My thanks to Faber and Faber for an eARC via NetGalley of ‘The Other Half’ by Charlotte Vassell.

This debut novel proved to be a fascinating police procedural that highlighted class differences in British society.

Posh toff Rupert Beauchamp is holding his 30th birthday party after hours at McDonalds in Kentish Town. The dress code is black tie with cheeseburgers and chicken nuggets on the menu though served with the finest champagne. There’s strictly no photography and it’s BYOC (Bring Your Own Coke). How very droll!

The next morning the body of a young woman dressed in a ball gown is found on Hampstead Heath. Detective Inspector Caius Beauchamp (no relation) had actually found the body while out jogging and is later assigned to the increasingly complicated case along with his Detective Sergeant, Matthew Cheung.

It’s not long until a connection is found between Rupert and the murdered woman. There’s plenty of suspects among his privileged chums leaving Caius and Matthew to navigate their way through the obstacles presented when the upper class are implicated in a police investigation.

I will admit that it took a short while until I realised that this novel was going to be somewhat different to the usual style of whodunnit. I find that crime fiction and especially police procedurals tend to be quite serious even if there is some banter between police detectives.

In ‘The Other Half’ Charlotte Vassell has skilfully integrated social satire into the usual round of interviews and gathering of clues. In addition, the narrative contains many references to art and literature including the classics and mythology.

Overall, I found it an engaging blend of literary and crime fiction with just the right amount of dry humour and satire. Will DI Caius Beauchamp return for another case? I really hope so as he and Matthew were such a fantastic team. Still, following this impressive debut I am looking forward to her future projects whatever their premise.

Highly recommended.

Fabulous sharp writing with some bitingly scathing descriptions, Charlotte Vassell has a great gift for telling captivating and engrossing stories
A body in the undergrowth is that of upper class Clementine, an influencer and vlogger. The police investigation led by Caius Beauchamp reveals the world of London's wealthiest and best connected inhabitants, a lot of whom work in small publishing houses, antique houses, art galleries or are unspecified 'consultants' to other posh people. They all know each other so well, holiday together, party together, go in and of relationships with each other, and constantly compare themselves and their privileges against everyone else's, an exhausting and futile pastime. The police are convinced that she was murdered by Rupert, Clementine's longterm partner, its always the boyfriend.... but then more and more information comes to light, including the mysterious charity collection boxes for 'help for hippos' that have popped up all over the place,

'The Other Half' shines a sardonic light on how the other half live, lots of scathing descriptions of red trousered gentlemen or floral headgear designers - it was great fun to read, like the best sort of gossip!

The police investigators, Caius, Matt and Amy are a wonderful bunch of people, emotionally literate and happy to treat each other with kindness, supporting each other through personal issues and struggles, happy to talk about literature and emotions with one another. I would like to read more about them for sure. The only slightly annoying factor was referring to their boss as 'the pooh-bah', it grated on me slightly.

The Other Half was a joy to read - the twists and revelations were unexpected and handled brilliantly, the story was fast-paced, the characters were well defined and fantastic to read about. Even the nastiest characters were treated sympathetically. I will certainly look out for Charlotte's books in the future,

I could not put this book down I raced through it eager to find out who was the murderer, I thought I had worked out the culprit quite early on but it was someone else completely. It was really well written managing to be dark and at times laugh out loud funny. While most of the characters were truly awful rich entitled people I really loved the team of detectives and the natural way they interacted. I'm interested to learn more about their back stories and really hope that the author will write more books about Caius, Matt and Amy.
This was a fast paced really intelligent murder mystery, I found the tongue in cheek use of bookstagrammers and influencers to be really interesting. A very witty, sharp and compelling read that i would love to see adapted on screen.

How the other half live and die… a witty, clever whodunnit set amongst London’s glitterati. Who would want Phelgm, I mean Clem… dead?

This is a police procedural murder mystery but at the posh end of the scale rather than the gritty end which is the norm.
I enjoyed it and would like to read more investigations by Detective Caius Beauchamp

I loved the characters and seeing how people with money live their lives. It is always fascinating to see authors take on rich people.

I thought the twists where great and didn't expect the ending at all!

I read only halfway through this book and although it is supposed to be ironic I didn't find it at all enjoyable so I won't leave a review.

I really liked the premise of this book – a whodunnit combined with social satire. It’s witty and entertaining to a point. However, the characters felt a bit too much like caricatures and were so deeply unpleasant that it was hard to care about what happened to any of them. I would give it top marks for originality, and I’m sure many readers will love this plunge into the lives of the decadently rich and famous, but it just didn’t quite work for me.
With thanks to the publishers and Net Galley for an ARC in return for an honest review.

What a book , so many twists and turns , I never would have figured out this ending , every one was a suspect for me . What a fantastic book to write as a debut will be reading more from this author definitely

The Other Half by Charlotte Vassell is a fascinating story, which at times is totally irreverent and pokes fun at the other half of the population that has been bred to go to Oxford and will inherit the family stately home and fortune/ or not. They are the fortunate breed of the population that live their lives for themselves as a priority with a privilege lifestyle.
A young woman is found dead and is one of the in crowd, who at the time of her death are assembled at Kentish Town McDonalds’s for Rupert 30th birthday party. Rupert Beauchamp is in fact the dead woman’s boyfriend. Detective Caius Beauchamp and his team investigate Clemmie’s murder and become embroiled in murder, drugs and art theft.
An irreverent look at those who have it all and those who have to work hard because they do not have the family pedigree and privilege.
Highly recommended

This was a great read.

