Crime novelist Augusta Hawke is thrown into a real-life mystery when a renowned doctor dies at a cocktail party she's attending. One of the few who suspect his death was not from natural causes, Augusta decides to embark on solving the mystery herself. This is book 2 in the Augusta Hawke series, and I went into this without the benefit of having read the first. It works fine as a standalone book, though it does contain a couple references to the first.

I loved the punchy colors of the cover and the title intrigued me, though I'll admit the book itself didn't endear itself to me as much as I had hoped. Likely, this was a personality mismatch, as I found Augusta's sarcastic sense of humor more annoying than witty, and a frequent distraction from the plot. While the mystery itself was solid enough, the wrap-up reminded me more of a middle grade book than one for adults; each and every connection and intention was explained, sometimes in far greater detail than needed. Overall, I just felt like this one tried too a little too hard.

Thank you to Netgalley for this audiobook.
The narrator, Erin Dion did an excellent job at narrating this novel. This is the second book in the Augusta Hawke mystery series. Augusta is doing a book signing for her newest mystery when she is approached by Callie. Callie wants Augusta to be her ghost writer in a memoir. Augusta declines the offer and is invited to a house party by Callie to try and make her reconsider. Callie invited quite a few people which included someone in the publishing world, CIA officers, and a doctor. Doc Burke is very famous for his good deeds and ends up dying during the party and people believe that it is a heart attack and that seems to be the end of the story. Then a few months later Augusta receives a email through her website by Doc Burke's niece Nelly who found out she was there when her uncle passed away. Nelly reveals to Augusta that Doc was writing a memoir and wanted her to get it published to tell his story and she hands over the manuscript to a friend of hers that would transcribe it. Nelly also reveals that Doc's estranged wife had Doc's body cremated and scattered at sea and didn't tell the rest of the family until Nelly called to make funeral arrangements. Augusta contacts the ex wife who didn't even know that Doc was dead because she worked in health care and lived somewhere with a four hour time difference. Augusta realizes that someone pretended to be her in order to get Doc's body cremated in order to make it impossible if someone else in the family wanted an autopsy, Augusta goes to her police friend that she worked on a case with and decides with Nelly's help to pull a Agatha Christie and put all the suspects in one place to figure out who the killer was. Augusta makes up excuses to ensure that everyone attends her little retreat and disguises it to make everyone believe she wants to help the people involved in writing to get her own publisher interested in them which is a complete lie. Augusta gets Nelly to pretend to be sick and in her room while she interrogates everyone to try and get a confession. Nelly reveals that she isn't really Doc's niece but is actually named Peg because Doc's real niece is a princess and engaged with a prince who got robbed not long before his death and believed it to be connected. It is revealed that Callie's husband Tom has been having an affair with Barbara who helps Callie out and murdered Doc Burke for killing her sister in a car accident that he confesses to in his memoir and blackmails both Callie and Tom to hide the fact that Callie was still married to someone else when she married Tom. Barbara poisoned Doc during the party and made sure that Tom wasn't there so he wouldn't be implicated and Callie's housekeeper and cook knew about Doc as well and were given jobs to cover it up.

I absolutely loved Malliet's Max Tudor mysteries and am glad to see another one will be coming out. A married Max will be fun...

I approached Augusta Hawke with equal enthusiasm because I'd enjoyed Max so much. Also, the suggestion of a Christie-esque premise and resolution was another great reason to look forward to this audiobook. How disappointed I was: everything fell flat, Augusta is colourless, like her black pants suits (though the quip about Angela Merkel was fun), the collection of guilties and not-guilties and even the victim felt like cardboard cut-outs. The mystery felt contrived, structured into what it should be, but it never came alive for me.

The narration was equally weak: it was polished and well-prepared, but narration and charaterization never meshed. Was it the content and I'm doing the narrator a disservice, or vice versa? I'm not sure; what I do know: I was bored with the story and I thought Dion's didn't belong to the narrative. Malliet's story felt like an "old-fashioned" Christie mystery and Dion's voice didn't convey that: or was it the Malliet's narrative was unsure what it was and Dion faltered along with it?

