Anna Sousa is a journalist, who specialises in truly immersive investigations. She works undercover, to get to the heart of a story, details that would otherwise not come to light. Her current job involves looking in to, what has been deemed by authorities, a non suspicious death. Holly Moore was an athlete, with so much promise, until the night of the May Ball. To enter the elite Cambridge world, Anna takes on the persona of Aria Lauder, an American with a strong rowing pedigree.

We are introduced to a large cast quickly, the slow burn pace allows the reader to get to know the characters in detail, to understand their complex relationships. Initially I found most of the characters insufferable, as the story progressed, some revealed redeeming qualities, while one became more intolerable. Anna’s own history and complex relationships, make her investigation more personal and nuanced. With around a quarter of the book remaining, the pace increased, finishing at a gallop, with a good deal of action.

Dark academia thrillers seem to be a genre which is becoming increasingly popular. There are plenty of red herrings, to throw us off the scent, to have us questioning the motives of the characters.

I think fans of Engleby will thoroughly enjoy this tale of the moneyed, pampered youth, being very full of themselves and their own self importance; whilst coming to terms with the problems induced by their seemingly perfect, charming upbringings.

Anna Sousa is on the trial of an exclusive story of a suspicious death in the hallowed halls of Cambridge. She goes undercover to meet with Ryan, Kit, James and Esther, who are members of an exclusive club as she thinks they are involved. But Anna decides to write things down in an email just in case something happens to her and the recipient is her ex, a Met Police Detective, Reid Murray. It was dark, emotional, gripping, full of twists and turns with an unexpected ending.

This book floored me! It had me reading until well after I should have been putting the book down to go to sleep! But I was hooked.

The author sets out the narrative in such an interesting way that I haven't seen before.

Anna's (FMC) part is told through an email correspondence to her ex boyfriend, Reid. This leads us through the events that take us up to her being in trouble. I felt completely immersed in Anna's journey. As it was written in the format of Anna's email, I got an insight in to her character, her feelings, and her background. She was such a flawed but likeable character, I couldn't help but desperately want to know what happened.

Throughout the book there are snippets from her father - Seaton, and her ex boyfriend - Reid, as we see their part in trying to help her. This built tension in the plot of the danger that Anna had found herself in. Between this and Anna's email, I found myself trying to piece together what happened in between and desperate for them to work it out.

Although we don't get to see the point of view of the Cambridge students that Anna/Aria befriends, we get to see them through her eyes. This allows us to only know what Anna knows, leading us along the investigation with her. It was interesting to see how she so easily built relationships with these students, but struggled with her father and ex boyfriend. It added depth to her character as you see her navigating her feelings about her relationships.

I usually don't enjoy third person point of view as much, however, I felt Seaton and Reid's pov being third person allowed me to separate myself from them and feel the connection to Anna. After all, this is her story. The author does a great job of sharing Seaton and Reid's feelings through the narrative though so we don't feel too detached from them.

I wouldn't be surprised if this book gets picked up to be made in to a series or film as it is so immersive I could picture everything that was happening. I will be looking for other books by this author as I found this so enjoyable. I cannot recommend this book enough.

Thank you so much to Michael Joseph, Penguin books for this advanced copy.
IG post, and a full review will be posted on my blog in the coming days.

Dead to Me by Gytha Lodge is such a great read. If you like “who done it” books then this is the book for you.

I felt a build up of suspense throughout. I really hope this book flys.

Anna is a journalist investing a career making story; a suspicious death of a student amongst the Cambridge elite. The more she investigates the more she wants her ex partner Reid, a detective, there too.
Only they didn’t end on the best of terms. When she runs into trouble will it be Reid who is there to help despite their past?

I have read most of this author’s other books and have enjoyed them so was excited to see this standalone novel by her. This was an interesting premise and I liked the Cambridge setting. This started well and I found I was compelled to carry on reading as soon as I picked up the book, but sadly this didn’t last due to the pacing becoming slow fairly soon after starting. Although well written in a general sense, I found the writing format didn’t allow the story to flow easily and it was difficult to know whose character was speaking. This also made it hard to connect to the characters.

Although I enjoyed the mystery element, I found the overall story a bit predictable and didn’t have any major surprises. For me this was a mixed bag and not a favourite by this author, mainly due to the slow pace. However I still appreciated parts of the story and would most certainly pick up more books by this author, especially as I have thoroughly enjoyed her previous novels. Thanks to NetGalley and the publisher for this copy in return for an honest review.

I have enjoyed all this author’s books but this one was just not up to par with rest. Very slow burner. Did not like the long email . Could not bond with the characters. Hope her next one is back to her usual form.

Unfortunately, I had to DNF this one at around 9%. I really struggled to get into the story and found the email-style format confusing and hard to follow. The characters and name-dropping didn’t draw me in, and I just wasn’t able to connect with it.

Thank you to the publisher and NetGalley for the opportunity.

