My rating system:
1*: DNF or hate finished. Bad writing, bad plot, bad characters.
2*: Only finished because I already spent time on it. Story is interesting enough but major issues with plot, characters, or writing style.
3*: Enjoyed the book but nothing really stuck out.
4*: Thoroughly enjoyed the story, characters, and writing. Some critiques but nothing major.
5*: Will read again. LOVED THIS BOOK.

I'll almost always stop for an Agatha Christie retelling and this definitely caught my eye when browsing Net Galley.

Seven strangers gather at a mysterious location for a swanky dinner party. None of them know why they're at the party or the identity of their host. At the end of the meal, envelopes appear at each of their plates listing the age at which they will die. When the first guest passes at the age on the envelope. the guests gather together over the course of years to attempt to discover why they were chosen and if their fates will come true.

All of the main characters in this book were so very hateable. I did not like a single one of them, which was probably the point. One of our characters, however, has the most lovely development arc throughout the story and that is what kept me reading. Watching a person change their life for the better and discover themself was really refreshing and my favorite part of the story.

There were some timeline jumps in the book that were hard to follow. We didn't get any indication that the time in which the narrator was speaking had changed so I had to do some jumping back and forth to figure out what were memories and what was happening in real time. Additionally, I think it was difficult to tell who the narrator was at any given time because the character's voices and perspectives did not feel very unique. I usually love jumping between characters in a narrative to get different views on the story. However, the characters fell flat in this respect; I feel like I should be able to tell who is narrating given the characters unique personality. Each character felt like they were written in the exact same way so distinguishing between voices here was difficult.

I did see the twist coming from a mile away. So, while predictable, I think one character's arc really brought the story home for me. Three stars, probably will not reread, but enjoyed the ride!

Thank you to NetGalley and SourceBooks for the digital ARC.

Thank you NetGalley and Sourcebooks Publishing for this advanced copy for review consideration. All opinions expressed below are my own.

Seven Reasons to Murder Your Dinner Guests is an enjoyable, easy read with a compelling premise. Seven strangers are invited to a mysterious dinner party, where each receives a black envelope containing the age at which they will supposedly die. Initially, the group laughs it off as a marketing stunt—until two guests die in freak accidents within months, leaving the rest to wonder if the envelopes were more than just a joke.

The book’s greatest strength lies in how KJ Whittle structures the narrative. After each funeral, the point of view shifts, giving readers a deeper look into each character’s mental state and how the deaths are reshaping their outlook on life. I found myself feeling genuine empathy for the characters as they grappled with their flaws and fears.

While I did guess the twist about halfway through, I still appreciated how it played out thanks to the solid character development. Even though the book contains elements of mystery and intrigue, I found it to be a relatively low-stress read. The tension wasn’t particularly high, but that worked in its favor for me. This is the kind of novel I’d recommend as a solid beach or vacation pick—engaging and easy to get into, but not so gripping that you feel compelled to finish it in one sitting.

Here is the setup: Seven seemingly unconnected guests show up to a mysterious dinner, and nobody knows who the host is. As the evening comes to an end, a mysterious card appears before each guest. Shock ensues when the cards are opened, and on them the age at which they will die at is printed. Chalking it up to no more than a silly PR stunt, the guests depart hoping to put the night behind them. Two weeks later, the first guest is dead at the age on their card. At first they chalk it up to an strange accident, but soon the guests are fighting against time to figure out the mystery before their card comes up.

This book has a point a view for each character of the seven characters. At first they are all unlikable, but as the story progresses and you see into their lives, they become easy to root for. This was such a fun, fast paced read that kept me up late to finish it because I just couldn't put it down. Finding clues from the different POVs that connected all the characters was just as fun as trying to solve the mystery. I will say I did figure out one of the big plot twist rather early, but it didnt stop me from wanting to continue because I wanted to keep reading to solve the rest. Overall this was a 4.5 ⭐ book. Thank you NetGalley, the publisher Sourcebooks Landmark and the author KJ Whittle for this eARC

Seven Reasons to Murder Your Dinner Guests is a chilling debut by K.J. Whittle that reads like a modern Agatha Christie twist. Seven strangers are invited to a secluded London restaurant for a dinner party they never signed up for. Each place setting features a cartoon animal—and a black envelope revealing the date of their death. At first, it’s dismissed as a cruel prank… until the first guest dies.

