I’m sharing another instalment of my Mini Review Mondays, the most recent of which was last week. In case you haven’t seen any of my previous posts, I do ‘mini’ reviews of books that I’ve previously read and am now ready to share my full thoughts about. Today, I’m really excited to start to delve into the incredible titles I have been lucky enough to read early that are out in 2024.
First up, I’d like to talk about The Dinner Party by Rebecca Heath. Thank you to Aries for sending me an eARC in exchange for an honest review.
Summer 1979. In the idyllic suburban neighbourhood of Ridgefield, during a scorching heat wave, four couples gather for their weekly dinner party.
When Frank Callaghan checks on the sleeping children, he finds an empty crib where his four-month- old daughter Megan should be sleeping. The party-goers swear they didn’t see anything but each of them has something to hide.
Forty years later, a stranger knocks at the Callaghan’s door claiming to be Megan. The family are sceptical until they see what she is holding – the blanket she was wrapped in the night she disappeared. Where has Megan been all this time?
And how well do you really know your neighbours?
Publication Date: 4th January 2024
TW: death, violence, murder, missing child, drug use, rape, sexual assault, sexual harassment , grief, PTSD
My Thoughts:
The Dinner Party is a suspenseful, shiver-inducing read.
As anyone who knows my taste in mysteries will know by now, I very much enjoy inventive narrative formats that combine different forms of media. Here, I really enjoyed the mixed media style narrative, with podcast excerpts and flashback sequences amidst the present story. It served to heighten an already incredibly tense book, with a reveal you know is coming and several you do not. This is a slower burn of a book, matching that languid heat that slowly oppress you and turns into a sweltering mess. The podcast allows us to get a bird’s eye view of the bigger picture surrounding the events of forty years ago and in the present day. Like any good true crime podcast, it has interviews with everyone and anyone & legal transcripts, which all allow for suspects and clues to be introduced.
However, this is primarily a character focused mystery with the central mystery being one that weighs deep on the heart. It is emotional and vulnerable and all about wanting your family back together. The primary mystery is a living nightmare and one that instantly recalls some famous cases. There is that aching yearn within each of their hearts, but how reliable is this?
In fact, this is a key thread of the book: unreliable narratives. The entire time, you are questioning who has ulterior motivations for the truth that they are presenting. This is complicated with the ambiguities and nuances provided from both the podcast and the flashback sequences. You often have to piece together which character is talking from little details and suggestions. This adds to the whole hazy, heatwave atmosphere that hangs over the book.
The Dinner Party was an inventive and interesting thriller with a very emotional and fraught subject at its heart.
Next up, I’d like to talk about The Mystery Guest by Nita Prose. Thank you to Harper Collins for sending me an eARC in exchange for an honest review.
A new mess. A new mystery. Molly the maid returns.
Molly Gray wears her Head Maid badge proudly for every shift at the Regency Grand Hotel, plumping pillows, sweeping up the guests’ secrets, silently restoring rooms to a state of perfection.
But when a renowned guest – a famous mystery writer – drops very dead in the grand tea room, Molly has an unusual clean-up on her hands.
As rumours and suspicion swirl in the hotel corridors, it’s clear there’s grime lurking beneath the gilt. And Molly knows that she alone holds the key to the mystery. But unlocking it means thinking about the past, about Gran, and everything else she’s kept tidied away in her memory for so long.
Because Molly knew the dead guest once upon a time – and he knew her.
Publication Date: 18th January 2024
TW: murder, death, rape, sexual assault, alcoholism, addiction, drug abuse, animal death, bullying, blackmail, fraud, grief, poisoning, workplace harassment
My Thoughts:
The Mystery Guest is that sort of cosy crime story taken to new heights.
I really enjoyed Molly the Maid’s first outing in The Maid, particularly her intriguing and unique narrative voice. It was charming, distinctive and fiercely intelligent. That observant nature and wanting to follow the rules lends itself perfectly to solving murders. So when I heard she was back, I knew I had to pick it up. The Mystery Guest takes everything I enjoyed about The Maid and elevates it. I actually enjoyed this one more!
We get to learn a lot more about Molly’s backstory and it is heart-breaking. There is such a deep sense of loss, characterised by her current grief. This just adds layers to not only Molly herself but the surrounding cast of characters, as we learn a bit more about why they may have acted the way they did previously. It is dark at times, so please check the trigger warnings. Due to Molly’s style of narration though this is often through inferences and character reactions that we can see the wider picture. Her detail oriented mind is a fascinating place to inhabit though, particularly in the context of a deliciously rich and twisty murder mystery.
The conceit of a murder mystery author being killed off is one that I am hooked by on its own. Throw in that classic Golden Age of Crime set up of the various suspects and mix it with that introspective look at Molly’s life – then I am more than sold. This has such excellent atmosphere, characterisation and pacing that the pages seem to turn themselves. Prose could write many more books for Molly and the people around her & I would pick them all up.
The Mystery Guest is an excellent return to a fantastic and thoroughly enjoyable character, as well as a cracking mystery to boot.
A Short Book Lover 
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