Thank you to the publishers, author and NetGalley for the free copy of this audio book.

I had a hard time getting into this one. I did not read the first in the series, but not sure that would have made a difference. I just felt like it was a little scattered. The narrator was ok, but a bit monotone which didn't help.

I didn't realize that it was the second book of the Augusta Hawke Mystery series (even though it says this right on the cover). While the main character, Augusta, refers many times to a mystery that she solved in the past (which I assume is in the first book), I do still think that this can be read as a standalone. This book is a very slow burn, at times I was a little bored and tuned out. Although it refers to a large cast of characters, it is told only from Augusta's perspective, which is what slowed the book for me. I personally love a story with multiple POV's, and I think that this one would have been better paced and provided more action if it included some other POV's. I also found some of Augusta's choices to be a bit of a reach and, as a result, didn't love her character. With that said, I did want to know who the killer was and listened to the end to find out. I read a lot of thriller books and prefer super dark, twisty stories, so my thoughts are more about personal preference than the story itself. I think that anyone who enjoys a murder mystery that slowly builds throughout the story would really enjoy this book.

⭐⭐💫 (2.5)

Thank you to Netgalley, Dreamscape Media, and Severn House for the gifted copy of this book.

Thank you Netgalley and publishers for this ARC. I struggled to 73% of this audiobook before I called it quits. I no longer care who killed who. There was way too much inner monologue by Augusta Hawke that added nothing of substance to the book. The narrator kept the same tone throughout the book so it was difficult to tell if anyone was talking (not that there was much actual dialogue). This book just did not cut it for me.

I wanted to love this so bad. I love the summary and concept of the book. I cannot get past Augusta the main characters stream of consciousness. The summary sounds awesome and considering I am coming into the second book of the series I might give the first book a try. I couldn’t finish this one but if you love Agatha Christie this book is for you.

I was pretty excited for this one, and the beginning sucked me in pretty fast. However, it pretty quickly went downhill for me. I actually enjoyed the narrator’s voice enough, but thought some voice change ups would be nice. The story was kind of boring, and all over the place. I really enjoy mysteries and this one was just not for me.

Unfortunately this one was a miss for me. I found the plot challenging to follow and generally it just did not hold my attention. I will be trying this one as a physical book, because I think it may be more appealing in written form, but like I said, the audiobook did not work for me at all.

I'm a sucker for bookception, or books about books, and Invitation to a Killer had multiple layers of bookception. First, the main character is Augusta Hawke, a mystery writer and novice private investigator. Second, it seems like every character in this story is somehow tied to the writing industry--some of them are writing memoirs, some are publishers, some are wannabes. Even the murder begins with a book--socialite Callie Morgan asks Augusta to come to a dinner party, attempting to persuade her to write her memoir, and Augusta acquiesces. At that dinner party, with a senator and his wife, two CIA operatives, a literary agent, and more, famous doctor and philanthropist Doc Burke falls dead. They rule it a heart attack, but Augusta suspects it was a Christie-style dinner party murder.

After the dinner party, she starts her investigations into each suspect, trying to determine who had opportunity and motive to murder Doc Burke, who seems to be a generous doctor who gave his life to helping the less fortunate. However, when his niece shows up on her doorstep and reveals that his body has disappeared, Augusta's suspicions are confirmed that this was more than meets the eye. To get to the bottom of what happened on the night of the dinner party, she invites all of the suspects, as well as the doctor's niece, to a writing retreat in hopes that one of them will reveal that they are the killer.

I really enjoyed Augusta's voice as a protagonist and a narrator. From the beginning, she had a very clear voice. She was funny, quirky, and interesting. Plus, I loved the bookish comments and how she viewed everything from the perspective of a mystery writer, which made me laugh. This was definitely the strength of the book. There were also a few good twists and red herrings that made the book interesting, and I loved the writer's retreat idea!