As the body count rises, the survivors spiral—some investigating, others living recklessly. Told through shifting POVs, the novel teases out backstories and cryptic connections, keeping you guessing until the final, unsettling twist. Clever, creepy, and compulsively readable.

This fun quirky novel was a delight. Seven people who are seemingly unknown to each other receive a mysterious invitation. They gather to find a building that is empty except for room with a roaring fire with an elaborately set dinner table. As the seven guests make their way through a sumptuous feast we begin to learn more about them. We meet a nerdy computer geek, the influencer, the scientist. and so on as we make our way around the table. They seem to be a very disparate group with little in common until the end of the meal as they each are given an envelope. Once opened, the guest is told how old they will be when they die. The party quickly becomes chaotic as the horrified guests begin to wonder what they have become involved in. They agree to exchange contact information and hurriedly depart as next the story unfolds we learn one guest soon dies fulfilling the information on the card. Have they been targeted or is this some type of self-fulfilling prophecy. I do not want to give any more spoilers but this is a clever novel filled with delightful twists and surprise endings and well-developed characters.

Always a big fan of mystery novels to read and Seven Reasons to Murder Your Dinner Guests did not disappoint. A fast pace who done it novel with multiple perspectives from various characters. Recommend for all readers, and anyone who enjoys a good murder mystery.

While I was able to guess “whodunnit”, this so much fun to read. I loved seeing all of the different POV’s and timelines. And how well it connected at the very end.
I can see this be popular with bookclubs 🕵🏻‍♀️
Out September 9th, 2025

✨multiple POV
✨murder mystery/whodunnit

Three courses. Seven guests. One card. It’s a deadly evening they’ll never forget. Seven strangers meet for an anonymously hosted dinner party. As the evening winds down, seven cards appear, one in front of each of the guests. On each card is a number - the age at which the guest will die. Spooked but skeptical, the guests disperse into the rainy night with the hope of forgetting the morbid turn of events. Two weeks later, one guest is dead. At exactly the age the card predicted. More guests begin to die as the years go on, each one dead at the same age as their card. It soon becomes clear that something much more sinister is abound. Now, it’s up to the quickly dwindling group of dinner guests to figure out who (or what) was behind that fateful dinner party all those years ago, before their numbers catch up with them too.
✨✨✨
Thank you, NetGalley for the advanced copy.


Goodreads: Brenda (Jadore_2read)

This book was such a fun kind of creepy. It starts off with this eerie, Agatha Christie-style dinner party where seven strangers get handed mysterious cards predicting the age they’ll die. Everyone shrugs it off—until one of them dies exactly as the card said. Then another. And suddenly, it’s not so easy to laugh it off.

I loved the way it’s told from each guest’s perspective. You get to peek into their lives, their secrets, their paranoia—some are trying to outrun fate, others are just spiraling. It keeps things feeling fresh and fast-paced, and you’re constantly guessing who might be behind it all (or if something more supernatural is going on).

There are definitely some dark and twisty moments, but it never feels too heavy—it’s more suspenseful than scary. Kind of like a murder mystery dinner party you accidentally walked into… and now can’t leave.

The ending? Pretty satisfying. Maybe not mind-blowing, but it tied things up in a way that worked. If you like character-driven thrillers with a slightly absurd, slightly sinister vibe, this one’s totally worth picking up. Just maybe don’t accept any mysterious dinner invitations for a while.

I would probably rate this book slightly below a 4. There are times when I found the timeline to be a little difficult to follow, but the mystery kept me guessing and it was fun to start piecing things together towards the end. I also appreciated the character development of Vivienne and the way each character was fleshed out overall.

Seven people meet and six end up dying over the course of time. Not a bad book, but the jumping from different POVs got a bit tiresome at times. Reminded me a bit of the Agatha Christie book of the ten on the island. Would recommend.

Cat's Cradle.

This childhood string game came to mind as I was reading this book. Similar to the game, the 'players' a.k.a 7 distinct characters would have the opportunity to pull the string or, in this case, pull their background to share with both the reader and the other characters. Each time a character would get a hold of the string or "storyline" the book would prod the reader to view the story from a different perspective.

The twists was certainly a clever one but felt it took some time to get there.


This ARC was provided by the publisher, SOURCEBOOKS Landmark | Sourcebooks Landmark, via NetGalley in exchange for an honest review.

3.5 stars - this is a good rating for this book and I wish I could leave it at that, but in honor of the fact that winter is finally behind us, I’m rounding up.

