Engaging and entertaining. A recommended purchase in all formats for collections where crime and thrillers are popular.

Ink Ribbon Red is a cerebral twisty brain-teasing mystery/thriller by Dr. Alex Pavesi. Released 22nd July 2025 by Henry Holt, it's 320 pages and is available in all formats. It's worth noting that the ebook format has a handy interactive table of contents as well as interactive links.

Trippy and cerebral. Readers will likely find that it takes a while to grasp what's real and not, what's actually happening, and even how the characters really relate to one another in terms of motivation and purpose. It will probably take half the book before most readers really get a firm(ish) grasp on what's going on. That will be a bridge too far for some. For the intrepid readers, the author really does a great job engineering a solid locked room puzzle and he's adept at writing stylish prose.

The characters are a disappointing lot; unlikable, whiny, immature, stilted, and frankly annoying. Can't imagine anyone would want to spend 10 minutes with any of them. They also don't seem to like one another even slightly (that's putting it mildly).

The unabridged audiobook has a run time of 7 hours, 38 minutes and is capably read by Dino Fetscher. He has a well modulated tenor voice and does a good job with the disparate accents of both sexes and a range of ethnicities. Sound and production quality is high throughout the read.

Four stars with the codicil that the author disregards *all* the "rules" about pacing and fair play. It's a smart book written by a plainly intelligent author.

Disclosure: I received an ARC at no cost from the author/publisher for review purposes.

I'm not entirely sure what I read as it is impossible to tell "fact" from "fiction" in this novel. The premise is that 6 friends, alone at a swanky house, write short stories where they murder each other. These stories are read aloud and "scored". There is, however, no differentiation for the reader as to what are the short stories and what is happening in the book. Because the author is trying to keep this all so vague all the characters are very flat and hard to sympathize with.
The author said in an afterward that this is based on Agatha Christie stories. However, Agatha Christie stories have a lot more depth and in hindsight it all comes together; the reader is left. wondering how they missed such an obvious clue. With this story the reader is just left wondering what on Earth happened.

Thank you to NetGalley, the author Alex Pavesi, and Macmillan audio for my ARC of this audiobook.

This was, unfortunately, one I DNF'd at 30%. I was drawn to give it a go due to being a sucker for locked room thrillers, and this one seemed a little different than the norm, but it just didn't hit for me. I had troubles getting into it and felt bored throughout listening; I also didn't really care about the characters, which makes it hard to want a character to be the one to "get out". I think there are some people who will like it - and the narrator did great - but it wasn't for me.

I tried several times to get through this audiobook and in the end I decided it just wasn’t for me. The story starts out interesting but the jumping around made it confusing and the story itself was pretty dense. The narration was good but the story just made it very hard to get through. I did finish it but it took me 3 x as long as it normally would take me. While it wasn’t for me this may be exactly what other people enjoy so if it sounds interesting I definitely recommend giving it a try.

"Then what shade is this?”
“I don’t know. Ink ribbon red?”
“Ink ribbon red...The color of fictional blood.”

“Grief is an awkward portmanteau of guilt, regret and disbelief. Because those are its three main ingredients."

The intricate intoxicating Ink Ribbon Red, by almost too clever psychological thriller author, Alex Pavesi, has been one of the hardest murder mystery thrillers to rate. Its often jumbled timelines make for complex twisty stories within a story. Yet there's such brilliance in its twisted premise.

Despite the surprising death of his father, Anatol invites his 5 oldest friends to his newly inherited home to celebrate his 30th birthday. His one request is to play the game Motive, Method, Death, that he invented, and they've played once before. Each person pulls one of their names from 2 hats. One name is a villain and one is a victim. Then they write a short story about why and how the villain kills his victim. Anatol judges the winner. Simple. It should be a "weekend full of fictional death."

