Ooohhh we liked this one.
Dinner Guest starts with the knife sliding home and Matthew bleeding out. From there we go back and forth in time to understand the background, the betrayals and how it all ended. I love the different timelines and it kept my attention.

What a fun slow burn mystery? Thriller? I'm not sure how to categorize it. Rachel seems to easily infiltrate Charlie and Matthew's world seamingly overnight, befriending their adoptive son Titus. While Charlie is apprehensive about Rachel, Matthew seems to have embraced her. But Rachel has a secret. And maybe others do as well.

Loved the twists in the story and how the book wrapped up! Thoroughly enjoyable!

As a veteran fan of the domestic thriller genre, it takes a special sort of thriller to keep me as engaged as this novel did. This novel explores class privilege, the destruction wrought by mendacity, how we truly cannot know the people we love most, and the inevitability of paying for our sins.

*This novel was provided by the publisher and NetGalley in exchange for an unbiased review*

Brilliant! What a great book, one of the best I have read for quite a while. Picked this up late one afternoon and didn't stop reading it until I had finished late that night, couldn't put it down. Gripping story that is so cleverly put together, I became so wrapped up in this families world, I loved the characters who had so much depth that you really felt like you knew them by the conclusion of the book. Great ending that left me thinking about the book hours after I had finished. Thank you to Netgalley and the author for the opportunity to read this book.

Four people walked into the dining room that night. One would never leave.

This is so much more than a thriller, its all consuming, mind-blowing and you do not want it to end. Tho whole concept of the book is ridiculously perfect. If you enjoy psychological thrillers, you will love this. The book has an Agatha Christie meets the modern world with a touch of Shari Lapena.

You are taken on a whirlwind, psychological rollercoaster that you just can not get off. This is a first for me by the author and one I enjoyed and would read more of their work. The book cover is eye-catching and appealing and would spark my interest if in a bookshop. Thank you very much to the author, publisher and Netgalley for this ARC.

Dark and twisty mysteries nearly always draw me in but this one unfortunately did not. Meet Matthew and Charlie, a married couple and dads to young Titus. Rachel, the other main character, is a friend they meet at a grocery store. A murder is committed, leaving many question marks.

The characters and plot are unconvincing (which is fine...I needn't like characters to enjoy a book) but I wasn't engaged whatsoever. Though there are interesting twists and turns the back and forthing is just too much to be arresting. It feels disjointed, unrelatable and unenjoyable. The premise is good but it didn't come together. I do like the food angle, though. Overall it just isn't a good fit for me.

Thank you to HarperCollins UK, One More Chapter and NetGalley.

Another superb psychological thriller from BP Walter. Its different, interesting and entertaining. Rachel confesses to murdering Matthew at dinner in the prologue.
Charlie and Matthew, a married gay couple with Titus, their teenage child, wonderfully rich snobbish characters living in Chelsea, Kensington. Contrast this to poor Rachel, who befriends Charlie in Waterstones.
What is Rachel's interest in them? Who are Titus' biological parents? Why does Matthew seem to have his own agenda? Interesting references to the justice system and to the age of sexual consent.
Written from the individual point of view of Charlie/Rachel and also before and after the murder. Great mystery surrounding the murder, who actually did it and why?
I couldn't stop reading. The author has a way of drawing you in and building the suspense and drama. You will be wary of posting on Instagram after reading this! All builds to an intensely satisfying ,unpredictable conclusion. Highly recommended.

This is a gripping book and a very clever whodunnit. The characters are complex and well-detailed. I was guessing until the very last reveal. I will definitely be recommending this book this year!

Pretty good book if you like the mystery, twisty books. It will keep you wondering what happens next. I read it all in one sitting.

3 stars. This book was just ok. Lots about the guests and not much thriller in this book. I haven’t read any by this author yet so it was a first for me. I wish it had more drama and scare to it. It was an easy and quick read though.
Four people walk into the dining room that night and one will never leave. Guess who’s coming to dinner?!
Thank you NetGalley for this advanced copy.

From a chance encounter with a potential new book club member to death at the dinner table.

Matthew is dead and new book club member Rachel confesses.

This is frankly a brilliant way to open a book and I was hooked immediately.

Matthew and Charlie are both Dad’s to Titus, Matthew’s nephew who was orphaned as a child. Happy-ish in their every day life, living in the elite Westminster, getting used to their son growing up.

The book flips back and forth between before murder and after murder, told from different perspectives.

It’s a great read and absolutely unputdownable. Excellent.

I raced through this in a weekend and by the end, I think I was suffering from adrenalin overdose - shouldn't have finished it at night! I had to calm back down to get to sleep! I've read both of BP Walter's previous and each one gets better and better.
Dinner Guest starts with a murder and jumps back in time using a few viewpoints to build to that moment and beyond. To start with I thought I'd figured out where it was going and how we'd finish up, then slowly, the tension ratchets up and then you're not sure what's a red herring and what's important as the paranoia and tactics amongst the characters plays out. The swanky London setting gives a brilliant fly on the wall look at people who live a completely different life to most of us and makes it seem even more outrageous and juicy.
A brilliant page-turning thriller with some unforgettable characters - I couldn’t put it down and turned the last page practically with palpitations it was so tense and addictive!

The book begins with a dinner party for 4 people that ends with an arrest for murder when one of the 4 is stabbed to death.
Why? That’s the main question and one the book answers with flashbacks over the previous year and using dual narrators of two of the main characters.
Charles, Matthew and their son Titus live an enviable London lifestyle in Kensington - happily married and rich. But life throws a curveball when they literally bump into the mysterious Rachel whilst out shopping. An innocent invitation to the newly arrived-in-London Rachel means that she joins Matthew’s book club, starting off a chain of events, culminating in a plan for revenge....
I couldn’t put this book done. Would recommend. Thank you NetGalley for my copy.

