This book was great, the characters were well developed. The plot was interesting. Highly recommend it.

Thank you to Random House - Ballantine and NetGalley for this ARC in exchange for an honest review!

All Dressed Up by Jilly Gagnon is a love letter to the great mysteries of the past like And Then There Were None or Clue. The story revolves around Becca and her husband Blake, who has arranged for a weekend getaway at a manor with a murder mystery theme. Becca and Blake are given roles to play and cue cards for what they have to do. But when someone goes missing, the murder game becomes more real than Becca expected. Now, she'll have to find the real clues in order to sort out the murderer.

Here is a chilling excerpt from the Prologue:

"She squinted against the darkness.
“Hello?” Her voice seemed to disappear up the gaping maw of the hearth. She bit her lower lip, taking a tentative step forward. “Are you here?”
From the shadows beyond, a voice emerged, low and rough.
“I wasn’t sure you’d come.” The girl went still as the speaker stepped out from the shadows. “But I’m glad you did. It’s time you and I had a talk.”
“Does this mean . . .”
“Oh, yeah. She knows.”"

Overall, All Dressed Up is a murder mystery that will appeal to fans of Clue or Knives Out. One highlight of this book is the fun premise. As someone who has participated in role-play mystery games before, I found the premise to be really interesting. Another highlight of the book is Becca, who is a strong female protagonist. She's not afraid to defend herself and argue with Blake when he is wrong. It's also great how she loves historical TV shows like Downton Abbey, but isn't afraid to break decorum when the situation demands it. If you're intrigued by the excerpt above, or if you're a fan of murder mysteries in general, I highly recommend that you check out this book when it comes out in September!

A real murder happening during a “Clue” like murder mystery party weekend is an interesting premise. Unfortunately, the characters distract from the overall solid mystery. In the first half of the book I was too preoccupied trying to keep up with who’s who to stay as engaged in the mystery as I would have liked. All of the weekend participants and staff had a real name and a game ‘character’ name which made it hard to keep track. My biggest issue was with the main character. She was annoying and unlikeable for the entire story. She is constantly wrapped up in inner dialogue about how insecure she is and agonizing over her failing marriage. The personal ending for the main characters was frustrating and oversimplified. The main character somehow rationalizes her husband’s affair as at least partially her fault and her solution is “well maybe we should just be swingers”. Felt very disingenuous and shallow.

This should have been very up my alley -- a closed room murder mystery party gone wrong? But it got bogged down in the particulars of sorting out the "extra" mystery, didn't feel like it provided enough details for the reader to work through the fake mystery for it to feel engaging enough for the amount of page time and level of detail provided, and ultimately ended up kind of dragging. I also don't know if I bought some of the personal resolution for the characters.

Thanks Netgalley for allowing me to read this book. Becca agrees to spend the weekend at a gorgeous hotel during a murder mystery with her husband. Becca is mad at her husband and is not sure if she can forgive him. I enjoyed the different characters in this book.

I was given a free copy for an honest review and I actually agonized over how to assign a rating to “All Dressed Up”.
As I read the first 70% I was always very confused about who all the characters were. Players? Couples? Staff? Just way too many people to get to know very quickly right off the bat. And this is a mystery so getting to know each one is important. Plus each of the 4 couples had real names and then their assigned game stage names so I could never keep them straight. If, in the beginning and through the first 25% of the book, the author had called them by their last name “the Smiths” it would have been much easier to recognize them and then to seperate them from the help who also had two different names. All in all, there were just way too many names that really never entered into the meat of the story.
Then, there were even some slow moving extraneous scenes that in the end meant very little to the story yet was very distracting. I thought it dragged in parts.
To be fair, I hardly ever read mystery novels so maybe misdirection in general is part of the genre. As I was reading I began to think that the story would be much better as a movie so that you could see and identify each actor. I had figured to give this book 2 stars and even thought of actually quitting it, but I did keep going. And I’m glad I did because the ending was so very well written that it could definitely be a very nearly 5 star book. I felt the finale was certainly where the author’s talent really shined.
Nevertheless, in the end I give it only 3 stars for all the unnecessary ambiguities I had to push through. If the author would like to reach a large audience the book really deserves a cursory rewrite to make it more coherent and easier to read.

