Plenty of twists and turns - certainly kept me guessing! I loved Anna and Reid and - as a Cambridge resident! - the setting. You can't go wrong with a Gytha Lodge book!

The newest novel from Gytha Lodge and it didn’t disappoint. 4.25 ⭐️ / 5

A captivating story about an undercover journalist mixed in with a group of friends in the high brow life of Cambridge University, while trying to discover how a young woman died the year before.

As well as being well-written with clean and clear prose, this book also had the drama, some excellent humour and I loved Anna and Reid the two protagonists.

It was also written differently than I have ever seen before. Not just multiple POV but Anna’s POV is not what you expect but makes for a brilliant way to write a novel.

The only reason this was not a 5 ⭐️ read for me is firstly I unfortunately guessed who the main culprit was and secondly the way everyone came to their conclusions (whether they where right or wrong) towards the end came out of nowhere and it felt a bit rushed.

On saying that I didn’t guess how the book was going to end with some excellent twists. I definitely recommend to either other Gytha Lodge readers or to people who love a good crime / mystery novel and want to check out a new author 🥰

Happy reading peoples 🤗

Anna is going undercover to discover the truth about a suspicious death whilst also hoping it may prove how another death happened. She finds herself embroiled amongst the super rich and struggling to get answers, can she solve the truth before they figure her out.

I've read a couple of other books by this author and liked them. THis one was good but didn't grab me like the others. I found it too easy to put it down and come back later even towards the end. That being said the plot was interesting and so was Anna. You were never quite sure if she would be an unreliable narrator or if she was just struggling to find the truth. The ending was good and I enjoyed the twist though I had figured it out. No-one is overly likeable in this as they have a lot of their own issues to face. An intriguing story but not quite gripping enough for me.

Deep and dark!

Anna Sousa is an investigative journalist who goes undercover to get her stories. her ex, Reid, is a police inspector witht he met. A year ago his sister died, after attending the May Ball at Cambridge University and it always seemed a bit suspicious. Now, with the disappearance of second female after another May Ball, Anna is going undercover to try to get to the bottom of things and, she hopes, discover what happened to Reid's sister. But it's not as straightforward as she would have hoped . . there's more going on with this crowd of friends that meets the eye.

Therfe's a lot going on in this one and it took me a bit of time to get everyone sorted out in my mind. Whilst it wasn't the easiest one, it was full of suspense and my heart thudded whilst reading it. I was never quite sure where it was headed and it certainly kept me on my toes. Not my first read from this author and it certainly won't be my last. For me, 4*.

My thanks to the publisher for my copy via NetGalley.

Anna, an undercover journalist, arrives at Cambridge University to try to discover who murdered a girl at the May Ball. She writes her results in the form of an email that she sends to her ex boyfriend. This story was extremely slow to develop. It picked up in the second third and the ending is one I did not see coming. Not a book I really enjoyed.
Thank you to NetGalley and Michael Joseph for the advance copy of this book.

3.5 stars
This is a good read but is a real slow burner.
I was intrigued at first as we read an email that Anna sends to her ex, Reid, and she mentions about his sister’s murder. Anna was also close to her and despite them splitting up, she wants to find out what happened to her.
Anna is a journalist and goes undercover at Cambridge University, but when she goes missing, both her Dad and Reid fear the worst.
There are so many characters mentioned in this book that it really is hard to keep up with. There’s also a lull in the middle of the book, which I nearly stopped reading at.
Bear with it though as the last quarter of the book kicks up a notch and I really liked the ending of this story.
Overall this is a good read.
Thanks to Michael Joseph Books for the opportunity to read this book.

⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️

I really enjoyed this book and finished it in one sitting. I was completely invested from the very beginning.

What stood out to me most was how flawed and human the characters were, especially Anna and Reid. Their relationship was messy and complicated in the best way, and their personalities and choices felt real. The dynamic between them added a lot of emotional weight to the story, and I was hooked trying to untangle everything as it unfolded.

I especially loved the use of a single, unsent email to tell Anna's (Aria’s) side of the story. It was a smart and unique narrative choice that made the story feel more intimate and personal, while also keeping the tension high.

The writing was strong and the pacing kept things moving with plenty of twists and turns. If I had one small complaint, it was the ending. I was hoping for a big reveal that would completely surprise me, but instead the resolution felt a little too spelled out. I wanted to be more shocked by the conclusion.

That said, it was still a really enjoyable read overall. There are some darker themes, so it is worth checking content warnings, but the book is not overwhelmingly dark. It leans more into emotional complexity and suspense than graphic content.

This was my first Gytha Lodge book and it definitely will not be my last. A gripping, thoughtful mystery with well-drawn characters and a compelling structure.

Thank you to the publisher and NetGalley for the opportunity to read this.

