Thank you to NetGalley for providing me with an Advance Reader Copy in exchange for an honest review.

I was drawn to The Critic because of the poisoned brownie premise and the promise of a workplace mystery with a police investigation angle. The setup immediately caught my attention.

I really enjoyed the 90s setting. The office details, slower communication, and references giving a true nostalgic feel and helped distinguish it from more modern mysteries. Jessica was also a strong point for me as a character. She is awkward, ambitious, defensive, and constantly seems to make herself look more suspicious, which made her interesting to follow. I liked that even she began to question herself at times.

As a reader, I was very engaged in trying to work out where the story was going. At one point, I was completely convinced that the brownie was not actually meant for Ted at all, and that it may have been intended for someone like Ben Jones instead, possibly as a result of Ethan’s jealousy over a new lover. I was also waiting for a reveal that Ted’s father and Dina’s father were the same person. Neither of these theories ended up being correct, but they show how much the book had me actively piecing together possible connections and motives while reading.

Overall, this was an enjoyable and twisty mystery with a memorable setting and a suspicious, chaotic main character. While it was not quite the investigation-heavy read I was hoping for, LL Kirchner is still an author I would be interested in reading again. Personally, I think poisoning can be a difficult crime to make feel truly exciting or high-stakes on the page but I think the author did a really good job considering.

⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️ (4 stars)

This was such an interesting and captivating read, that kept me on my toes!!
I loved the story from start to finish, particularly the reader didn’t know who the real murderer was and how it wasn’t clear till the story wanted the reader to know from the way the story was told. I especially adored how we got to see multiple pov‘s (Jessica, Lydia, Dina, the witness statements and more) as well as the way the story was generally told through unreliable narrators and always incorporated ways to make one question their own perception. Besides that, I also liked the complexity of every main character and how, LGBTQIA+ characters were included as well.
The story overall shines through it’s atmosphere though. Right from the beginning, one is thrown into this mess of a situation and, as I mentioned, always questions the motives and the motivations of the characters even if they might seem innocent.
A little downside is that some things did feel somewhat out of the blue for me and even a day after finishing, I’m still questioning whether or not, I just misread an important clue (haha).
Overall though, it was a really good read and I think people who enjoy mysterious novels with complex characters and a captivating plot as well as a great atmosphere should totally read it!!

Thank you to NetGalley and the publisher for providing me with a free copy of the book in exchange for an honest and voluntarily given review.