Review: The Dinner Guest by B.P. Walter

The Dinner Guest by B.P. Walter

Published by One More Chapter on May 2021
Genres: Adult Fiction, Thriller
Pages: 400
Format: eBook
Source: Publisher
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Four people walked into the dining room that night. One would never leave.
Matthew: the perfect husband.

Titus: the perfect son.

Charlie: the perfect illusion.

Rachel: the perfect stranger.

Charlie didn’t want her at the book club. Matthew wouldn’t listen.

And that’s how Charlie finds himself slumped beside his husband’s body, their son sitting silently at the dinner table, while Rachel calls 999, the bloody knife still gripped in her hand.

Agatha Christie meets Donna Tartt in this nerve-shredding domestic noir thriller that weaves a sprawling web of secrets around an opulent West London world and the dinner that ends in death

Well that was a lot of fun.
I can’t describe it, but I could not put this book down. Even though I knew what it was doing (leaving me at a cliffhanger at the end of every chapter), I didn’t mind and happily read on for three hours yesterday instead of doing real world things like… making dinner.

I don’t want to give anything away so I’ll speak in really broad terms.
I can honestly say that I did not like any of the characters. They are all dark and selfish, bad people and even those who were motivated by some greater cause made me squirm. That said, they are perfect together and in this story, deserve each other as the strange events of that night play out. No one is perfect and even after the murderer is revealed, there are still lots of twists happening afterwards.
Because the story is told from multiple POVs it’s fun to get a sense of where everyone’s mind was before, during and after the dinner event. I really like Rachel and Charlie and show they viewed Titus and Matthew and how those views changed. And the last chapter is a fun kick.

It was such a good thriller. I thought I knew who had done it, and then I guessed again, and again, I love how layered the plot became and how more characters were introduced, even they were dark and forboding. The general tone and urgency of the story was very satisfying and it was easy to become absorbed in the plot, trying to weave my way through the events and motives and figure out who did it.
Surely that was a misdirection? NO! Yes! No..?

Such fun.
I’ll be recommending this book to those who love thrillers.