Suddenly a Murder by Lauren Muñoz

Pages: 297 

Publisher: Hot Key Books 

Released: 5th of September 2023 

Everyone has a secret. Everyone has a motive. But only one of them brought a knife to the party . . .

To celebrate the end of high school, Izzy Morales joins her best friend Kassidy and five friends on a luxury 1920s-themed getaway at the glamorous Ashwood Manor. There, Izzy and her friends party in vintage dresses and expensive diamonds - until Kassidy's boyfriend turns up dead.

And when a raging storm traps them on the island with two detectives, the sparkling young socialites become the prime suspects in his murder. There's the girlfriend, and the other girl. The old friend, and the new friend. The brooding enigma. And then, there's Izzy - the girl who brought the knife . . .

A glamorous and scandalous modern murder mystery that'll have you reading through the night to find out whodunnit!

What I Have to Say 

Okay so to start with this book was really easy and fun to read. It was the sort of book that you could sink down into and really relax and enjoy. I found myself really looking forward to my sessions reading the book. I also loved the whole 1920s theme. I would really like to go away for a 1920s roleplaying holiday (although I would probably die without my kindle). 

The problem I had with this book though was the whole way it was set up to make it look like Izzy did it. I'm not going to say whether she did it or not, that would be a spoiler. But right from the start I didn't buy that she did it. If she did it, why did she not seem more guilty right after. She didn't act like she had just committed murder. 

But then on the other had,  if she didn't do it, why wasn't she more surprised by the fact that there was a murder!! I just spent the whole book trying to work out whether I should be disappointed in one respect or the o
ther. This made the ending just feel completely flat because it didn't make sense to me. 

I think I would have enjoyed this book more if it had been a straight murder mystery rather than have Izzy set up as the killer straight away. 

3 stars 

My thanks go to Hot Key Books and Netgalley for providing me with this gifted copy for review. 

Hokey Pokey by Kate Mascarenhas

Pages: 320 

Publisher: Apollo 

Released: 8th of June 2023 

A grand hotel, a famous opera star and a psychoanalyst with a hidden agenda. Kate Mascarenhas's third novel offers her readers a glamorous, thrilling ride through murder, madness and the darkest recesses of the mind.

February, 1929. The Regent Hotel in Birmingham is a place of deception and glamour. Behind its six-storeyed façade, guests sip absinthe cocktails on velvet banquettes, spying on their surroundings in the gilt mirrors and perfectly polished tableware, while the hotel's red-jacketed staff scurry through its lavish corridors to ensure the finest service is always at hand.

In the early evening, a psychoanalyst checks in under a Nora Dickinson. Nora is young, diligent and ambitious. Though she doesn't see herself as a liar, she is travelling with an agenda. Having followed the famous opera singer, Berenice Oxbow, from Zurich to Birmingham, she's determined not to let her out of her sight.

But when a terrible snow storm isolates the hotel – and its guests – from the outside world, the lines between nightmare and reality begin to blur and Nora will find herself face to face with a past she thought she had long left behind...

What I Have to Say 

So this novel started out with the glitz and glamour of the nineteen thirties, it set up the premise of a fun historical thriller and then turned into a fantasy novel? It leaves a lot of mystery as to whether the fantasy stuff is in the main character's head for a while, but it was definitely more fantasy than thriller. I like fantasy novels, I review a lot of them, but having such a bait and switch be pulled on me was more than a bit disconcerting. 

The ending was also too easy. It set up big stakes and then just fixed it with barely any effort taken. It was a real let down, but I was glad I wasn't really into the book because it would have fallen really flat for me. 

And honestly it was all a bit weird. The fantasy stuff was only the start. It unsettled me and put me off reading a lot. I liked the sapphic relationship, but everything else was just really odd. This is certainly not a book I would read again. 

3 stars 

My thanks go to Netgalley and Apollo for providing me with this copy for review.