But when one of them turns up dead maybe the stories of betrayal, lies and secrets among the friends isn't so fictional. Actor Dino Fetscher was beyond impressive with the often unlikeable narcissistic characters and their various inflections. From sarcasm to anger to indifference he nailed it.

We don't learn about the game until some scenarios have already played out. So a few events weren't real. Sometimes the present was the future or the past. By the end we learn the truth...or do we?

Reading and listening to Ink Ribbon Red, from its unique title to its twisty plot, is a bit confusing at times, often genius and always pure thriller entertainment.

I received free copies of this book/audiobook from Henry Holt & Company and MacMillan Audio via #NetGalley for a fair and honest review. All opinions are my own.

Rating: 3 stars.

There were multiple times during this book where I stopped and thought "is this one of those books where you are supposed to take it apart and try to put it in the right order??" to figure out the plot. The jumping around, the multiple "stories" mixed with the facts, and the unreliable characters made my head spin. This book is 10000% someone's cup of tea, just not mine.

Thank you NetGalley and Henry Holt & Company/Macmillan Audio for an ARC in exchange for an honest review

I feel like there was a good storyline and great stories within stories in this book but I had a pretty difficult time not getting lost.

I love a locked room thriller and this books concept sounded unique and had me excited.
Unfortunately I couldn’t get into the book and didn’t care about the characters…. I was just bored.
I did enjoy the narration- the narrator had an awesome posh British accent, which fit the characters well.
Huge Thanks to Macmillan Audio and NetGalley for the gifted copy of this audiobook!

Struggled so much with this one unfortunately. Started it several times, each time stopping a few chapters in. Finally decided to persevere and push through but found myself shaking my head at the lack of excitement and how much it dragged.

Thank you to Macmillan Audio for the gifted book!

I wanted so badly to love this one, but it just unfortunately did not work for me.

It seemed to get stranger as it went on.

I hope to try this author again in the future though!

Alex Pavesi clearly likes to play with structure in his novels. Which is fine in theory and can even be a huge plus if well executed. But I struggle with books where the story is retrofitted to conform to structure for structure’s sake, and that seems to be a recurring issue in Pavesi’s work.

This shared some problems in that regard with The Eighth Detective, but that at least had a good story to go with what was a pretty wobbly format. This one felt like it was written only to support the format, and as a result it feels more like a writing exercise than a novel, and one that doesn’t really succeed in that respect either.

The characters are neither likable nor interestingly unlikable, and the general theme in terms of why and how they ended up in these circumstances is one we’ve seen many times before.

I’m all for unusual structure in a mystery, but not when it exists only for its own sake.

I really wanted to love this book—the concept is genuinely intriguing. Unfortunately, the execution didn’t quite land for me. The story follows a group of friends entangled in a layered, story-within-a-story narrative that aims for complexity but ends up feeling overcomplicated.

None of the characters were particularly likable, which made it difficult to stay invested in their journey. While I appreciate the attempt at a unique structure and metafictional twist, it left me more confused than intrigued. If you enjoy experimental formats and don’t mind ambiguity, this might still work for you. It just wasn’t the right fit for me.

'Ink Ribbon Red' was an intellectual puzzle box of a mystery. Friends gather for a Bank Holiday. Their host tasks them with writing murder stories with each other as the murderers or victims. The stories are told throughout the novel, and it's the reader's job to separate fact from fiction. I enjoyed the stories within stories theme a lot. I also had fun trying to separate the real murder from the fictional. I enjoyed the narration throughout the book. 5 stars.

