Do you enjoy books that span the course of a day? A Death at the Party by Amy Stuart is one such book. As the name suggests, it’s about a death at a party. Told from the point of view of the hostess, this was an intriguing book that I read in a day. Take a look at the synopsis:
A Death at the Party
By Amy Stuart | Goodreads
In this tense, spellbinding thriller set over the course of a single day, a woman prepares for a party that goes dreadfully wrong—for fans of Ashley Audrain and Lisa Jewell.
Nadine Walsh’s summer garden party is in full swing. The neighbors all have cocktails, the catered food is exquisite—everything’s going according to plan.
But Nadine—devoted wife, loving mother, and doting daughter—finds herself standing over a dead body in her basement while her guests clink glasses upstairs. What happened? How did it come to this?
Rewind to that morning, when Nadine is in her kitchen, making last-minute preparations before she welcomes more than a hundred guests to her home to celebrate her mother’s birthday. But her husband is of little help to her, her two grown children are consumed with their own concerns, and her mother—only her mother knows that today isn’t just a birthday party. It marks another anniversary as well.
Still, Nadine will focus just on tonight. Everyone deserves a celebration after the year they’ve had. A chance for fun. A chance to forget. But it’s hard to forget when Nadine’s head is swirling with secrets, haunting memories, and concerns about what might happen when her guests unite.
Content notes include infidelity, pedophilia, murder, child death.
A Death at the Party – Review
A Death at a Party is like being able to access someone’s thoughts for just one day. Nadine is the narrator in this under-300 pages long novel. I really liked how this book began – with the murder itself, a man asking for Nadine’s mercy as he dies on her basement bathroom floor, while she hesitates to call 911. Doesn’t that already tell you a lot about Nadine and what she is willing do?
After this scene, I was given insight into Nadine and how her day went. Divided into morning, afternoon and evening sections, the storyline adequately portrays the hustle and last minute things that one must do when hosting a party. No matter how many people you are hosting, where the event is or who the party is for, a party is a party and it demands work. Nadine and her family are well off. Nadine’s husband is a lawyer and they live in a wealthy close-knit community thanks to all of Paul’s childhood friends gradually moving into the same neighbourhood over the last two decades.
Party related errands aside, the plot of this book is quite complicated. There are layers to Nadine and all that have led to this day.
- The party is for her mom as it’s her mom’s 60th birthday.
- Nadine’s mom is now a bestselling writer and there is a particular journalist digging up her life pre-fame. Nadine is trying to get him to back off.
- It is also the death anniversary of her aunt who died thirty years ago after Nadine’s mom’s 30th birthday party. Nadine is clearly not over the death of her aunt as she was ten at that time and was the one to have found the dead body.
- Nadine is married with kids. One of her kids’ best friends is at the hospital due to an overdose.
- Nadine recently came out of an affair and her ex is trying to get a hold of her.
- Nadine had an accident a few weeks back and everyone is treating her like a glass doll, checking in where she is. (Reading about how much this family checked up on each other gave me the creeps. I get that GPS tracking is a handy tool, but must you be using it to check on kids and parents throughout the day?)
By the time I reached 50% of the book, I had a decent list with 3-4 people who could be the man dead on the basement bathroom floor.
A Death at the Party unfolds at a good pace. Nadine is a grey character. I felt that she isn’t respected well within the family. They constantly think of her as gone crazy but they are still functioning as a family unit and I enjoyed how the kids, husband, mother, niece, all contributed to the day, and Nadine’s stresses. She teaches crime writing at a college and reading the book does give a glimpse of the writer she can be. Nadine is also much stronger than everyone gives her credit for.
My favorite part about this book was the last half of the book. It was done so well in my mind. So many times books try to end with a concrete ending, showing the reader what will happen next, with the main character cleaning up and doing everything to be the hero. But that’s not how a normal day in anyone’s life ends and we have to turn to family and friends to help us out. A lot of times, we also have to leave problems to the next day and spend time thinking of solutions. After an explosive party with over a hundred guests, her mom’s unexpected confession and the neighbourly tensions, there is still a dead body to deal with, and not to mention the general-after-party clean up.
I loved the tension in this book. This was a great afternoon read! If you are looking to get into the mind of a rich hostess and learn about neighbourhood drama, give this one a read.
Many thanks to S&S for a review copy of this book for my honest thoughts.
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