I received this book as a publisher preview via NetGalley. The premise of a murder mystery weekend in a hotel with an interesting assembly of guests is intriguing. There were moments that I was totally absorbed in the whodunit but the story got all convoluted at times. The addition of a potential murder of a hotel employee was a good twist to the plot. The main character, Becca, was quite relatable.

Where to begin. Blake Wilson decides to take his wife Becca to a Murder Mystery weekend to compensate for the fact that he has been cheating on her for six months. Becca, unaware of the scenario for the weekend, stumbles on the body of a maid and freaks out. This is only the beginning of her nervous breakdown. She constantly runs an inner dialogue about how dull she is and how no one could possibly love her and that's why her husband cheated on her. Yikes why give him the upper hand. Then she is semi propositioned by the woman from another couple for a swingers encounter. This was way over the top. Did not enjoy it at all. Hope there are no others in the series.

In this clever little novel, Becca is swept away to a remote hotel for a Gatsby-style murder mystery weekend. She might be enjoying it more if her husband hadn’t just betrayed her. There is a mystery afoot at the mansion and then things go awry. Is it part of the theatrical plot or is there more going on than meets the eye?

I was all in on this book in the first half. It drug along a bit in the back portion, but had a satisfying resolution. There were definitely times where it felt a bit like Clue, which I loved and wanted more of that vibe. Highly recommend that you read a print or ebook copy of this book versus the audiobook. The story has breaks in the narrative where you are presented scripts for the characters and I think that would be jarring in audio. Otherwise, a fun little mystery.

This was a great mystery that got tied up a little too much in the protagonist’s personal drama. The story centers on Becca, who attends a murder mystery themed weekend at a remote resort with her husband and 3 other couples. While there, one of the actors disappears and Becca suspects there is something more sinister going on than the fake murder story.

Firstly, the mystery was sound. There were many believable red herrings with both the real and fake murders and I found myself regularly changing my mind about who was guilty. The book described the murder mystery well and absolutely made me want to go find one of these to do myself.

The problem for me was Becca herself, who spent an inordinate amount of time whining about her husband’s affair and reminding us that she was not a jealous person while continually acting super jealous about every little thing. I didn’t warm to her even a little bit throughout the entire book. There were also some loose ends that didn’t get resolved; I prefer a cleaner ending.

Overall, I enjoyed the book and the subject matter but didn’t enjoy the ending or the characterization. Thanks to Netgalley for providing me a copy of this book in exchange for an honest review.

I really wanted to like this book more than I did. I love locked room mysteries and the plot of this one, a murder mystery weekend at an inn sounded like it would be right up my alley.

The way the book is set up made it a little confusing. There are 4 couples and we're not really told that much about them. None of the characters were very remarkable or memorable. Becca and Blake, a married couple dealing with Blake's cheating were particularly unlikeable. Becca was shrill and clearly should have just moved on.

I did enjoy trying to figure out the whodunit. I am giving this 3 stars because of the plot and the setting but I'd take off a half star because it didn't flow very well and I didn't like the characters.

I received an ARC of All Dressed Up from Netgalley and I am leaving this review on my own.

All Dressed Up” by Jilly Gagnon ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️ Psychological Mystery. Location: Large manor house/hotel in the Catskills countryside of New York State, USA. Time: One weekend in the present.

Becca & Blake’s marriage is in trouble after he cheats. They head to a Great Gatsby-themed Mystery Weekend to get away and heal a little. Becca feels betrayed and hurt over Blake’s affair. When she embarrasses herself in front of other guests because Blake didn’t tell her all the weekend rules, she feels betrayed and hurt all over again. And angry-always angry. Can she let things go, or will her anger/anxiety grow? She can’t trust Blake, herself, what she sees, feels, wants.