However, the mystery itself fell flat. When the ending was revealed, I was surprised, but not in a positive way. A good mystery builds to the end, and when it's revealed, you go, "Aha!" This book just didn't do that. I felt like Malliet explained the "aha" part afterwards rather than building up to it, which was disappointing. There were also a few twists that really didn't add to the story, and the writer's retreat could have been SO much more suspenseful. Overall, cool ideas and great protagonist, but the mystery just fell flat for me.

3/5

Invitation to a Killer is the second Augusta Hawke mystery by G.M. Malliet. Released 7th Feb 2023 by Severn House, it's 240 pages and is available in hardcover, audio, and ebook formats. It's worth noting that the ebook format has a handy interactive table of contents as well as interactive links and references throughout. I've really become enamored of ebooks with interactive formats.

This is a quirky amateur sleuth mystery told in first person PoV featuring mystery writer Augusta in the starring role. It's set in modern day Washington DC and has a cast of well known socialites, philanthropists, and politicians in a sort of locked room murder setup, where the first murder occurs.

The writing is competent and the plotting is well controlled and moves at a good clip. I found the *constant* unrelenting internal monologue on the part of the protagonist to be intrusive and a detraction to the flow of the read. It reminded me a bit of the full on snarkiness of the M.C. Beaton's Agatha Raisin books, and readers who love the Beaton books will find a lot to like here.

The unabridged audiobook has a run time of 8 hours, 36 minutes and is competently narrated by Erin Dion. She has a husky and pleasant alto voice with a neutral American accent. She has a good grasp of timbre and inflection and, in a positive way, her voice doesn't take over the read. I found myself able to listen to the *book* without noticing her *voice* overmuch. She does an ok job differentiating the various characters without being confusing or repetitive. I listened at slightly increased speed and never found my interest wandering or losing my place.

Three and a half stars. Definitely worth a look for fans of tongue-in-cheek sarcastic amateur sleuth mysteries.

Disclosure: I received an ARC at no cost from the author/publisher for review purposes.

No publicity is bad publicity. This is the belief Callie Morgan centers her life around. Wife to a Washington lobbyist and an aspiring writer, Callie sets out searching for a ghostwriter to write her scandalous memoirs. But she doesn’t want just anyone to write her story, she wants crime novelist Augusta Hawke as her writer and will stop at nothing to make sure this happens. When Augusta agrees to a dinner party invite from Callie, she doesn’t know it at the time but her whole life is about to change.

I listened to the audiobook version of this book so I might have had a different experience if I had read this instead of listening. I found the pace of this story way too slow for my liking. I was bored a lot and found it hard to stay focused on the story. I also found the narrator to be very monotone, so that didn’t help either.

While I think the writing/wording of this story is done very well, the story just doesn’t hit the mark for me. This was supposed to be a thriller, mystery murder type of book but it seems too much time was spent writing about character’s thoughts and not enough on actual action happening.

However, I love a locked-room type of read and found the setting to be perfect.

I received this audiobook for free but leave this review of my own accord.
#NetGalley #InvitationtoaKiller

“Crime writer-turned-amateur sleuth, Augusta Hawke finds herself drawn into her second mystery when a celebrity doctor is found dead at a party she is attending!”

I quite enjoyed the tone this book set, as well as the personality of the main character.

The rest of the book, however, wasn’t for me.

By the numbers:

0-24% – Nothing happens.

25% – Murder!

26-95% Nothing happens.

95-100% – Epilogue, where our heroine describes, in detail, who did what, where, how, and why.

All tell and no show makes Augusta a dull read.

3/10

Thanks to NetGalley, Severn House, and DreamScape Media for this ARC.

This was a classic whodunnit murder mystery. I feel like it was a quick read but very redundant. For example, the main character gave the same spiel to different characters at different times. Things I did like: the wit, the twists

A surprise Murder mystery? Yes please!

When a thriller/mystery writer is approached to ghostwrite the memoir of a wanna-be diplomat, she’s thinking absolutely not. But Callie does not want to take no for an answer. Eventually, our author agrees to attend a dinner party hosted by Callie. And that’s when things get interesting. A mysterious death occurs at this party - is it a heart attack or something more sinister? Augusta Hawke is determined to find out.