I really wanted to like this book, but unfortunately it was not the book for me. First, I wanted to talk about the writing style. I don't think the writing style is necessarily bad, I just found it to be very dramatic in every scene. My issue with that is because if every seen is written like it's this big and dramatic scene it caused the actual big scenes and moments to feel like all the rest and thus get kind of lost in the reading. I also wanted to talk about the plot as well. I, specifically, want to talk about the way this novel is structured. It is formatted in a nonlinear way in which both jumps back and forward in time while also jumping from real life into the stories written by the characters. In concept it is a really interesting idea, but it became a very frustrating and confusing way for me. I found that both the plot and the mystery are completely lost because I spent most of the novel trying to untangle the web of timelines. I do think it was an intentional confusion on the part of the author but just lead to a very frustrating reading experience for me. Also, this led to me having a really hard time getting a grasp of the characters. Despite such a small cast I had a really hard time differentiating between them.
Ultimately this novel did not really work for me. I will say that I do believe there is an audience for this novel. I think I was just not that audience. I think if you like a complex novel where it is difficult to tell if it is happening in a story or the "real life" of the book then this is the type of book for you. I do also want to applaud the author for doing something unique. It did not work for me though I still think that this book has an audience that will really appreciate it.
Thank You to NetGalley and MacMillan Audio an ARC audiobook in exchange for an honest review.

Thank you Macmillan Audio and NetGalley for the gifted copy of this audiobook.

I love a locked room thriller and the concept of Ink Ribbon Red sounded so unique, I was excited for this book. Unfortunately the execution fell flat, 20% in and I had to DNF because I was bored. I tried twice to get into this story, but I just didn’t care about the characters.

I enjoyed the narration of what I did listen to though. The narrator had a beautifully posh British accent, which fit the characters well.

This was not an audiobook for me although I’m sure it has an audience. I found it to be a challenge to keep track of characters, events, timelines, and personalities. This audiobook lost my interest. I had to start it over multiple times because I just didn’t want to listen and pay attention to it. I did not post a review publicly because my feedback is just my personal opinion, and it wasn’t positive. I think I may have enjoyed this book more had I read instead of listened to.

Characters in mystery thrillers would probably have longer life expectancies if they read more mystery thrillers. It would make them aware that the very last thing you should do if you observe one of your friends acting suspiciously is to tell that person that you are aware that they are acting suspiciously and that you plan to inform the police about it.

Which generally results in that act of informing the suspicious person of their suspicious behavior turning into the last thing you EVER do. Because of course they do you in first.

That’s the way that a lot of the stories within stories inside the story of Ink Ribbon Red turn out. Fictionally, that is. Not just because the book itself is, of course, fiction, but because the stories within the story are intended to be fictional within the story.

Except for the ones that aren’t after all.

It’s Anatol’s 30th birthday, and just like every year since they all met at uni, Anatol, Dean, Janika, Marcin, Maya and Phoebe plan to spend the Spring Bank Holiday weekend together at Anatol’s country house in Tisbury, not far west of Salisbury and its paleolithic neighbor Stonehenge.

But this year is going to be different. They’ve all been – or are about to be – turning 30 this year, and it feels like their friendship is winding down or burning out or they’re just pulling their separate ways in adulthood.

Or, it could just be that, as Marcin believed, “friendship was often just a sign of shared history, or an indication of a few common interests,” and the ties that bound this group together through their 20s are fraying and snapping.

Definitely snapping, as it doesn’t seem like these people even like each other anymore. More like all that sharing and familiarity has bred what familiarity is famous for breeding – contempt.

Anatol believes that this will be their last gathering. The big house, filled with antiques, belonged to his father, who died in rather suspicious circumstances the month before. Anatol believes that the group is just hanging around because he has that big country house – which he’s about to lose to paying death duties.

So he plans to go out with a bang. Possibly a literal one. Certainly a literary one. Anatol intends to use the indulgence, however reluctant, engendered by his birthday to manipulate everyone into playing a little game. A game Anatol himself invented called Motive, Method, Death.

Anatol has already won the first round. The others just don’t know it. Yet.

Escape Rating B: While I may have picked this up because I liked the author’s first book, The Eighth Detective, the experience of reading put me in the same headspace as The Atlas Six. Meaning that I hated every single one of the characters (I’m pretty sure they all hate each other, too) but was absolutely compelled to finish the book.