Becca vacillates between worry over a suddenly missing staff member, concern that some weekend participants are actually dangerous, the tangled game clues, and worry that her anger and hurt are causing her to spin out of control. She has a hard time figuring out what’s part of the game and what could be a real crime. She suspects various individuals, leading to scary encounters for her and some red herrings for us. After all, Becca has a lot of subject matter to process-and we have a lot of subjects and descriptions full of metaphors and similes to read. (Old scary manor houses do fit well with metaphors and similes.)

Book chapters are divided by the Murder Mystery Weekend agenda, rules, weekend identity descriptions, etc. Murder Mystery participants get a map to follow, but we don’t have one and that’s a shame. It’s a bit hard to follow the action around this multi-storied hotel.

This book has the feel of a modern Agatha Christie. I consider myself a big AC fan, and I still didn’t guess the ending. Several times I thought I figured it out, but each time I was wrong. It’s a good sign when a book keeps you guessing! I used to think it would be fun to immerse myself in a Murder Mystery Weekend-now I’m not so sure I could handle the tension. But I was definitely immersed in this book, so it’s 4 stars from me! 🌵📚🤷🏼‍♀️”

This book publishes on September 6, 2022. Thank you to to NetGalley, Ballantine Books, and Yewon Son, Marketing Assistant for Random House for the gift of this unique ARC.

Thank you Netgalley for this ARC of All Dressed Up by Jilly Gagnon.

Becca and her husband, Blake go for what is supposed to be a fun, murder mystery weekend getaway with a glamorous 1920's setting. Soon after arriving instead of trying to solve a murder that is part of a game, they are racing to solve a real life murder.

This story was so original and intriguing to me that I couldn't wait to dive in. Unfortunately as the pages were turning my excitement slowly dwindled. It took a while for me to grasp who was who as each character had two names. I still loved the murder mystery in this but I felt it took the back burner too many times due to Becca reminding the reader every chapter of her husband's infidelity. I understand in real life that if something like that happens, that yes, the wife will think about it every second of every day no matter her surroundings, but when being told in a book I believe it could be told in a better way. Overall, the premise was original and the mystery I couldn't guess. I just wish the author gave the mystery a little more attention than the unfaithful marriage.

Great idea and it grabbed me initially. It was very repetitive and this killed it for me. Every chapter we are reminded that Blake cheated, again. Only finished so I could see if my guess for the murderer was correct.

What a fun premise in a twisty book.

A couple having issues plans a fun mystery weekend that soon devolves into a real murder mystery.

From the fun twenties touches to the wonderful red herrings, this is a book all mystery lovers will enjoy.

I had never read one of Gagnon's books, but I will be trying others.

A 1920's mystery murder game set in an historical hotel with hotel guests as the players is a unique setting for Jolly Gagnon in All Dressed Up. What fun it was to read and exciting when the real murder suspicions were blended in with the game's murder. Lots of double-identities and facts to remember throughout. Loved it.

A solid whodunit set in an isolated hotel in the present day. Becca is expecting a fun 20s-themed weekend and an opportunity to reconnect with her husband Blake after recent tensions in their marriage. However, no one participating – whether staff member or paying guest – is quite what they seem. And when one of the players goes missing, Becca takes it upon herself to try to figure out whether it’s just a coincidence or something more sinister.
The setting is fun, and Becca and Blake are well-developed characters. I had a hard time keeping the other characters and their alter egos in the game straight; it would have helped me to have a “cast list” with all the names listed. I also wished the reader had gotten all the clues to the 1920s game so that you could try to solve that puzzle yourself as well. But after a slow start, it built to a satisfying conclusion.

I was a not a fan of this one. I think this would be a better read for another person. I would not recommend this title to those that I know.

A cute idea for a book but I could not get into the characters at all. They were basic wallpaper and tropes that I’m very bored of, a real outline of a book that never felt close to reality.

I loved the idea for this book. The couple goes away to a murder mystery weekend where a real murder happens. I had really high hopes for this book. It was a bit too slow in parts especially when she was talking about her past. I enjoyed the mystery part of the book.

Thank you, NetGalley and Random House publishing - Ballantine for a digital copy of this book for my honest review.