This was a fast paced murder mystery story. The narrator did a fantastic job of keeping the mystery alive by making it feel like we’re there with the characters as they try to figure out what really happened to Doc Burke.

Thanks to NetGalley for the audiobook copy!

3.5 Stars, rounded up.

This is a cozy mystery, featuring a locked-room style murder, with a closed circle of suspects. In fact, the murder is so clever, that at first it is deemed natural causes. Everyone at the dinner party had the means, but motive is harder for our amateur (and crime-writing) sleuth to determine.

Not quite a 4 star read for me, as the pacing was a bit slow and meandering sometimes, even for a cozy mystery. I did enjoy that the main character is a mystery author. I didn't realize this was a series at first (don't worry, you can read this book as a standalone without missing a beat), and I look forward to the next installment in this series.

Augusta Hawke is a successful mystery writer and is now a private investigator. She is approached by Callie to ghost-write a memoir about her political life. Augusta ends up at a dinner party at Callie’s house where a doctor dies in a room full of people. The police think the doctor died of a heart attack, but Augusta doesn’t think so. She can’t stop thinking of the doctor’s death and begins her own investigation instead of writing her book.

I really enjoyed the character of Augusta Hawke. She was well-written and developed by G.M. Malliet. I really enjoyed Augusta’s sense of humor. The narrator did a great job voicing the character of Augusta. Unfortunately, the other characters all sound the same and it became a little hard to follow at times since she did not give distinct voices for the different characters. I can’t help but wonder if I would have enjoyed the book better if I read it instead of listening to it. Overall, I give the book 3/5 stars. I highly recommend it to those that like Agatha Christie books and cozy mysteries.

Mystery writer Augusta is approached by Ambassador wannabe Callie to help her write her tell-all memoir. While attending one of Callie's dinner parties, Agusta is swept up into the drama as one of Callie's celebrity guests dies at the party. The verdict is he died of natural causes, but Agusta thinks otherwise. Will she be able to solve the case?

The writing style of this book was not for me. I was listening to the audio version of this book, so I didn't see the written words, but as the narrator read it, it seemed like 3/4 of the sentences had a meandering ending that sounded like they would have been in parentheses. These were so distracting for me and really took my attention away from the actual story.

The plot itself was interesting and would have kept my attention if written in a different style. I like a story that continually shifts blame and keeps you guessing. The ending was very Clue like to me which is always fun.

Thank you to the author, publisher, narrator and Net Galley for providing a free e-audio version of this book in exchange for my review.

I love mysteries, and have read hundreds. I thought this would be a good fit into my usual preferences. But I only actually made it to 20% into the audiobook before I had to turn it off and I won't be going back. The endless run of all of the thoughts in the main character's mind is just annoying, and even worse, it's so negative! The main character criticizes everyone and every thing she comes across. Just an endless negative ramble. It was too much, I was starting to feel badly about myself and decided it was the book, and that I needed to stop. I can't vouch for the rest of the book at all - and honestly, I don't care because I couldn't connect with any of the characters or the town. Such a huge disappointment.

1 stars for "I did not like it'

I’m a sucker for mysteries and any novel that is set in DC, so this was an easy yes for me instantly. This was a quick mystery and I really enjoyed the main character and many of the side characters.

When I started this I didn’t realize it was the second in the series, but the book reads fine as a stand alone book and I could still follow the plot perfectly. While I haven’t read the first book in this series I will definitely be getting it after reading this one.

The main character, Augusta, was well developed and I really enjoyed the humor in this novel. Normally I don’t love main characters that are authors but I think this one was done very well.

The mystery itself was the only place this book fell short for me. I just wasn’t in love with the mystery or the final reveal. I think I just personally look for more high tension mysteries and this was pretty relaxed and low tension. This would be a great book for someone starting to get into mystery novels but wanting something more low-key.

I listened to this on audio and loved the narrators voice and it was really easy to listen to on 3x speed and still follow along perfectly.Thank you to NetGalley, G.M. Malliet, and Dreamscape for an advanced copy in exchange for my honest review.