Found this one difficult to get into, due to the style of writing, and I was unable to finish it. For a thriller, I didn't find it as gripping as I expected I would.

I enjoyed this book until around chapter 40 ish. I just wasn't a fan of how it all wrapped up especially the Epilogue (made it feel like a film leaving it open for a sequel if the film does well). It is such a shame as before that point I couldn't put this book down. I would definitely pick up more books by this author as I really did enjoy the writing style.

The Dinner Guest opens with a perfect conundrum…who is responsible for the murder of Matthew?
At the start of the book we know little about perfect husband Mathew, his wealthy partner Charlie, their adopted son Titus and the dinner guest, Rachel. All we know is Rachel has confessed to the murder but this is not the full story.
As the book progresses we dip in and out of time, learning more about each of the characters and their interactions. Rachel is - from the outset - painted as the usurper in the relationship…the cuckoo in the nest of privilege.
We are led down some delightful paths in an attempt to misdirect us-and some of these definitely reveal more about the characters involved and our own prejudices than might always be comfortable. It’s very obvious that Rachel lies at the heart of this story but it becomes a question of what she’s hiding rather than why.
There were some aspects of the story that were possible to work out quite early in, but don’t get too self-congratulatory as there’s always a little more to come! By the end of the story I found myself with a very different opinion of Rachel…
Thanks to NetGalley for allowing me to read this.

Well written sorry from beginning to end. I found myself on edge trying to figure out who killed Matthew. Reading the story from multiple perspectives/POV gave the story more depth and detail.
The interwoven story of all the characters through their own lives prior to the murder laid a perfect plot line.
However, the ending left a bit of a cliffhanger and wanting more. Hoping for a sequel.

Matthew, Charles and their 15 year old son are the PERFECT family, you know the ones you see on Instagram all the time. Good-looking, rich, gorgeous home and privileged upbringing. This all comes crashing down around them when a stranger becomes firmly ensconced in their lives.

I raced through this book and failed to spot most of the twists.

Highly recommend!

Thank you #netgalley, #onemorechaper and #bpwalter for the copy of this book.

Dinner is served! Hold on to your seats, it's going to be one hell of a ride.

Matthew, Charlie and Titus, their 15 year old son, seem like the perfect family. At least that's what their instagram page would lead you to believe.
One day the couple meet Rachel at the local bookstore, with Matthew striking a firm friendship with her straight away.
All of a sudden, Rachel seems to be everywhere. She has joined Matthew's book club, is now working and living with Charlie's godmother and has developed a close bond with Titus. And Charlie is less than impressed.

Then the dinner party happens. One person is dead. One is left holding the bloody weapon. What on earth happened?

This is a very character driven domestic suspense thriller. It has an excellent plot, is very edge of your seat and fast paced. It definitely keeps you guessing until the very end with all the twists.
A very enjoyable read. I am a big fan of this author and cannot wait for future works.

Unputdownable! Started reading this and just couldn't stop.

I had a suspicion who had done it and why early on and I was nearly right, but even after the reveal some twists kept coming.

Very well done!

T H E D I N N E R G U E S T (ARC)

⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️

(S/N: my candle arrived from @messymoos today and look how BEAUTIFUL it is - it smells like Parma Violets and is honestly so pretty I’m not even sure I want to light it🥺)

I would like to start by saying thank you to NetGalley and the author/publisher for allowing me to read the ARC of this book in exchange for a review!

The Dinner Guest has you captivated from the very start, with a ‘chance’ encounter from a not-so-strange stranger... oh and a murder.

The plot has many different layers to it that peel back the more you read, and despite having a confession, you’re never really sure whodunnit until very near the end!

This book demonstrates how the most perfect of families can have dark, hidden secrets that haunt them from their pasts. It takes you through a rollercoaster journey and interlinks several different points of view into one sequence of events.

The one thing I HATED about this book was the ending... and that’s only because it left it open for more!

I would definitely recommend this book for any thriller-fans like myself, looking for their next thriller kick!

The Dinner Guest is available now at many major retailers!🍽🔪🩸

A really interesting concept of a book that immediately drew me in. My first novel by B P Walter and I thoroughly enjoyed it. The novel is told through multiple people, there are - Matthew and Charlie - a happily married couple (or so is portrayed), Titus who is their son and Rachel.. Matthew is horrendously is killed whilst at dinner with the other three people.

As the reader it is not clear who or why Matter is murdered, we know that Rachel is there and she has the knife in her hand - but did she do it or not? Lots of questions in this novel and definitely worth a read if you enjoy twists and turns and need to know what is happening in a good suspense driven read.

I liked the authors style of writing and enjoyed these characters and how they came across in the novel.

Thanks to NetGalley, B P Walter and the publisher for allowing me to have an advanced copy of this book in return for my honest opinion.

3.5 stars

Matthew and Charles are a married couple whose entire lives are on display on Instagram. This is how Rachel comes to find them and manipulate her way into their lives. No one is the wiser that she has plans for their family. Nor do they suspect that she is a potential threat. This book reminded me of Six Degrees of Separation where an imposter finagle his way into a rich social circle. But is money her aim? And why Matthew and Charles?

When Matthew ends up dead Rachel confesses and readily submits herself to the police. But she refuses to give a motive. Walter makes you root for the answers. Then when the details of the crime are revealed he manages to turn the vice and build the pressure further. Will there be justice? In the end, none of the characters are very likeable and all of them are guilty in some way. But that's okay - you cannot help but be tantalized by the prospect of karma rearing her ugly head.