Anna Sousa is an American investigative journalist working under cover in Cambridge, where a student has died. Her assignment is to infiltrate an upper class rich group who knew this girl, and find out what really happened.
She is a disorganised, insecure person, and when she finds herself in danger, she reaches out by email to the only person she feels she can trust – her ex, a police officer, who broke her heart.
When she goes missing after the May Ball, this long rambling email provides the bones of the story.
Her father Seaton, who’s reaction to any situation is that it’s made better by champagne, and Reid, the ex, try to make sense of what has happened, and the narrative is shared between them all.
Needless to say, this is a clever twisty plot, with a lot of insight into elite student life, and elite sport.
Five stars.

Thanks to Netgalley and Michael Joseph, Penguin Random House for the opportunity to read this book.

Some good characters but I struggled with the story. It was too slow for me and I found my mind drifting in parts.

Having read other books by this author, I was expecting more from this. I didn’t real feel like there was much tension. I found it just too slow and I didn’t connect with any of the characters. I also found the long email format from Anna’s point of view quite irritating. It had a lot of promise but I just didn’t connect with it.

I really rather enjoyed this. Gytha Lodge's first standalone psychological thriller may be very different in tone and style from her brilliant Jonah Sheens series, but that is no bad thing. With two murders, or potential murders, at their core, and a missing journalist whose absence is of great concern to her father and her ex-partner, this is a book that is a heady mixture of mystery, suspense and intrigue, taking readers into the hallowed halls of Cambridge University. Well, hall adjacent at the very least. Posing as a postgrad student in order to investigate the untimely death of an undergraduate, Holly Moore, at the behest of Holly's old school friend, Anna may well have bitten off more than she could chew. And, having disappeared in the midst of the prestigious May Ball, it seems that both Anna and her client, Cordelia, may have reason to be suspicious.

I Like how Gytha Lodge has structured this book. Despite Anna's disappearance, we still get a lot of the story from her perspective, in a first person narrative, without learning a thing about where she may be. This is achieved by a kind if stream of consciousness email from Anna to her ex-partern, Police Detective, Reid Murray. Anna details her investigation into Holly's death and her close circle of friends, members of Cambridge's social elite. We gradually learn about their secrets, their personalities and their foibles, whilst also learning more about Anna's character too, a method which both endeared her to me and frustrated me at times.

There was no doubting her tenacity, but her determination to investigate often came at the expense of her own safety, something which was both signposted by the direction of the narrative, and also hidden by her own seeming naivety or perhaps indifference at times. As we re hearing her story in hindsight, almost like a diary entry, there is a strange mixture of excitement and trepidation at times, where the fear comes through but is tinged with a strengthening of her own convictions. She has al the brash quirks of her American upbringing, but a seemingly endless ability to draw those around her into her sphere, something replicated in the way in which I found myself drawn to Anna through the narrative and all the more invested in her fate.

In addition to Anna's testimony as it were, the other two perspectives we are privy to are that of Reid and of Anna's previously estranged father, Seaton Laws, a man of the stiff upper lip brigade, but whose curiosity, or concern, over Anna's failure to meet for lunch kicks off the whole story to begin with. I really quite liked Seaton, his strange behaviour and inability to quite connect with his daughter, using champagne as the catch all answer to all ills. Not my style but I'm sure it would work for some. Reid is a really different character to both Anna and her father, a straight by the book Detective whose outlook seems greatly at odds with Anna's but who, in the way Gytha Lodge gradually introduces him to us as readers, I can understand would be her perfect partner. The three make for very different narrators, but ones I was more than happy to spend time in the company of.

This book digs down into all that is right and wrong about Holly's friendship group. That looks beyond the superficial image that each of them portrays to the damaged and insecure young adults that lie within. Whilst on the surface they may project perfection, each is nursing a secret or two that could have bearing on Anna's investigation. Or not. And that is the beauty of the book in that it is packed with misdirection, drawing readers to challenge their own prejudices about the kind of privilege the group projects, casting suspicion on each in turn whilst hiding the truth in plain sight. There are some delicious twists and quirks in the story, and I will admit that it did not play out as I expected at all. There is a side story, a tragedy with links to the central characters, which may or may not play into what happens to Holly, but most certainly casts doubt upon Cordelia's assertions that Holly's death was no mere accident.

if you love a strong psychological thriller, that has a core of humour and heart in the central protagonists, people of dubious or, at the very least, duplicitous character, and perfect balance of jeopardy, mystery and suspense, as well as a long catalogue of various champagne brands (I really never knew there were so many varieties of fizzy French wine!), then this could well be the book for you. There are some dark themes in the book - attempted assault, suicide, drugs abuse - but the book itself is not gratuitous or overly dark in tone. The conversational style of Anna's narration keeps that at bay. I loved getting to know Anna, her personality was infectious and I found that once I started reading, I really didn't want to find the cure. Top stuff.

