The Other Half By Charlotte Vassell

My rating: ****

Genre: Murder mystery

Tags: Drug use, Murder, Dysfunctional relationships, Romance

A birthday party being black-tie gives you a sense of a classy affaire, but the fact that Rupert Beauchamp is holding it at a McDonald’s gives a different twist. His girlfriend being found murdered the following morning brings this back to earth.

This is a murder mystery with a lot of references to the class system, and a cast of characters that are mostly unpleasant and I had no connection to, but you aren’t meant to!

Detective Caius Beauchamp (no relation to Rupert!) is the detective investigating the case, and so gets dragged a little into this world.

Reading a book where characters do a lot of sneering and belittling of each other is never pleasant, but as I mentioned, you’re not meant to like most of these characters. The cast of characters are all quite entangled, as they would be if you have a big group of friends for years. I hadn’t predicted the solution, so I enjoyed when that was revealed!

This is one of those books that I think if you know you’re only going to like a couple of the characters, then you worry on their behalf that they’re going to be guilty of something along the way, so that was a good way of ensuring I was gripped by the story!

I was given this book in exchange for an unbiased review, so my thanks to NetGalley, Faber and Faber, and Charlotte Vassell!

The kind of twisty, jet-fueled thriller that explodes on page one and has you happily abandoning work, sleep, and life as you race to the stunning end. Don't miss it!

I reread this novel and changed some things in my review:

A very entertaining, witty, and full of sharp observation. A solid mystery that satirise the upper class but also kept me guessing.
The author is a good storyteller, the solid plot kept me reading and hooked.
There's a sort of homage to the Bright Young Things of the Golden Age mysteries, there's lot of interesting observations about the haves and haves-not.
Caius is not part of the haves, is trying to become more sophisticated but doesn't know the codes of communication of the haves and they close ranks at the beginning of the investigations.
There's a lot of satire but it's part of the plot and it was both entertaining and thought provoking
I can't help to read the next story
Highly recommended.
Many thanks to the publisher for this arc, all opinions are mine

A good read overall but I didn’t really connect with it. There were a lot of characters so difficult to get invested perhaps?

I didn’t realise I needed a posh crime fiction, but here it was, and I loved it.

Rupert Beauchamp celebrated his 30th birthday at the Kentish Town McDonald’s, catered with cocaine and Veuve Clicquot. The day after, his girlfriend Clemmie was found dead on Hampstead Heath. Detective Caius Beauchamp (no relation to Rupert) dived into a world of aristocrats with Classics degrees and huge social media followings.

It took me a while to get into the story, but once I did, I was fully immersed. It started very posh, so it took me a minute to appreciate the sarcasms before realising that this book was funny! I really enjoyed the banters between Caius and his colleagues. The sense of humour managed to sneak on me, from the typical dry British one to snappy, sassy kind (archaeologists joke, anybody?) towards the end.

I didn’t expect to love this but to my own surprise, I did. And yes I’ll read the next book!

The Other Half was a slow to get going sort of book. Lots of characters were introduced quite quickly because of the party and I felt like I couldn’t keep up with who was who. This made me unsure who was relevant, who I needed to remember and I felt confused by it all.
At times it left me wondering if I could be bothered to keep reading!

As the story progressed (around half way through) the main characters became established and the story started to flow better, became easier to read. That’s when I felt things really got going, it meant that I wanted to keep reading, wanted to find out what was going to happen and I even struggled to put the book down.
A sudden surprise confession to the murder put a new spin on things, not all was what it seemed and there was going to be some twists, this made it more exciting and it went from, can I be bothered to read this to, I've got five minutes I can just squeeze another chapter in.
I certainly didn’t predict the outcome, In fact it left me pleasantly surprised.
Although, I’m left wondering about some of characters, what happened to Nell, Alex and Rupert and did Caius get back with Héloise? For me I think it just needed a few more questions answering before it finished.

Its taken me a while to write this review as I could not truly decide on what rating to give. The slow, character heavy start put me off and I wanted to give three stars but, it felt unfair as once it got going it became an enjoyable, unpredictable story, and that's why I've settled for four stars.
This debut novel has certainly put Charlotte Vassell on my radar and I will be keeping an eye out for more.


I would like to thank Charlotte Vassell, Faber and Faber Ltd and Netgalley for the opportunity to read and review this debut novel.

The Other Half is a fun and pacey debut from an exciting new author that has lots of plot twists while managing to shine a light on the English upper classes.

To start with I was hooked but then the story slowed and is started to feel very dragged out! Had good potential but didn’t quite hit the thrilling spot!

The other half is a satirical crime thriller about the murder of a socialite cum influencer who has ‘friends’ with the poshest names I have ever heard! Lots of double and triple barrels, titles and alternative pronunciations 😆

I really enjoyed this as it was rather tongue in cheek at various parts throughout - with a loveable DI at the centre - Caius Beauchamp - whose name would could some of those ‘hooray Henrys’ in the words of the author - a run for their money!

There’s a drug ring, dodgy art deals, auction houses, galleries, lots of talk of the Classics and travelling abroad - all topped off by a black tie event at McDonald’s!