(If you’ve been wondering what the hate read/listen I’ve been referring to for the past week might have been, this was definitely it!)

I listened to this one, and I’m completely neutral on the narrator because I hated all the characters so much that the feelings bled over into how I felt about him. I tried reading this in text, just to get it over with quicker, but the audio worked better than the voice in my own head.

Looking back, I thought the author’s first book, The Eighth Detective, was like a nesting doll. A story within a story, then a whole bunch of stories within a story. Only for the little tiny doll – or story – in the end to get really, really big and swallow all the other stories in the set.

Ink Ribbon Red isn’t exactly like that – except where it is. It is a story about stories, but the stories aren’t so much within each other as beside each other. Because the game requires that each person write a story about murder. Because Anatol is playing them all, he’s already written several stories to tell the story he wants to tell.

And we’re not sure, until the end, which were theirs, which were his, which were imaginary – and which really happened. So a lot of the characters get murdered several times over, but I hated them all so much I didn’t care that any – or for that matter all – might or might not be dead.

It’s a bit Inception – if you squint a LOT. It’s a bit more And Then There Were None, but that doesn’t convey the sense of the mental wtf’ery that Inception brings to the table.

Back when I read The Eighth Detective, I liked the stories within the story but the frame didn’t quite stick firmly to the wall. This time around the frame gets stuck in with a butcher knife, hacked to pieces with a chainsaw, and set on fire. OTOH, the individual stories were all over the place, a bit uneven, jarring to read and even more shocking when the victim turned up alive in the next chapter because no one, including the reader, knows fact from fiction until the very end.

In the end I’m glad I stuck with this one – although I’m equally glad it’s over. I don’t ever want to have to think about any of these characters ever again.

While I do think this is definitely more of a niche book it had me absolutely mesmerized with its devious, intricate, and at times pretentious plot.

When I first started Ink Ribbon Red I said it was giving Agatha Christie vibes but for millennials and that stayed an apt vibe. There is a story within a story so a lot of the reading experience is deciphering what’s real and what’s not. The characters are all deplorable and morally corrupt, there is a level of highbrowness that can be grading but I kind of loved how Pavesi was playing the reader and the characters against eachother.

This leans into the psychological more than thriller style mystery, focusing more on how the characters spin themselves in their own narratives and stuck on view points. This book will make you work hard and that won’t be for everyone but if you’re up for the challenge I highly recommend flexing that brain muscle. Obtuse? Yes. Wildly Original? Very.

WOW, WOW, WOW.
Big thanks to my besties at Macmillan Audio for the ARC!

I loved the story in a story premise of this book -- quite interesting!
I may have quietly screamed when I saw a new book from Alex Pavesi as I loved The Eighth Detective when I read it!

The positives first: I found most of the characters easy to hate; which, to me, means they are usually well written. The story in a story was very fun, as the reader doesn't know what is really happening over the birthday weekend, and what might be fiction from the mind of one of the characters,which adds to the overall sense of tension. There were decent twists in the story too, I was surprised more than once by the character's actions. (And other times was NOT surprised by some reveals.) The entire story had this sense of unease and suspense, the character's relationships, the tense build to the end, and with the sense that it isn't easy to know what is really happening.

The not-so-positive (for me) aspects: the date hopping was a bit confusing on audio, admittedly I read audiobooks at a quicker pace (I just cannot do 1x speed) so maybe this is a 'me' thing (although I know other reviewers have mentioned this as well). Also, the chapter titles would have (probably) had a bigger impact in print. Some of the murder descriptions get pretty specific, lol, if that's your thing you might love this. The "reveal" of what story is a story and who wrote what was kind of lackluster.

Overall this is like a 3.5-3.75 ish for me. There were some parts that I struggled with and parts that made this shine. The audiobook is well produced, I was invested in the story the whole time and the narrator's voice is pleasant to listen to. My only thing with the audio, is it was hard for me personally to keep the timeline straight and remember the chapter titles.