Would recommend for readers who enjoy unreliable narrators and those with an appetite for revenge served cold.

<i>Special thanks to One More Chapter for providing me with this copy.</i>

Now this is a conflicting one for me..

First off can I just say I LOVE the cover. The simplicity of it fully grabbed my attention from the off.

Now the conflicting part.. the first part of the book had me sucked in straight away, I found it really intriguing and it had my full and complete attention BUT it then slowed down!

Personally I didn't really like the characters which doesn't usually bode well but that didn't take away the enjoyment of the first part of the book thankfully... but when it started to slow down the characters then annoyed me because I didn't connect with them.

Basically it was fantastic until it wasn't but I'm glad I persisted and finished.

Thanks to netgalley and Harper Collins UK for the ARC.

A dinner party for four people is where it starts. And then one of them is murdered. Sounds like Agatha Christy, but of course it is not. It is contemporary, edgy, and suspenseful, with well-drawn characters who are not likeable but engaging never-the-less, and a plot of twists and turns and revenge.

Well written and definitely one for a dark and rainy night read!

This was a solid 3 stars for me. The beginning was super interesting and really throws the reader into the story, which I am always a fan of! It slowed down quite a bit for me after that though. I didn't really enjoy any of the characters, and that made it much harder to be excited about reading the story. I think there are readers that are going to really enjoy this one though!

4 Stars from me

Loved this book - The Dinner Guest was an up close and intimate delve into 'how the other half live' with the added benefit of a murder mystery to solve.

It flicked tantalisingly before and after Matthew's death, building up the story and then suddenly flipping to a different period in time.

I also love the cover.

The Dinner Guest is described as 'domestic noir' and I guess that is spot on. I absolutely adored reading about the lifestyle of the central characters and the contrast against the way that Rachel lives - albeit essentially in the same place - it brilliant. 

Matthew and Charlie literally appear to have the perfect life. Insta famous, part of the beautiful people, oodles of money and sweet natured adopted child. What more could they want and how could it possibly all go so wrong.

Read the book to find out, you won't regret it!

This was an awesome read. Fast-paced but still well developed. Definitely a thriller. I have already recommended to friends!

Sooo good. It keeps you guessing till the very end. It was all so perfect until it wasn’t. So accommodating such perfect people doing the right thing or were they. Working back you see how tensions rose. Four guests are present but only three survive the night. It’s the twists at the end that will keep you trying to figure who the real killer to be. It’s a great mystery until the very end. Well worth the time to finish. Happy reading

I lapped this up like the proverbial cat who got the cream. Thick with tension, rich with suspicion and deliciously intriguing, Charlie and Matthew Allerton-Jones seem to have it all. Wealthy, privileged and living in a very desirable part of Central London, the pair belong to public schools and silver spoon backgrounds, with the exception of the shadow casting gloom over Marthew's life - the death of his sister Collette, which is why he and Charlie are fathers to Titus, her son.
Enter Rachel, from Bradford, from a very different social class altogether and clearly out to do someone a wrong, Matthew invites this stranger to his book club and life will never be the same again.
I loved the fact that Titus's parents were of the same sex. I loved the sense that money brought entitlement and with it the right to manipulate justice. I enjoyed the sexual tension, the exploration of love as a young man, of infidelity and playing the field, of first loves and married love. The domesticity had an air of danger, a foreshadowing of the death to come, particularly as the timeline veers from a countdown before the murder and a countdown afterwards, and then back again. This erratic movement in the narrative gives the reader different points of views and definitely keeps the interest at high alert. The characters were complex with a depth to their pasts that instantly invites further scrutiny and the twists were not contrived, it all just seemed to fit together like a well laid out dinner service, waiting for the guests to eat, drink and be merry.
There is of course no merriness to the ending of The Dinner Guest but more than an adequate serving of menace and revenge.
Huge thanks to the author, publisher and Netgalley for the opportunity to read this book in exchange for my honest review.
Whether your appetite is large or small, this is a thrilling dish of one person's act to right a wrong. Or is it two people, three, or the whole dinner party?

Good psycho-thriller with a stalker, a murder and a twist. Strong characters and fast-moving plot. Devoured it in pretty much one sitting.

Synopsis: Matthew and Charlie are a happily married couple with their adopted son, Titus, who is proud to have two dads. While out at the bookstore one day, a woman named Rachel starts chatting to Charlie and it was harmless. Later in the day, the see Rachel again and this time Matthew invites her to their exclusive book club. Rachel starts to weave her way into their lives and really - who is Rachel? One night, Matthew, Charlie, Titus, and Rachel walk into the dining room and that is when Charlie finds himself slumped up against his husbands body while Rachel coolly calls 999 while holding the murder weapon.

My thoughts: Okay so I loved how this book started off with the night of the murder and goes back and forth in time as you learn more about the characters. Another thing I loved about this book is how at some point or another, it has you believing that each character in the book committed the crime. It really left me guessing until the very end. While this isn’t @bpwalterauthor’s first book, it was the first book I read of his and I can confidently say that he is amazing!

This was a quick read and an engaging thriller. It kept me guessing until the end, which is always good!

At times, the details and quick changes in POV and time confused me whereas usually I keep up with those fine.
The characters were well developed and I would recommend this strongly for mystery, twisty plot lovers.