A very different mystery, one that keeps the reader interested and intrigued throughout. written at different times by different characters and perspectives . The story is simple which makes it so intriguing and very much a page turner. A man killed at a dinner, one person confesses to the murder, but did the person kill him and why.
Very good, kept my interest to the end.

Oh this one was such a rough ride for me.

Unfortunately I did not enjoy this book. I am so appreciative for the opportunity to read this early, however wow I was disappointed. The synopsis sounded SO good. But this was chalk-full of too much information at every turn. A slow burn that never fully ignited. A very hard to believe "confession" and unlikeable characters.

This never got going and spent entirely too much time building up to something that never really happened. I couldn't really wait to be done with this book and I really feel bad saying that, but this is an honest review.

This is a dinner that you will never forget. Four people are together one night for dinner, and only three will leave alive.
The novel starts off with the murder and makes you question right off the bat, who was the guilty party? Was it the loving husband, the rebellious son, or the twisted stranger? The perspective changes from the husband, Charlie to the stranger, Rachel, jumping back and forth between the past and the present. You learn about both characters' lives, and who they are versus who they pretend to be. Charlie is married to Michael, and they both have an adopted son, Titus. Rachel is a stranger and you have to read to figure out how exactly she plays a role in these mens' lives, and what, if anything, she has to do with them.
It took me some time to finally get into the story, but I understood that it needed to be done this way in order to fulfill the goal the author had in mind. You needed to get the background before you could jump into the terror that begins to unwind. It was a fast-paced, quick read once I hit the upward trend toward the climax of the story. I had to know where this would all lead, and what exactly happened!! There are so many twists, of which I was able to guess a few, but not in the exact way they revealed themselves. This is definitely a worth-while thriller and one that you should give a chance! This was my first time reading a B.P Walter novel, and I am definitely impressed!

WOW! What a great read!
It took a couple chapters before I was hooked but once into the story, I couldn’t put it down. There’s great character development and storyline. B P Walter has crafted a tale that will have you questioning whether or not you really know someone.
I’d like to thank HarperCollins UK, NetGalley and the author, B P Walter, for the opportunity to enjoy this ARC. The Dinner Guest is sure to be on all the ‘2021 Must Read’ lists this summer.
4.5/5.

4 people come to dinner. One winds up dead. There’s a confession. But are they really guilty?

Charlie, Matthew and their son Titus live a charmed life, until they meet Rachel at a bookstore, and their lives are changed forever. Who is she, and why has she inserted herself into their lives? Everyone has secrets. Can we trust their words?

There’s all the ingredients here for a really strong thriller, but something was missing for me. Maybe it was the unlikable characters, or the slow first half of the book, or how predictable it was.

There are only a few suspects here, so it’s not that hard to figure out who the killer is. Secrets and possible motivations are slowly revealed to us, until we get a huge info dump towards the end of the novel. I found the motivations pretty weak and unbelievable.

The POV alternates between Charlie and Rachel, before the murder and after. I found Rachel the most intriguing character, and wanted to learn more about her but most chapters seemed to be narrated by Charlie. It would have been really interesting to get Titus’ POV or even Matthew‘s.

Nonetheless, this is still a totally decent read, and I think a lot of fans of domestic thrillers will enjoy this one.

Thank you to HarperCollins, One More Chapter and NetGalley for an ARC in exchange for an honest review.

Unbelievably good book.

I was gripped from the first sentence and deeply regretted every moment I had to set it down as I raced to the last.

I just HAD to know what the circumstances were leading to the fateful night and I wasn't slightly disappointed when I got there.

Thank you to the publisher for gifting me a copy of this book. It was my pleasure to write an honest review.

This was my first book of this author. Being a thriller fan, I was surprised that I never heard of him. I am glad I can devour his previous books as he became my favorite author with this remarkable book which had all the elements one look in the psychological thriller and I was thoroughly entertained by it.

This book is brilliant, compelling, engrossing, riveting and captivated (more superlatives needed here to do justice to this book) me from the first page. Rachel has wormed into the lives of the couple Matthew and Charlie living with their teenage son Titus in a rich neighborhood in London. Charlie was skeptical and suspicious about her. Matthew was taken by her so he invited her to their book club. This starts with Rachel being invited to dinner at their house where she kills Matthew and then confesses to the police.

First of all, who is Rachel? Did she really kill him? If so, why? Why has she infiltrated into their lives? What’s Charlie hiding as he fears Rachel might reveal something that puts their lives in jeopardy? There were more questions racing through my mind and had me turning the pages at the lightning speed to find answers.

Walter’s brilliance is clearly evident how tightly he constructed the plot, kept the suspense throughout the book, and thrilled me with the reveals. There are many twists and turns. It was beyond my ability to work out the motivations behind these characters’ actions. Oh boy, appearances can be so deceptive.

The leading characters are all utterly dreadful. I found it very hard to like/feel sorry for the fate befell on Charlie as he is snobbish, utterly obnoxious, and lives in his little bubble. I sympathize with him in only one instance.

Loved the format of the book. Alternated between point of views of Charlie and Rachel in two timelines: After the Murder and Before the murder and leading up to it. Each timeline detailing the present and past stories and both were connected seamlessly. When something is revealed in the present either through the investigation or characters’ musings/fears then the story switches to the past to give the reader a complete picture.

Overall, this is one of the best books I’ve read this year and would highly recommend it.

Thanks to NetGalley and Harper Collins UK/ One More Chapter for providing a digital copy of the book in exchange for an honest review.