Nadine Walsh is hosting a party for her mother’s 60th birthday. As she prepares to welcome her guests, she appears distracted. Her husband is of little help, her teenage children are going through their own problems, and she has secrets of her own which threaten to destroy her perfect party.
By the end of the night, Nadine will be standing over a dead body in the basement, but how did it come to this and how far will Nadine go to keep her secrets buried?
A Death at the Party is a slow burning domestic thriller. Forget ‘whodunnit’. This is a ‘whydunnit’ and ‘whoisdun’, as the mystery surrounds which of the party attendees has met their demise, and why.
Some novels lose readers because they get off to a slow start. This is the complete opposite; Amy Stuart was not messing here as she starts with the ending. Just reading those first few introductory pages had me gripped as I needed to know how we got there.
Despite some flashbacks to past events which help us to understand the history of some of the characters, much of the book purely spans over the timeframe of just one day. Split into three parts; morning, afternoon and evening, with an undeniable amount of tension building throughout. Having a book written over such a short time span, and still managing to build the level of suspense which A Death at the Party does is a testament to the author.
I enjoyed the characters, particularly the main protagonist Nadine. She wasn’t overly likeable, but she was very real. She came across as a good wife, mother, and daughter and yet she also made mistakes. Her suspicious nature added to the mystery for me, and many of her actions were unsurprising given what she had gone through as a child. In addition to Nadine, all the other characters were well thought out, each with their own strengths and weaknesses, and many of whom have their own secrets.
Themes in the book include loyalty, grief, and family secrets. There was also a clear gender divide in the book, there was a lot of focus on the complexities of the lives of women, with many of the males coming across as mistrustful and having inappropriate intentions, representing some of the inequalities we see in society. Overall, the focus on family bonds was powerful, reminding us just how complex families can be and the lengths which people may go to protect their loved ones.
Overall a thoroughly engaging domestic thriller with compelling characters and a gripping plot.
Reads Must 