Book Smart Kate

Book: 🌟🌟🌟 💫 Audiobook: 🌟🌟🌟

by Charlotte Vassal

I love a good British mystery, and this is an homage to a classic Poirot whodunnit with an uptight detective and a cast of interconnected characters.

The latest debauchery for a group of socialites was Rupert’s 30th birthday party. But, when his girlfriend Clemmie is found dead in the bushes, Detective Caius Beauchamp begins to unravel the dynamics and ugly underbelly of decades-long friendships, jobs, and families. Everyone has an alibi, and everyone is a suspect.

This novel’s core whodunnit (who killed Clemmie) was well-plotted, and I enjoyed it. There were several things, however, that I struggled with:

1. Everyone in this book is deeply unlikable. All socialites are awful, so it is difficult to care that one turns up dead or to worry about harm coming to any of the others.
2. The book concludes with huge loose ends in the plot.
3. From an audiobook perspective, I found one of the narrators to be soft-spoken and flow directly from one word to another, which made it difficult to follow.

Overall, I’ll likely try the next book in the series when it arrives, hoping that Caius becomes a more engaging detective.

Please check the trigger warnings in this book for drug use and sexual assault.