A Death at the Party by Amy Stuart

400 pages

Publisher: Penguin

Publishing Date: 03/08/2023

Netgalley

 

Blurb

THE PLANNING TOOK MONTHS. THE MURDER JUST MOMENTS . . .

Nadine Walsh is determined to make her summer garden party the event of the year.

Everyone deserves a celebration after the year they've had. A chance to forget.

As she prepares to welcome her guests, however, Nadine can't help but be distracted. Her husband is of little help to her. Her two grown children are consumed with their own concerns.

But it's Nadine's own secrets that threaten to destroy her perfect party.

By the end of the night, Nadine will be standing over a dead body in the basement.

How did it come to this? And how far will Nadine go to keep her secrets buried?

 

Review

 “By the end of the night, Nadine will be standing over a dead body in the basement.”

In fact, that’s how the book begins; with Nadine standing over a body in the basement, preparing herself to return to the party she is throwing to celebrate her mother’s sixtieth birthday. The last time a big party was thrown for her mother’s birthday was thirty years ago when Nadine was 10. That party also ended with a body. That time the victim was Nadine’s 15-year-old aunt. This time, the identity of the dead body remains a secret until the end of the book.

This book is not a ‘whodunnit’, that much is clear right from the start. The mysteries in this book are ‘whogotdunnin’ and ‘whydunnit’. All the reader knows is that the dead body is male, that Nadine isn’t sorry he has died, and that she has no intention of dialling 911. Instead, she makes sure her lipstick is perfect before she returns to the party as if nothing has happened.

After this vivid and intriguing opening, the story jumps back to the start of the day as we follow Nadine while she prepares for the party. Over the course of the day, we learn a lot about Nadine and the people around her. Especially, we discover that there are quite a few men in her life who irritate her enough to explain her (lack of) action in the opening chapter. There are numerous secrets in this story, just as there are hidden connections between people and past events. Both are revealed slowly over the course of the story and as we learn more, the tension increases. The fact that Nadine appears to be on the verge of a nervous breakdown only adds to the suspense.

This is a very clever story. The plotting is immaculate, giving the reader enough information to make them think they know what’s going on while keeping the truth hidden almost in plain sight. The characters in this book are realistic in that none of them are particularly likeable but all the more intriguing for it. The writing flows so smoothly that it’s almost as if the book reads itself. I was hooked by the end of that first opening chapter and found it all but impossible to put the book down until I reached the final paragraph and knew what had happened and why.

As for that ending, it’s somewhat abrupt and some may say that it wasn’t really a resolution, but I liked it. In fact, I would go so far as to say that any other ending would have lessened this story. To put it differently, if you like a suspenseful story that will keep you guessing and on the edge of your seat, you need to read A Death at the Party.