In this book we meet Anna who is an American investigative journalist. Back in the day she was engaged to a British detective Reid and it is to him that she turns to, in an unsent email, when she starts to feel uneasy about her latest assignment. But I get ahead of things.
Anna is at a posh event when she is approached by someone who wants her help investigating the death of her best friend at a Cambridge College May Ball nearly a year ago, the police having ruled accident/misadventure. To do this, Anna has to go undercover and enrol into the college. She does this with the help of her semi-estranged father Seaton. She just has time to infiltrate the dead girl's group of friends and inveigle herself therein before this year's May Ball is held.
It is Seaton that raises the alarm when Anna fails to make a dinner arranged for the day after the Ball and it is, again, to Reid that he turns...
It's actually way more interesting, intriguing, and convoluted than that. But, to add much more would invariably start to hint at spoilers and, I'm not going there.
Characters are also interesting and intriguing, and I guess convoluted too! They are, as you would imagine, often larger than life and the majority hide behind expectation, if you get what I mean by that. Which was great as it allowed, and indeed. enabled the author to have a lot of fun wit obfuscation as to who to trust...
And the twists and turns came thick and fast, having me spinning around, chasing my tail pretty much all the way through. So much so that I really didn't know where we were going until, boom, there we are! But, looking back, in hindsight, yup... there were clues...
All in all, another definite winner from another of my favourite authors, to add to her already well impressive back catalogue which also contains her brilliant series featuring Jonah Sheens. Can we have another one of these soon please?
My thanks go to the Publisher and Netgalley for the chance to read this book.

It was hard to get into but it’s a thriller and a lot of build up on the beginning

Blurb

Danger lurks in Cambridge’s elite. Anna’s life depends on Reid, the man who shattered her heart.


A tense, twist-filled thriller from bestselling author, Gytha Lodge

--

Anna and Reid weren’t meant to be.
.
She’s a fiery American journalist; he’s a stoic British detective.

Now Anna is chasing a career-making story - a suspicious death and police corruption at Cambridge University.
As danger closes in, there’s only one person she can turn to: Reid, the man who broke her heart.

But trusting him might be the biggest risk of all…

Dead to Me is a stand-alone thriller, and it fizzes and crackles from the beginning. This is a story that fuses elite, entitled academic students and emotional entanglements with edge‑of‑the‑seat suspense. Lodge has written a propulsive and gripping thriller.

Taking the name and backstory of Aria Lauder, Anna Sousa sets out to capture the interest of a small group of Cambridge University friends, members of the privileged Pitt Club. Anna’s father Seaton, expected her for lunch the day after the May Ball, but she never arrived. As time passes and he has not heard from her, he grows increasingly anxious, knowing what she’s been investigating in Cambridge. So he phones Reid Murray and the story begins.

Anna is a fierce, driven American, with the uncompromising instincts of a journalist who can smell a good story a mile off. She’s still bereft over the loss of her relationship with Detective Reid Murray. But as she digs deeper into the twin Cambridge deaths of students Holly and Tanya, her tenacious spark flares into full‑blown obsession. Lodge sketches Anna/Aria with excellent psychological depth: she’s not just chasing clues, she’s wrestling with grief (her relationship collapse, unresolved emotions about her father) and the moral complexities of investigative journalism. Much of the information comes from a long e-mail she types, though never intends to send, to Reid. All of her character is poured into that e-mail: she is honest, raw, funny, and just a little bit broken.

Reid is phlegmatic, a detective who initially seems cold. But that’s what makes the tension between them so delicious. It’s clear Reid still cares deeply for Anna, despite his anger with her that caused their break-up. The unresolved chemistry underpins every risky move Anna makes. Their relationship is fractured, which is both a strength and a vulnerability in this story.

One of the most compelling parts of this novel is how Anna handles the investigation. She embeds herself in a privileged student circle using a carefully crafted backstory, uncovering whispered secrets, half-truths, and institutional arrogance. Cambridge’s elite world feels intensely charged and foreboding. The stakes increase dramatically; Anna isn’t just pursuing a story that could boost her career, she’s walking a thin line over a very real abyss. The friendship group Anna gains access to, comprising Esther, Ryan, Kit and James, all appear to have secrets of their own.

The pacing is intense, and I lost myself in this story as I flipped the pages faster and faster. Just when I thought I had figured it out, Gytha Lodge surprised me with an unexpected twist. The story turns into thriller mode, with violent acts and betrayals among friends. It’s cleverly written, and the entire story is gripping. I loved how each of the students had secrets. It was impossible to know who to trust, and when one turned out to be extremely untrustworthy, it was hard to tell if that meant they were also the killer.

