A Death at the Party begins with Nadine Walsh standing over the dead body of a guest in her basement, at her mother's 60th birthday bash. Rewind to earlier that day, and we follow Nadine throughout her hectic day, preparing for the party. This day doesn't only mark the birthday of Marilyn Millay, famous author and Nadine's mother, but also another important anniversary, which seems to consume Nadine's thoughts. The anxiety she's experienced since recovering from a broken hip months before only seems to add to Nadine's stress.

I spent most of the novel getting to know some very interesting characters and trying to figure out which one ends up dead in Nadine's basement and why. A very intriguing thriller that certainly kept my attention! This novel has a lot of complex layers to it. Definitely worth the read for any thriller lover! It reminded me a little of The Push by Ashley Audrain; one of my favourites.

Thank you to Simon & Schuster Canada and NetGalley for this ARC!

THIS BOOK!!!!!!!!!!! I could not put this down. I am not sure what I was expecting but it wasn't this.

From the moment I picked up the book I could not put it down. The book starts with the murder already happening. Then goes back in time to tell the story up to the murder happening.

The book tells many stories all in Nadine's POV. You learn about her famous author mother, her aunt who died when she was young and also about her daughters best friend. All these stories intertwine for a perfect ending.

I am giving this book 5 stars and I highly recommend this to anybody who enjoys domestic suspense!

3.5 Stars. I sincerely thank NetGalley and the publisher for this ARC by Amy Stuart. I was delighted to be introduced to this Canadian mystery writer who was previously unknown to me. I had seen the book 'Death at the Party' listed on a Canadian news site as one of the most anticipated upcoming books by a Canadian writer. I now plan to read her previous mysteries.

The writing style flowed smoothly with a tightly-paced plot. The tension and suspense were primarily generated through the narrator's emotions and reminiscences. The story is told in the first person during a single day ending with a huge dinner party. The narrator is Nadine Walsh, who is preparing an elaborate garden party for her mother's 60th birthday. Her mother is a famous, renowned author, Marilyn Malloy.

Thirty years ago, at her last birthday party, a tragedy occurred. Her mother's sister, who was Nadine's beloved 15-year-old aunt, was discovered dead in their barn. The death still disturbs Nadine. There are over a hundred people invited to celebrate her mother's birthday. As Nadine prepares and runs errands on the day of the party, she is distracted. Memories of secrets, infidelities, and suspicions are swirling around her mind. She is concerned about what may happen when her guests all get together.

During the day, she encounters many of her neighbours, colleagues and friends of her husband, Paul, and people who attended the party thirty years before. The author has developed the supporting characters with complex personalities. We learn about them only through Nadine's impressions, so knowing who should be trusted is difficult. She dislikes and expresses a wave of inner anger toward many. She is unpleasant, highly strung, anxiety-ridden, judgemental and self-righteous. I found connecting or engaging with her behaviour and stream of consciousness very difficult. She is an overprotective mother to two teenagers, Isabel, aged 17 and Damien, aged 15. They can be disrespectful and rude and also have secrets. She claims to love her husband, but those feelings are unclear.

The story begins with Nadine standing over a dead body in the basement bathroom while the party is in full swing upstairs. We know the victim is a male but do not know how or why they died. Then the story takes us back by retracing the day and Nadine's encounters with the partygoers. The solution of why the person died, their identity, and the reason are revealed at the end. Recommended for those who enjoy a solid character-based mystery and family drama. The publication date is March 7th.

Special thanks to NetGalley and the author for a free, electronic ARC of this novel received in exchange for an honest review.

Expected publication date: March 7, 2023

This book was a great, quick read. I was first interested because the authour is Canadian. I was hooked from the first chapter and flew through this book. The excitement from everything going on in the book paired with the easy to read style made it a great read. I could literally feel the main characters anxiety seeping through the book into my head. The characters were so well developed and the storyline flowed and tied up nicely in the end.

The novel begins with a dead body then rewinds to show us the day leading up to the death. Nadine's character is well-developed and her anxiety is perfectly portrayed. The ending is perfection! This is Stuart's best novel yet!

A Death at the Party is a clever and riveting suburban suspense novel.

Can I just say how excited I was to read this book! Firstly, because it is written by a Canadian author and secondly, there has been plenty of buzz on social media (and the Costco magazine) about this book. All the hype and my excitement were utterly justified; this book is so good. A Death at the Party is one of those books you just completely sink into and can read in one sitting. You get so absorbed in the story and its characters that you want to turn the page because you want to know what will happen next. This is a slower-paced suspense story. There is only a little action going on. Instead, you get this twisty “whodunit” mystery with plenty of interesting characters. I really enjoyed how this story was laid out. We start off with murder and spend the rest of the book trying to figure out who the victim is and why Nadine killed him. The whole story takes place over a day, with some flashbacks from Nadine’s childhood that are woven throughout the plot. It was a lot of fun trying to guess who the victim was. It’s not something I get to do too often in mystery books. I thought it was a clever way to write a book.