The storyline based on an email sent by Anna to her ex boyfriend Reid, which she wrote believing he would only read it if she was in real trouble or possibly dead, was an original idea. Anna was an undercover journalist and wanted to find out what really happened to Tanya, Reid’s late sister. When she was approached by someone who believed their friend Holly, had died in similar circumstances Anna was certain she was on to something. Becoming Aria, a rower she infiltrated herself into life at Cambridge University and gradually became part of the group of friends of Holly. Determined to get answers she put herself into increasing danger, not knowing who the perpetrator was. If indeed, one even existed. I found the book a bit of a struggle if I’m honest and found it had little in the way of suspense to make me want to keep reading. However, I made it to the end and unfortunately found it left me wanting answers. I felt it was rushed and another few pages with explanations and conclusions would have benefited the whole book.

A clever murder mystery set around Cambridge University. A couple of girls have been murdered but we’re made to look as though they took their own lives. Anna is a new student but working undercover for her journalism. Reid is a detective and ex boyfriend and is the only person she can truly trust.
When she gets deeper into the elite clique the meow danger she is in.
This book is gripping with twists that keep the reader hooked.

Dead to me, wow what a ride! Fantastic storyline with plenty of twists and turns - towards the end I was a little disappointed… thinking oh predictable - and the pendulum swung and off we go on a different tangent! Excellent descriptions that totally had me hooked

A bit of a slow burner but had some interesting characters and good plotting. I liked the Cambridge setting and the descriptions but the narrative not so much. I can't quite put a finger on what failed for me, perhaps it was the lack of pace and empathy for Anna's character but overall, it is a good psychological thriller, with a rushed ending which other readers might enjoy. Thanks to Net Galley for my ARC.

Set in the tradition-steeped world of Cambridge Uni, this dark academia thriller follows American journalist Anna Sousa. Investigating the suspicious overdose deaths of two female students, Anna goes undercover as heiress Aria Lauder & embeds herself among a privileged group of undergrads.

She begins recording her findings in a long email to her ex, DI Reid Murray – a message she never intends to send. But when Anna vanishes after the prestigious May Ball, that email becomes Reid’s only way to retrace her steps. With help from Anna’s worried father, Seaton, Reid must untangle a web of secrets, lies & privilege before it’s too late.

Told through alternating perspectives – Anna’s unsent email, Reid’s present-day investigation & Seaton’s desperate search – the pacing is tightly controlled. The slow build of tension from Anna’s deeper involvement with the students contrasts beautifully with the urgency of her disappearance. Each POV adds suspense & emotional weight. Every timeline feels vital, pulling you deeper into the mystery with every turn.

Lodge excels at giving each character a strong voice. Anna is bold, principled & sometimes reckless; Reid is tormented yet loyal; Seaton is flamboyant but deeply loving. The Cambridge students – Esther, Kit, Ryan & James – mix charm with suspicion. No one is quite what they seem. I suspected nearly everyone & thought I’d cracked it. I hadn’t. Not even close.

A clever, character-rich thriller blending mystery with emotional depth. The unsent email format adds a personal, confessional tone. The Cambridge setting is vivid, layered with wealth, secrecy & danger. Lodge builds suspense masterfully & the final reveal is both smart & satisfying. If you love dark academia, unreliable characters & twisty plots, this standalone’s a must-read.

Another fantastic book by the brilliant (and also, lovely!) Gytha Lodge. A huge thanks to NetGalley and Michael Joseph for the advanced copy - out 3rd July.

This book was okay. I wasn't a fan of the long email idea. The author is a great writer, though. Just for some reason I didn't gel with this plot.

Anna is an American journalist on the trail of a story. It is a story close to heart as her ex boyfriend was a police inspector whose sister died from an overdose of drugs. As a result of this Anna and Reid had a massive falling out and split up.
A new death occurs very similar to the previous one - could they be linked. Anna investigates but dissapears.
Can Reid find her before its to late?

what a brilliant book. and brilliant original take on this genre. i was gripped to all parts of it both the plot and the characters involved.
the book gives us Anna who is a strong undercover journalist who feels like she is on the cusp of a huge story. the story being a secretive world of Cambridge university and some suspicious deaths there. so undercover she goes ready to find out what she suspects to be true and whether she can unravel this story from this inside. shes doing well and has managed to infiltrate the friends of the dead. but all of them could be a suspect at this point.
during this time she keeps up emails to her ex who is a detective. i loved this addition to the book. it was a really personal and almost undercover way for the reader to keep knowing what Anna was saying and thinking through a different medium than the author telling us.
but then Anna goes missing. and her dad knows the person to be called is her ex the detective.
i was fully immersed in the world of the university, the detective and the characters who all had their own vital part to play in the story unfolding.
i was hooked by this book and it took me to places i never saw coming and surprised me in the best of thriller ways.
this book is such an atmospheric and smart read. i felt cleverer just from reading such a stand out plot which was full of spot on understanding of how a reader should feel whilst turning the pages of a book like this.

Unfortunately I couldn't get into this book. There were to many characters dropped in to the plot with scant information about them which didn't make them memorable. The story told from two points of view made it to difficult for me to follow the plot and I gave up at 19%.