of her past growing up and when the "Housemate Homicide" first happened give her a depth that otherwise would be missing. She is still affected by her past and can feel her trauma both from her childhood and from her previous relationship with her fiancé. The mystery of the "Housemate Homicide" is good! I love the idea-three mysterious girls, roommates even, that lived together until one fateful night when one died, one went to prison and one went missing. And there just keeps getting more layers revealed.

What didn't work as well for me. Reading this as an American reader and not an Australian one kept throwing me out of the groove of reading. This is no fault of the author but some of the word choices I had to stop and figure out what they meant. Also, the lack of characterization for anyone other than Oli was minimal and that made it hard for me to feel any connection. There was her ex-boyfriend, her fiance, her editor, her colleague, her mother, her sister, and the junior podcaster. Only one of those felt developed at all. Maybe because of the nature of her independent work, but it made it hard to know these characters. Also, the ending felt rushed.

Overall, the book kept me reading and wondering with a sort of overall sense of dread for what she was going to find, and for good reason!

This was such a hard book to read. Too many characters and I felt like I had a hard time keeping up with the time lapse changes without much explanation. It skipped around a lot and it seemed like there were lots of holes. Unfortunately I wasn't able to finish it.

I sure enjoyed this thrilling novel of murder, secrets, lies, kidnapping, and a great investigative journalist, Olive "Oli" Groves as it goes from present to past and back again in a twisty way that makes for a fun read!

I am thoroughly enjoying the thrillers and such that are based in Australia. It adds a nice flavor to the mix. With the main point of view being Oli, the reader gets a good source of information, leading back years as she was a journalist then too when the Housemate Homicide took place. And she is pretty reliable as a narrator while digging deep to find the truth about what took place when Evelyn was killed and how it actually relates to so much more in a convoluted and twisty story that kept me glued to the book. There are several other interesting characters too, including the irrepressible Cooper, and officer Rusty, a good source of info and past love interest of Oli.

I really admire Oli in this story because she is dealing with new ways at work, issues with her fiancé and doubts what she wants for her future as well as delving into the past to find answers to the murders back then and now.

This was a fun and thrilling book to read and I would like to thank the publisher and NetGalley for giving me a chance to read and review it. I definitely will be looking up other books by this author to read!

A bit of a slow start but once this book gets going it's really difficult to put down. Absolutely loved, lots of twists and turns and deep dark mysteries.

This was a great twisty thriller with shocks and turns galore! I do like the format of an investigative journalist being the main character, the one in this case being Oli, a journalist who had reported on the Housemate Homicide nine years ago but now dives back in when the missing housemate, Nicole turns up dead. There are lots of red herrings, twists, lies, and secrets to uncover to get to the bottom of the case, hopefully before anyone else ends up dead! Oli and Cooper were such a good duo in this book and they were good foils for the past of paper journalism and the future of podcasts.

Sarah Bailey did a good job of making Oli feel very real, with smarts, feelings, confusion, and nicely likable because she is not perfect and she does make mistakes but tries her best. She was a great protagonist and fun to travel with while she deduces and digs up the past with tendrils to other cases too.

I enjoyed reading this and a big thank you to NetGalley and the publisher for giving me the chance to read and reviews this novel!

THE HOUSEMATE BY SARAH BAILEY.
Release date set for the 25th of February 2025.

WELL WELL WELL......

3 Housemates
1 Dead
1 Missing
1 Accused of murder

This is a crazy crime thriller mystery.
I thought it was very well written and all came together really good

Really good read. It was my first book by this author and i definitely plan on reading more !!! Four stars!!!

I really wanted to round this to four stars, and I certainly have for lesser novels, but...there's just something about this main character's perspective that makes absolutely no sense. No, so.etimes it does, but that's even worse because you really start to wonder if you missed something when she goes a little sideways. Ugh.

This was quite a rare experience for me in this genre, this book ends with all your questions answered!

I liked the story and while I found the plot a little slow and hard to grip on to in the beginning, it was a great read.

I enjoy when writers know just how to write their characters and this was done to perfection with Oli.

A great read and I look forward to more by this author.

So much fun! A thriller that did what it should. I could not let it go and read the whole thing in one sitting. Thank you to NetGalley and the publisher for this ARC!

This was a fantastic concept and had that element that I was looking for in this type of book. I was engaged with the missing roommate and figuring out what was going on. The plot had that feel that I was looking for and was invested in what was happening. Sarah Bailey wrote this perfectly and am excited for more.

This is my completely honest review in exchange for getting to read this arc from NetGalley. Completely honest.

This is a hard book for me to review. I actually DNF’d it at 50% but not because it wasn’t good. In fact, I loved the story and found it very compelling and I still want to know what happened. The writing was good too. No problems there. For some reason I just couldn’t get my head in the game with this book. It took me days to get to 50% (which is unheard of for me). I just had to give up. I’ll try to pick it up down the road. Again, this was a GOOD book and I would recommend it.

Thank you, NetGalley!

✨4 stars✨

The book follows journalist Oli Groves as she begins a podcast recounting a crime the happened ten years involving 3 housemates: 1 was murdered, 1 went missing and the final 1 was left to shoulder the blame.

I found the writing in this book engaging throughout and once I started, I couldn’t put it down! There were several satisfying twists throughout and I can honestly say I didn’t guess the final outcome which I thoroughly enjoyed.

Would definitely recommend this book!

I received an ARC from the publishers via NetGalley in exchange for an honest review. Thank you!

I gotta say I did indeed go into this blind.

I liked that the author did not waste any time getting to the gist of the story.
I was truly hooked from the first chapter.
This is my first book from this author and I can definitely say that I will be checking out more of this author’s book.

I enjoyed the writing style. It gripped my attention in a truly remarkable way.

Now, the story itself was unique. I liked the characters.
I loved the friendship between Oli and Cooper.

Also, I liked that there were no loose strings. The other tied up the story for us in a beautiful bow.

Seriously considering journalism as a career path.

A great read. Tq for this opportunity.

Firstly thank you to the publishers for my early access in exchange for a review.
I’ve reviewed a few of this authors books and this is definitely one of their strongest .
Thought provoking and well written

Fantastic book. I loved the storyline line, & the characters . Kept me up all night as I couldn't put it down⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️

While I loved the premise and the fact there was a bit of chaos, the book kind of lost me. It felt like it was too long with not enough action and the plot twist made me roll my eyes. I mean, it made sense but still. Not the greatest thriller but it was ok.