Tess Little

Thanks to Netgalley, Tess Little, and Ballantine Books for the chance to read this galley in return for an honest review.

Elspeth Bell is invited to the Hollywood Hills birthday party of her former husband Richard. Once there she is surrounded by a small group of people, some of whom she doesn't know. During the evening, guests are invited to watch a film that Richard made of his pet octopus, Persephone, and how she escapes her tank every night. As the night wears on, the guests become drunker and drunker until they pass out. The next morning, Elspeth finds Richard dead and everyone becomes a suspect when it is determined that there was foul play in his death.

While I appreciated the Agatha Christie influence the author was going for, this book was too long and too slow to enjoy. Then, the author seemed to have an odd fascination with the octopus - eventually, in Elspeth's mind, Persephone became a suspect. I found some of the story repetitive and tedious and just did not enjoy the story overall.… (plus d'informations)

Thank you NetGalley for an ARC. This is not exactly a book I would normally read. It is a mystery. RIchard is a movie director. He is mean, petty, vindictive, controlling, abusive, manipulating. And yet people think he is great. His ex wife and seven friends are invited to his 50th birthday party. In the morning, Richard is dead. This book flips back and forth between Elspeth’s life now, and what it was like while she was married to Richard. The writing is good, not exceptional. There weren’t, for me, any sentences that I just wanted to savor. This book will put you in one of two camps—love it or meh. Depending on your friends, this could be a book club selection.… (plus d'informations)

The Last Guest sounded intriguing but it fell flat with me. It had no chapters, only a couple of spaces between scenes switching from the death to the present to the past and back. I was never entirely sure if it was a murder mystery or a drug induced hallucination. A group of 8 people are invited to director Richard Bryant's 50th birthday party, a very strange party that seemed like a Hollywood roast only the host was doing the roasting of the guests. The night ends with everyone drunk and drugged and his ex-wife wakes up to find Richard dead. Watching it all is his pet octopus in a giant tank. Creepy! The police have their work cut out for them and all the guests have reasons to be suspects. The book finally became a page turner for me for about the last 10%. In retrospect I can see the comparisons to Agatha Christie and see that this book is a work of art, but it was still only so-so for me. Thanks to Netgalley and the publisher for giving me a copy to review.… (plus d'informations)