The Guest List: A Reese's Book Club Pick and New York Times Bestseller

3.5 out of 5 ⭐️

I tend to enjoy “locked room mysteries,” but I never seem to love them.

I enjoyed the characters, but figured things out pretty quickly. It was still a decent read.

At about the 20% mark, I stopped reading this book b/c none of the characters seemed to have any redeeming traits. When I finished a different book, I picked this one back up just to see if I'd like to continue, and this time it held my interest. By about the halfway mark I started to care for some of the characters and to see how they're all more complex than standard good or bad guys. But ultimately, this is a thriller, and what kept me going was the page-turning suspense that kicked into high gear! I predicted who would die but not who did it, and while I'd prefer that justice be dealt through the proper channels, I totally understand the killer's motivation (and why the person blamed accepted the blame).

Molly

This wasn't really my thing. It felt like a reverse murder mystery, which turns out I don't like, and I wasn't engaged in the characters. It did start to pick up and then the ending wasn't my favourite. The author is a very good writer though, so that bumped up the score.

My book clubs seem set on reading thrillers of late and frankly they are starting to blur one into another. Not this one! This mystery/thriller has just the right amount of interesting characters and atmospheric setting. Very reminiscent of Knives Out or an Agatha Christie. Would recommend but I do hope for a different genre next month.