Amy’s characters are so well thought out and have lots of depth. As the story progresses, you quickly realize that everyone is hiding something. They all seem to have these dark secrets, and it really keeps you guessing. I loved that feeling of slowly peeling back these layers and getting to learn more about these characters. Nadine surprised me. I thought I had her character peg within the first few chapters of this book, but I was wrong. I found myself liking her more and more as the story progressed. She is smart and fierce and protects her family with everything she has.

A Death at the Party is a smart and addictive suspense novel and a must-have for any mystery book fan.

Thank you, Simon and Schuster Canada, for the ARC in exchange for an honest review.

The very first paragraph of the book tells the reader that we are dealing with a dead person. The death happens at a party. Then it skips back to the morning of the party, with our main character, Nadine.

The whole course of the book takes place on the day of the party. Everything is viewed from Nadine's perspective. There are constant flashbacks to incidents that will presumably lead up to The Death. There are candidates for the victim-to-be tossed in to pique the reader's interest. Lots of possible victims.

There's also an uncomfortable undertone, right from the beginning. It's hard for the reader to tell where that is heading. I wasn’t sure if it was to do with the death or something else completely different. There seems to be a lot more going on than what we are reading about. Of course, every good book has secrets…….and it takes some time to discover what this one is.

The day of the party turns out to be a day of stress for Nadine. But, because of the undertones and The Secret(s) the reader is kept in dark about the cause of this stress for quite some time. At the halfway point, I had no idea where this was going.

And, then, it all comes together. Wasn't that a party?

Thank you to NetGalley and the publisher for the Advance Readers Copy.

This isn’t my usual genre, but one that I don’t mind dipping into every now and again. The protagonist is kind of unbearable, but the breadcrumbs are leading me down the path at an increasing pace. It’s perfectly intriguing and I am so invested in how it’s going to play out. What’s really intriguing is that we know there’s a death - it’s in the title! and it’s the focal point of the first chapter! - but due to several troubling threads woven throughout the story, we don’t know whose death it is until closer to the end. This is not a whodunit, but more like a whoitdunto. Unique!

"A Death at the Party" takes place over a single day. It starts off with a bang and does not let up until the end of the book. The book is fast-paced, with twists and turns that kept me guessing. I will definitely be seeking out other books from this author.

Thank you to NetGalley and the publisher for this ARC in exchange for an honest review.

An entertaining thriller that was a fast read, but it wasn’t quite for me! I found the characters unlikeable and the story a bit predictable. The ending felt abrupt, and I wish we had gotten a little bit more closure.

I did really enjoy opening up the story knowing who the murderer was, but not the victim. It was an intriguing mystery, but I wish it had a bit more originality in its execution and conclusion.

I think fans of The Guest List by Lucy Foley will like this one as well.

Thank you to Simon & Schuster Canada, NetGalley, and Amy Stuart for this advanced electronic copy in exchange for an honest review.

I will be completely honest, what drew me to this book was the stunning cover and the title. I knew next to nothing about the story.
I could not put this one down! Full of dark and twisty turns, it kept me at the edge of my seat and wondering what was really going on.
I loved the dual timeline and the way you could feel the anxiety Nadine was spiralling into. I don't generally love unreliable characters but these were written so well that I was just absolutely captivated!
I cannot wait to read Amy Stuart's backlist now!

Thank you to NetGalley and Simon & Schuster Canada for the ARC eBook in exchange for my honest review.

Thank you to Netgalley, Simon & Schuster and Amy Stuart for the opportunity to read an ARC of A Death at the Party. I have ready Amy Stuart's "Still Mine" series and really enjoy her writing style. This book was definitely a departure from that type of mystery novel. The entire book goes over the events that happen on one day...the day of the party of course. I would have thought it would be a challenge to have the entire book's events take place in a single day, but the author pulled it off. The story is a well-written mystery but not of the usual sort or not your "typical" murder mystery. There is a mystery, there is a dead body or two, but the real mystery is something that occurred years before. The party is a birthday celebration for the main characters famous writer mother. This book was what I call a "slow burn". This definitely would be in part due to the book spanning the events of a single day, but you don't feel like there was a lot of "filler" content. Although there were some events/settings that seemed drawn out, it didn't take away from the overall effect of the book and the mystery itself. I thought I knew the answers, but by the end I was proven wrong. I would recommend this book to anyone that enjoys a mystery that takes the reader along on slow ride to the final answers. Well written as per usual Amy Stuart style. Overall I enjoyed it and it held my interest throughout.