Seven strangers meet for a dinner party in a tiny London establishment with an unknown host, Toward the end of the evening an envelope appears in front of each guest; and inside the envelope a sentence tells the guest how old he or she will be at death. The guests assume this is a prank, laugh it off and head off into the night.

Then, a few weeks later, one of the guests is dead. And her card was correct. One by one other deaths follow and the remaining guests must try to solve the mystery.

So, I’m a sucker for these Agatha Christie-like strangers and an unknown host type of mysteries and this one is above average for the genre. Some really well-drawn characters here and I enjoyed the time I spent with them.

This was a great twist on an And Then There Were None retelling and the premise was just so intriguing. But, I feel like it just missed the mark a bit. Overall, the premise was good and the storyline was intriguing. The characters were all interesting, unique, and well developed. However, I just felt that the middle of this book dragged a bit. If this had been a bit of a quicker pace, I feel it would have been more engaging. However, I can say that I truly felt for the characters and found myself rooting for them as the story went on. The writing was well done and great to read, and the ending was wonderfully done. The twist was excellently executed, but overall I just felt that the pace was a bit off.

I could NOT put this book down! It was so twisty and well thought-out. The multiple POVs took me a bit to keep track of because there were so many characters but I loved everything about this book from the characters to the plotline! The author did a fantastic job.

This was such an entertaining and intriguing mystery! (Thank you, NetGalley!) I was hooked from the start, and read it in one sitting. The story was full of suspenseful twists and revelations. Many of the twists were surprising, a few though... not so much, but I still enjoyed trying to figure out the hows and whys. They multiple points of view (seven!) were easy to follow, since each character had a unique personality, and I really wanted to figure out how they were all connected. I look forward to Whittle's future books!

Do you ever have the greys anatomy song
"Nobody knows where you might end up?" playing in your head?
I did-

This book was such a fun whimsical read. Imagine being at a dinner party and someone puts a card down that's like hey YO- you're gonna die in 10 minutes. AND THEN YOU DO?!?

It was that I told you so turned gore in this murder mystery type who done it vibes.

I wouldn't say that this book is predictable, but it was very well done and the author had a great way of wrapping up loose ends.

Wow wow wow! Loved the plot, setting, characters, everything about this book! Fast paced and a book that I could not put down once I picked it up. Fantastic storyline with an ending that was just fantastic! I would love to read more by this author!

3.5 stars for me - Overall, this was a fun and interesting read!

I would definitely recommend this for anyone who likes books based on the seven deadly sins or just a good whodunnit,

I liked that each chapter had 1 POV from each of our characters, and they never felt cluttered or inconsistent, which was a fear I had when I realized we had seven perspectives to keep track of. I liked diving into the personal lives of each victim and finding out more about them before they met their demise.

The final twist isn’t necessarily super shocking as it just makes sense, the author made sure everything fell into place and the final chapter was a great ending in my opinion.

Seven Reasons to Murder Your Dinner Guests is the debut book from K.J. Whittle, a page-turning homage to Agatha Christie. The anonymous host of a mysterious dinner party invites seven strangers to an out-of-the-way address. They all come from different walks of life and can't figure out what connects them and who invited the odd group to the party.
The story follows Vivienne, Tristan, Matthew, Melvin, Janet, Stella, and Gordon. At the dinner, they receive cards printed with the age at which they would die. Some don't believe the cards are real, but once the guests start dying at the age that matches their card, they try to solve the mystery before it's too late.
The book immediately captured my attention with its exploration of the lives of each dinner guest through their individual viewpoints. This approach made the characters feel real, as they were not perfect and had flaws, and you soon learned why they were chosen. The reality of their lives differed from how they saw themselves. Despite initially disliking some characters and their choices, I was engrossed in their stories. At first, it was a lot to keep track of all the dinner guests' perspectives in each chapter, but it was interesting to see how they individually responded to the events after the dinner.
The story flowed well, was suspenseful, and kept up the tension, keeping me on the edge of my seat. I found myself unable to put it down as I tried to solve the mystery with the guests. This book is a must-read for Agatha Christie fans and mystery lovers. K.J. Whittle has earned a place on my list of favorite authors, and I look forward to their future books.

This book was soooo twisty and had me grabbed from the start. I absolutely devoured it. From the premise to the characters I ate it up and left no crumbs.