Beyond Anna and Reid, there’s Anna’s relationship with her father. They’ve long been distant, but Anna needs her father’s help to get in to this exclusive circle. Anna’s father, Seaton, has his regrets. His past mistakes are at the heart of their fragile relationship, and he’s keen to make amends without knowing quite how to go about it. Their relationship enriches Anna’s story; she’s not just proving Reid right, she’s defining herself in contrast to her father’s more regret‑tinged life.

Cambridge’s cloistered grandeur makes the perfect backdrop for lurking malfeasance, and Lodge beautifully conveys the contrast between opulent tradition and sinister undercurrents. The tension between Anna’s career-driven ambition, her broken romance, the father‑daughter dynamics, and hair-raising danger feels heartfelt and resonates.

Verdict: Dead to Me is a well-crafted thriller. Anna is the kind of protagonist I love: vulnerable, relentless, human. Reid is the kind of detective‑love interest who’s as compelling for what he doesn’t say as for what he does. Lodge’s tight plotting, immersive setting, and piercing emotional stakes make this novel stand out from the crowd. Recommended.

This is my first book that I have read by this author. It was slow start for me and I struggled to carry on a quarter of the way in. I was not a fan of the email format, and i was struggling to follow along and keep up with it as it was changing characters.
I enjoyed the last quarter of the book, many twists and turns and I was not expecting that ending.

Ive read and enjoyed a number of Ms Lodge's books and was interested to read this stand alone one. I have to admit though that it wasn't one of my favourites as I didn't really enjoy the format with a lot of the plot unfolding as an email from undercover journalist Anna to her ex boyfriend DCI Reid Murray. It's certainly a very twisty plot, and to be honest I think I would have preferred something less convoluted However I'm still looking forward to reading more of this author's books.

Having read a couple of books in the Jonah Sheens series by Gytha Lodge I was delighted to receive a stand alone by her. Much of this book is in the form of an email in the draft file addressed to Anna's ex-partner, Reid who is a police officer. If you are reading this something has happened to me! Anna is an undercover reporter who has infiltrated a university group where a death has occurred. She takes too many risks and does not know who to trust. There are twists and turns and there is good characterisation. A fast moving, clever tale.
Many thanks to Netgalley/Gytha Lodge/Michael Joseph for a digital copy of this title. All opinions expressed are my own.

Anna is a journalist going under cover with a group of university friends in Cambridge to try and uncover if there is a link between 2 girls that have died under suspicious circumstances.

Trying to infiltrate the group of friends is tough as she has no idea who she can trust.

The story is mainly written from Anna’s pov via an email she’s writing to ex-boyfriend Reid.

I really enjoyed trying to work out who had done it - and didn’t guess, at times the email language confused me as to what was in the email and what Anna was thinking but I really enjoyed it, and the suspense towards the end built really well.

I am still not sure how I feel about this one... the mystery was intriguing, but the slow burn and format of the book stopped me from getting fully immersed in what sounded like a great book from the blurb.

I have loved reading many of Gytha's books is I was very excited for this one and it did not disappoint. Overall it’s a layered, slow burn mystery full of secrets, tension, and emotional fallout.

This is so cleverly wriiten.
Anna, is a determined American journalist who is investigating a suspicious death at Cambridge University. Reid is a British detective that she loved and now she is in trouble she tries to contact him again as he is someone she still loves and trusts .This story is told through a structure of emails, shifting perspectives, and escalating tension. This book keeps you on edge of your seat as secrets unravel and danger closes in.

Thank you to Gytha Lodge, Penguin Random House, Michael Joseph and Netgalley for an ARC in return for an honest review.

I had the opportunity to read Dead to Me by Gytha Lodge as an ARC, and overall, I enjoyed the experience.

From early on—around the 40% mark—I was convinced I had the ending figured out… and I was very wrong, which made the twist all the more satisfying. I always appreciate a mystery that can genuinely surprise me, and this one delivered on that front.

I liked the dual POVs, which added some depth and kept the pacing brisk. However, I didn’t connect as much with the main POV, and while I understood the shift in writing style toward the end, it didn’t quite work for me personally. It pulled me out of the narrative a bit rather than enhancing it.

One of my main critiques is the character development. I found that the characters were often told to us rather than shown, and as a result, they felt a little flat. I would’ve loved to see more complexity or emotional layering.

That said, the plot kept me turning the pages, and the intrigue was definitely there. It’s a fast-paced read that fans of twisty mysteries will likely enjoy, even if some elements didn’t fully land for me.

The first book I have read by this author and a bit of a slow burner for me. Thanks to the publisher and NetGalley for the chance to ARC this book.

Once I got used to the writing style this story became a tense gripping read. An investigative journalist goes undercover at Cambridge University to discover who killed student Holly Moore. The plot held my interest throughout. A heart pounding finale.