A Death at the Party will keep you guessing to the very last page as to who's body is it in the basement.

Twists and turns keeps the pages turning quickly as the tension mounts.

Secrets that have been kept have a way of surfacing and a party is the ideal place for that to happen.

Nadine is hosting a 60th birthday party for her famous mom who is an author.

The guest list is huge.

What could go wrong?

Highly recommend you pick up your copy of A Death at the Party and find out.

I did not see that ending coming.

Thanks to NetGalley and Simon & Schuster Canada, Simon & Schuster for a fast paced read.

My first Amy Stuart novel and it did not disappoint!

A Death at the Party is told in a 24hrs period, which is unlike anything I've ever read before, and I absolutely loved it!
A Death at the Party, is suspenseful, full of twists, turns and secrets that I never seen coming.
I completely enjoyed this novel, a perfect palette cleanser.

*ARC PROVIDED FROM NETGELLY IN EXCHANGE FOR A HONEST REVIEW*

This is a quick paced thriller that will keep you guessing till the end ! I didn't see the ending coming.

Nadine's garden party for her famous author mother is in full swing and there is a dead body in the basement. How did he get there? What happened?

This little family drama is quite good and I found myself turning the pages as quick as I could to find out who the dead man was and why he was dead.

At under 300 pages this book is an easy read that will suck you in! Go read this today!

Thank you to netgalley and Simon and Schuster for this ARC

Nadine is preparing a party for her mother's 60th birthday. But this day is also the 30th death anniversary of her aunt, Colleen, who died during a party like this one. Will someone else die today?
I skimmed most of this. It started off strong, but it quickly became boring. This was not a thriller, the burn was too slow and the pacing is weak. The premise of the story was great, but it fell really flat. I did not relate to the main character, who basically runs errands to prepare for the party for the entire first half of the book... There was a murder in the prologue, and then we go back to know what lead up to it. This was not for me.
I received an advance review copy for free and I am leaving this review voluntarily.

A Death at the Party is an engrossing domestic neighbourhood suspense set over a single day.

It opens with Nadine finding a body in her basement while a snazzy garden party is going on upstairs.

Rewind to that morning, and Nadine is making last-minute preparations with her close friends and family for her mother’s birthday celebration. Throughout the day, Nadine reflects on events that happened thirty years earlier. As the day unfurls, so too do everyone’s secrets.

This story is a cross between a domestic and neighbourhood thriller, which makes it all the more compelling. There’s the family component plus the small-world feel from everyone on the block knowing everyone else’s business.

The chapters are short, making this a quick one to get through. And there were some great twists along the way. The identity of the body doesn’t get revealed until the end, which kept me guessing. There are many moving parts, and the author neatly stitches them together.

I would recommend this if you enjoy carefully plotted domestic neighbourhood suspense novels. I would not classify this as a thriller.

Thank you to Simon & Schuster Canada for providing an arc via Netgalley in exchange for an honest review.

https://booksandwheels.com

This is the kind of quick-read thriller that is good if you’re looking to be entertained and not necessarily shocked or amazed. It was super effortless to read and kept me on my toes and intrigued the whole time. The main character started off super unlikeable but she got a little more bearable throughout the book and it didn’t take away from my enjoyment of the story. There were quite a few typos but it was an ARC so hopefully a lot of them were fixed for the final published copy. I didn’t love the abrupt ending but overall I was pretty satisfied with the conclusion.

Thank you to Netgalley, Simon & Schuster Canada and Amy Stuart for this ARC ebook in exchange for an honest review. A Death At The Party will be published on March 7, 2023.

Nadine Walsh is married to Paul and they have two children - Isobel, 17, and Damien, 15. Nadine's throwing a big party for her mother's 60th birthday; her mother being a well-known author. We know from the start that there's a dead body in the basement but you have to keep reading to learn who it is and why.

The story is told from Nadine's point of view and we learn a lot about her and her family from her thoughts and reminiscences. She's a woman of many secrets and seems to be pretty tightly wound. I enjoyed this book even though it was fairly slow moving. The whole thing takes place during one day, the day of the party, and I was exhausted for Nadine by the end. The characters are interesting and well drawn and there are a few plot lines to follow. Although the ending is rather abrupt, I think it's appropriate and I feel satisfied.

Many thanks to Simon & Schuster Canada via Netgalley for the opportunity to read a digital ARC of this novel. All opinions expressed are my own.
Publication Date: March 7, 2023

I really enjoyed this book. I couldn’t stop reading it because I needed to know what happened.

And I wasn’t disappointed.

I thought it was so well-done, and a great read. A perfect mix of fiction and mystery.

An ARC was provided by Simon & Schuster Canada and NetGalley in exchange for an honest review.