Very upper class with high society names I wasn’t sure if I was going to enjoy it or not but I was hooked from the start.
A great read

When a young woman is found dead in a London park, Detective Caius Beauchamp is tasked with investigating what happened to her. As he delves into the luxurious world of wealth that she came from, he soon finds that there are some people who would rather keep the truth hidden.

This is such a fascinating book!

I found myself racing through because it was completely unpredictable and entertaining.

Charlotte Vassell's writing is fantastic and the fact that it was so witty made it stand out. I think the humour provided an element of down-to-earth when compared to the extravagant lifestyles of the rich and wealthy.

I enjoyed that the story was told from both the perspective of Clemmie's friends and the police investigation, it provided a really absorbing pace. Every character had details that made them unique and interesting.

A highly enjoyable read that kept me hooked until the last page.

Thank you NetGalley and Faber and Faber for sending this book for review consideration. All opinions are my own.

To be totally honest, for the first 2 or 3 chapters of this book, I was sure it wasn't for me and that it was going to be a slog to read. But once the story truly began, I was gripped and read it in just a couple of days!

Full of easy to loathe characters, British Upper Class snobbery and a wonderfully written whodunnit plot. The author either loves her classical history or researched it beautifully and the same can be said for her descriptions of the upper classes. Highly recommended once you get into the story. I'll look forward to more books by Charlotte Vassell.

This book was provided to me for free by Netgalley in return for an honest review.

I have to say Charlotte Vassell has absolutely stunned me with her debut. So often a book gets hyped and I expect so much that it's always a let down but not this time. I read it in 2 sittings, struggling all the time to put it down when tiredness overtook me last night.

The story follows the lives of some real upper class twits with excellent names like Rupert and Minty and Hereward. Excellent eye rolling fodder at how the other half lives. However all is not that rosy in paradise as the body of a girl is found mutilated by, of all good fortune, the DI who then takes on the case.

We do a bit of back and forth to explain the relationships and the cryptic conversations but otherwise its a headlong hurtle to find out who the killer is and why there's a connection with the purple charity boxes that seem to be popping up everywhere that DI Caius Beauchamp goes during his investigation.

This is a fantastic debut novel. It's clever, not too confusing, not too many characters but packed with action and just twisty enough.

The bit that made me quaver between 4 and 5 was the depressingly low self-esteem displayed by pretty much all the young female characters involved with Rupert. I am sure that's why he preyed on them but it still made me grind my teeth and shout at the book.

Otherwise it's fantastic. Truly enjoyed 98% of it. I hope we get more from this novelist. So obviously I highly recommend it

I really enjoyed this book which is part murder mystery, part social satire, part social commentary. A young socialite slash influencer is found dead on Hampstead Heath by DI Caius Beauchamp while he's out on a break-up run. But who is she and who killed her?

I didn't actually work out who the killer was, although the clues were all there. Luckily, I am not a detective. There are some fabulous characters here, not all likeable, but still compelling. There are some very funny scenes and one-liners throughout but I won't spoil them for you.

I thought this was a very clever and funny book. Definitely recommend and will be looking out for more from this author.

A superb suspense read set in London investigating the death of a beautiful and young influencer, whose body is discovered one morning on Hampstead Heath. The victim was supposed to be at a birthday party the night before, but she didn’t turn up. Why?

This is a dual storyline following the perspectives of the detective investigating the murder, a mixed raced man called Caius, and Nell - a friend of the victim, who was at the birthday party.

Part satire, part investigative mystery this was an astutely observed thriller read exploring the privileged lives of the elite (or the other half). I adored the character of Caius and hope this is the start of an immersive, detective series.

I felt quite split about this book: on the one hand, I found a lot of the writing (and especially the dialogue) to be unrealistic and a bit jarring. But on the other, the plotting was up there with some of my favourite crime fiction and the book was cleverly paced, revealing just enough to entice me to keep reading despite my issues with the prose style. And the book deals with some big issues - of class, privilege, and race, to name just a few - in a smart way. So although at times I was sure this would be lucky to scrape 3 stars, I ended up having it down as a 4 star read on the basis of the smart plotting, and i’d definitely be interested to read a follow-up when the author has perhaps settled into their writing style more.

A pinch of Gossip girl, a spoon of Made in Chelsea with a sprinkle of Gatsby: a sarcastic and gripping look at the over privileged London youth shocked by the loss of one of their own.
When Aristocracy becomes autocracy, all bets are off and solving an unusual death quickly highlights a clash of classes and the absurdity of it. A thoroughly enjoyable whodunnit with a different perspective.

This is a tremendous debut! Charlotte Vassell has introduced us to a fascinating cop in the shape of Caius Beauchamp, and the setting for the story, a world of wealth and privilege, is beautifully portrayed. Caius is tasked with the solving of the death of Rupert's girlfriend on the day of the latter's thirtieth, and he is faced with a number of dead ends and blank walls. The writing matches the milieu, elegant and erudite. I loved it!

When I first started reading this book I wondered whether I would take to a book about privileged folk and their wealthy lifestyles. The first chapter about Rupert's birthday party did not grab me but once the detective Caius Beauchamp was introduced into the story my interest level rose.
I really liked this character and the rest of his team. The storyline was engaging and the book just flowed. I believe this is a debut novel but this writer has skills and knows how to weave a good story.