This was one of the best thrillers I have read so far this year! In an absolutely brilliant move the author, Kate Belli, artfully fleshes out a character, Chloe, who is suffering from PTSD and puts her in the middle of an active police investigation. The problem: she drank too much at the party and has absolutely no idea how a newly famous artist ended up dead, let alone how she, Chloe, even got home that night. The characterization is so well done you expect her to step off the pages and end up on the nightly news when the case is wrapped up.

Great job!

Chloe’s story is so interesting you just fall for her and her situations. A job in an art gallery, a few good friends including her roommate. Possible love interest right around the corner and unfortunately horrible flashbacks from having survived 9/11. When an important artist is found murdered the list of suspects hits home and who to trust? Very exciting and enjoyable.

I couldn’t get through this one but it may just be the timing in my life and I am going to give it another try in the future!

The Gallery Assistant is a fun popcorn thriller focusing on the elite Fine Arts world in NYC. Things aren’t what they seem and people are disappearing. This was a peak into the behind the scenes drama of an art gallery.

I had to put this down after the 20th mention of 9/11 (the plot had seemingly nothing to do with 9/11). Thank you netgalley for the early copy but this just wasn’t for me 🫶🏻

A pulse-pounding thriller about the art world. Fans of STILL LIVES will flip for another gallery-set suspenseful journey. Great prose and a compelling backdrop of the 9/11 attacks.

🖼️ I finished The Gallery Assistant by Kate Belli yesterday and I’m still thinking about it. Set in the glittering, chaotic world of post-9/11 New York, this fast-paced mystery follows Chloe Harlow, a gallery assistant trying to keep her life together after surviving the towers.
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Still shaken and quietly dealing with PTSD, she wakes up after a party with only blurry memories… and finds out the gallery’s new rising star, Inga Beck, was murdered that same night.
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As Chloe tries to retrace her steps and make sense of what actually happened, she realizes she may have been the last person to see Inga alive, and that the truth might be buried somewhere in her fractured memories.
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This story blends art-world glamor with real emotional weight. The backdrop of post-9/11 trauma adds depth and urgency to Chloe’s unraveling as she struggles to trust herself, untangle the lies around her, and figure out what’s real.
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There are twists, secrets, and some seriously shady characters, and the pacing kept me hooked the entire time. Think Only Murders in the Building meets The Devil Wears Prada with a haunting murder mystery at its core.
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This one’s smart, suspenseful, and surprisingly moving. Highly recommend adding it to your fall TBR. Out October 14th! Thank you @netgalley @atriabooks @atriathrillers @simonandschuster for the review copy in exchange for my own opinions!
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⭐️⭐️⭐️✨ rounded up to 4!
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I enjoyed this book. Loved the FMC. Captivating and Interesting. This book is more of a mystery than a thriller. Short read.
This is a slow burn. The ending was good.
9/11 was heavily mentioned. 9/11 is such a huge part of our history. I felt like the 9/11 mention and story line could have been a separate book. Didn’t fit in with the main plot. At the end of the book there were several new characters that were introduced. That was not important in the story line. Over all I did enjoy this book. This was my first book I’ve read of Kate Belli. I would be opened to read more of her books in the future.

I really enjoyed this fast-paced and suspenseful mystery. The characters were well-drawn, the storyline was engaging, and I looked forward to reading it every night before bed!! I will say that, at times, I thought the protagonist was a bit ditzy and gullible, but overall, I liked her character, and it didn't detract from my enjoyment of the book.

Chloe Harlow wakes up in her own bed after an all-night party, not remembering how she got home or what happened that evening. Chloe was a survivor of 9/11 and because of that, she drinks way too much and has blackouts. An up-and-coming artist was murdered that night at the party. Chloe woks at a gallery and she now has to discover what happened. She doesn’t know who was involved or who she can trust. A suspenseful who done it book.
Thank you NetGalley, Atria Books | Atria/Emily Bestler Books, and Kate Belli for the ARC for my review.

Did not read. Have way too many books on my shelf - need to cut back. Hoping to get to it in the future though.

This is the first time reading this author
I really enjoyed it
It was a suspenseful murder who done it mystery
I will be putting this author on my list of further reads

A good read, it took me awhile to figure out the story. It seemed to get darker as the story went on.

This book follows Chloe in the months following 9/11 as she furthers her career at an art gallery all whilst getting tied up in a murder and the subsequent investigation. This is the first book I've read that includes 9/11, and my initial thought was "oh no, this is too soon" (knowing full well it's been 24 years). I appreciate the author telling the story of someone making her way through trauma in the midst of normal, every day stressors like work and relationships. Chloe clearly has PTSD and the author represents that well, from the range of emotions and other symptoms, to substance abuse. There were a lot of people in her friend group and it was hard to keep them straight for awhile, and I wished she hadn't left her cat alone for so long in her apartment when she was away! But overall, this book kept me engaged until the reveal, and I didn't suspect who it was, and am happy Chloe got through it all!

Im not sure if authors are deciding now is a good time to introduce themes referencing the 9/11 attacks in their books but this is the second arc I’ve read this yes that features the events.. and I don’t know how I feel about that, maybe it is a good thing to give readers a safe space to process some old emotions but im personally just not a fan and it kind of leaves me with an uncomfortable sensation that distracts from the rest of the plot.

If I remove this aspect from the rest of the plot, the plot itself was pretty enjoyable. We have a confused main character and pieces of a mystery we are trying to puzzle together, strange messages. Memory loss, people acting weirdly makes for lots of questions to get answers for.

I’d say this was mid for me, without the Terroism plot thrown in it would have been 4⭐️

I can't recommend it enough! I really enjoyed this book, I couldn't put it down, I finished it in a couple of days!

The Gallery Assistant follows Chloe, a woman dealing with almost dying during the Sept. 11 attacks in NYC. She wakes up hungover after attending a party thrown by a newly acquired artist, Inga. She cannot remember most of what happened that night and is shocked when she is questioned by the police about Inga's murder.

This story had a good premise, but I feel like it could have been tightened up a bit. It was too slow for a murder mystery/thriller. Also, Chloe is an unreliable narrator and gets blackout drunk almost every night to cope with PTSD. Her friends are slowly turning on her since she will not get therapy, but it's been a month since the attacks happened. I felt that their deference to her suffering and cries for help was bordering sociopathic. I could understand if it has been months or years, but one month later? Geez, with friends like that who needs enemies?

Read this if you like:
-NYC after 9/11
-art history

Do not read if you do not like:
-Unreliable narrators
-Bad friends
-Focusing on clues that are not clues

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

Thank you Atria books and Netgalley for this Advance Readers Copy ebook in exchange for my honest review.

I enjoyed this mystery. It depicted the trauma & PTSD of 9/11 while the MC works to uncover a murder centered around an art gallery. It starts up as a slow build but quickly picks up momentum at the 1/2 way mark. As short as this book was, I don’t feel that it was rushed. It had great pacing. And the plot had dimension.

This book pulls you in and has you guessing the entire time. I could not figure out the why and who the entire time! Every time I thought it was someone, I was thrown in a different direction!

**Thank you to Atria Books-Atria/Emily Bestler Books and NetGalley for this ARC!!!**

Wow! Kate Belli blew me away with this one! As an avid murder mystery lover, I thoroughly enjoyed this, It kept me guessing all the way till the very end. I loved the inconsistent memory component, I think it added to the mysteriousness of the plot. I would highly recommend this one for anyone looking to read something that keeps you on your toes!!