This was a fun ride and one I suggest you should give a whirl!

This was a good and enjoyable read. It took a little while to get going but generally was a great thriller. Would recommend.

Unfortunately I couldn't get into this and stopped reading after the first few pages. I know the characters were being satirised but I just found them too irritating to want to spend time with them. I'm not sure I'm the target market for this as many others enjoyed it.
Thanks to Netgalley and the publishers for this review copy.

It takes a bit of getting going but once the story was on its way it was a great ride. I do love a fun thriller

This is a clever, smart crime novel. Focusing on the Hooray Henrys et al, it is both hilarious and mysterious at the same time. An interesting take on the murder mystery genre, the author manages to keep the suspense element while at the same time throwing some humour into the mix. With a cast of characters that are mostly beyond awful, it also provides the reader with food for thought regarding the influencer lifestyle that seems to be everywhere nowadays.
I felt that we were just beginning to get to know the detectives involved in this case and I hope that this is just the start of their careers. I think here we have the opportunity to see these officers in the future, much the same way as Detective Inspector Morse etc.
I found this story to be thoroughly entertaining and I look forward to the many more by this author.
Many thanks to #NetGalley for my advanced copy of this book. #TheOtherHalf For me this is a 4⭐️ book

I would have to give this book a 3.5 rating

This began off brilliantly, but then it felt like a standard crime novel. Well done in terms of the wealthy being untouchable and timely aspects relating to the "me too" movement, but it didn't really blow me away.
At times I wanted to DNF it, just because I couldn't get into the characters but I persevered.

A satire exposing the upper echelons of British society. The odious Rupert arranges a black tie party at a London McDonalds where the cocaine and alcohol flow freely and a despicable crowd of 'friends' hang out. When one of the number is found dead, they quickly close ranks and find alibis leaving the police team to have to follow the loose ends to unravel the truth. A great debut casting a crew of detestable characters. #theotherhalf #charlottevassell #thepigeonholehq #netgalley

General Thoughts 🤔

I was missing some thriller in my life and so I was drawn to pick this book up next. I enjoyed it a lot; the story was gripping and interesting, there were some awesome twists and turns the characters were brilliantly aggravating. I was expecting a little more “thriller” in the story than what I got, but I was ok with that as once I had started, I was hooked on the plot, and the characters even more so.

Characters 👫👭👬

The title of this book is absolutely perfect because the characters truly were the other half. Rupert is the perfect example of the kind of British person that I despise. Filthy rich, arrogant, entitled and narcissistic. He really did get under my skin straight from the beginning of the book but I enjoyed hating him. I’m pretty certain he was written that way purposely.

I still haven’t been able to nail down how I felt about Nell. At first I liked her as she felt like a normal girl who had got wrapped up in the insane world of London’s elite but completely recognised how crazy it was. I started to lose a bit of respect for her because of her affiliation with Rupert. I thought that she had cut all ties with him, but it turned it out that it was far more complicated than that and I didn’t agree with all of her decisions.

Writing Style ✍️

I enjoyed the tone of this author’s writing and if I hadn’t known beforehand, I would never have thought that this was her debut. The concept of the book was extremely clever and I liked the mix of satire and crime thriller. I was especially impressed with the way that subject matters like racism, classism and misogyny were all tangled within the story.

Conclusion & Scoring 🎖

This was a really enjoyable crime thriller and a great debut from this author. Think of everything that is disgusting, irritating and sickening about how the other half live in the UK and it’s thrown into this story and its characters. The other half really do think that they can get away with anything and why wouldn’t they when the establishment supports it. The satire, mixed with the twists and turns of a thriller made for great reading and I look forward to reading whatever comes next from Charlotte Vassell.

This gave me modern day Agatha Christie vibes, but I found it a little slow - not quite for me but can see that others would enjoy!

An engaging detective has to delve into the very different world of the rich and entitled in order to find the murderer of a beautiful, young influencer.

The night before
Rupert's 30th is a black tie dinner at the Kentish Town McDonald's - catered with cocaine and Veuve Clicquot.
The morning after
His girlfriend Clemmie is found murdered on Hampstead Heath. All the party-goers have alibis. Naturally.
This investigation is going to be about Classics degrees and aristocrats, Instagram influencers and who knows who. Or is it whom? Detective Caius Beauchamp isn't sure. He's sharply dressed, smart, and as into self-improvement as Clemmie - but as he searches for the dark truth beneath the luxury, a wall of staggering wealth threatens to shut down his investigation before it's begun.
Can he see through the tangled set of relationships in which the other half live, and die, before the case is taken out of his hand?

This is a brilliant read.
Wonderful well written plot and story line that had me engaged from the start.
Love the well fleshed out characters and found them believable.
Great suspense and found myself second guessing every thought I had continuously.
Can't wait to read what the author brings out next.
Recommend reading.

I was provided an ARC from NetGalley and the publisher. This is my own honest voluntary review.

The Other Half is an interesting and exciting murder mystery. The characters are quirky and unique. It was a refreshing take on a thriller by focusing on the upper class and Instagram generation. Quick and simple chapters making this an easy and accessible read. This one will keep you guessing until the end.