Four people, one dinner party.

Matthew, a loving father, has been stabbed to death. His husband Charlie is beside himself. Rachel is full of secrets and Titus is the perfect son.

You automatically think - RACHEL! There is so much tension in this book, it felt like I was sitting on a branch that was cracking by the second, leading me to my impending doom when it all comes crashing down!

You will think you have it all figured out, but you don't - some big things along the way will leave you reeling in shock and you will never get over it!

The Dinner Guest
By BP Walter

A fantastic closed room murder mystery that will keep you guessing and wondering "whodunnit". I found this fast paced read fun and intriguing - very Agatha Christie style that leaves a lot of red herring in this fantastic British mystery. I read this along with a group and was it fun to have a great discussion. Fantastic 5 star read for me.

The Dinner Guest throws us straight into things as we meet Charlie, his husband Matthew, their son Titus and their friend Rachel, at home around the dinner table - Matthew with a knife in his chest and Rachel with the knife in her hands, admitting to the police that she killed him.

But we are immediately told that she's covering something up.. and the police are not convinced she really is the killer.

From that tantalising beginning, we now go back in time a year and flit between the personal accounts of Charlie and Rachel, as we learn about how Rachel mysteriously infiltrated the family's lives and all about the secrets and lies that have been lurking in their pasts.

The first half of the book was absolutely fantastic - gripping and impossible to put down. I was desperate to find out who Rachel really was and what she was up to! But then with a few pointers, and some over-thinking, I spoiled it for myself by guessing and was disappointed when I was right.

And then when all of the truth and lies were revealed towards the end, I'm afraid I started to find it a little too much on the side of ridiculous and the ending left me a little disappointed - and stressed, to be honest!

But overall it was really a very good read - and that first half was just wonderful for suspense and not being able to put the book down!

**This is a bit of a spoiler**

I read this on my Kindle so must admit I had forgotten what the title was until I came to write my review, and now I am really puzzling over the choice of title. Rachel wasn't even invited to the dinner so she was never a dinner guest... and making us think she was their dinner guest doesn't seem to add anything to the suspense of the story for me?? It just seems like a really random choice and I'd be intrigued to know why it was chosen! She was more a Book Club Joinee! The dinner itself was a bit arbitrary in the end - I'm not sure anything got eaten! Anyway, maybe it was just to have us thinking the story would be one thing when it turned out to be something completely different. (Or maybe I am thinking about this way too much!)

We open with the murder. Matthew Allerton is murdered whilst at the dinner table. Charlie, his husband, can only watch as Rachel, clutching the bloody knife that was the instrument of his death, phones for an ambulance..

Matthew and Charlie are the perfect couple. The couple who have it all. Charlie lives an Instagram life and their adopted son, 15 year old Titus, fits in perfectly with that. Living in the opulent surrounds of Kensington and Chelsea, they are happy together and enjoy a life full of good things from Waitrose. Culture comes in the form of their occasional theatre visits and Matthew’s regular book club.

Charlie and Rachel are our narrators. Charlie is living the glossy mag dream. Rachel is the cuckoo in the nest. A seemingly chance meeting in Waterstones leads to a friendly exchange; a second encounter in M&S leads Matthew to invite Rachel to their home for the book club. Rachel seems to become a part of their lives and Charlie is discomfited.

He knows something isn’t right, but he can’t pin it down. Matthew thinks he is being snobbish, but it’s more than that…Charlie can’t understand why, but his seemingly perfect life is slowly starting to unravel.

B.P. Walter’s novel peels back the layers on an affluent, entitled couple living a superficially glamorous life. Into that life Rachel comes and like the worm in the apple, everything turns rotten from the inside while the skin still glows.

As Rachel becomes a fixture in their lives, so Charlie and Matthew seem to become further apart.

Did Rachel murder Matthew? If so why? There are not so many suspects in this novel that this is a whodunit; rather this is about motivation. Not really who did it, but why did they do it?

There are stereotypes here; affluent Londoners and the Northern girl. (It’s grim up North). Poor v rich lifestyles as Rachel lives on a housing estate in Pimlico and Charlie and Matthew a house in Chelsea. But under the bonnet of this sleek car is a host of loose wires and the veneer that sets off Mathew and Charlie’s perfect life starts to chip as soon as Rachel enters their lives.

Neither Charlie nor Rachel is a sympathetic character. Charlie is vain, narcissistic and a snob. Rachel is more of a blank canvas. A schemer, but we don’t know why or to what end, though we are drip fed clues throughout the book.

As we learn more about these lives, so it becomes clear that that each of them, even Titus, is prepared to play the angles to get what they want.

Verdict: The Dinner Guest is a fast paced, entertaining read that keeps the reader guessing. Full of secrets, lies and dreadful people it is like watching a car crash and knowing you can’t stop it happening. The carnage will be dreadful, but you have to keep on watching. Walter keeps the chapters short and snappy and there are plenty of twists and misdirection to keep the reader wrong footed.

When a story opens with a murder and a suspect but still manages to build tension and surprise the reader, it's a fun read! This is a suspenseful tale with interesting characters and a story told from multiple perspectives. Entertaining!

Thanks to NetGalley for the ARC.

Great thriller. Matthew, Charlie and Titius the perfect family? New friend Rachel? Makes you wonder do you really know those closest to you. Brilliant characters that you get to know. Keeps your suspense and intrigue all the way through until the end. Plenty of twists throughout. Enjoyed the back stories, the multiple viewpoints in differing chapters. Murder mystery at the dinner table! Definitely one of the best books I have read this year.
Thanks to Netgalley and the publishers for this ARC in exchange for an honest review.

A strong thriller with an intriguing premise. Kept me guessing right to the end, which was great! I would have loved it even more if the conclusion had been more firmly tied into the rest of the book; as it was some elements seemed a bit sudden and needed a little more foreshadowing.

😊 The Dinner Guest is B.P. Walter's latest psychological thriller and an awesome and exhilarating read. One Sunday morning Matthew and Charlie are shopping in a bookstore to buy a hardback and a fellow shopper, a woman with wavy blond hair called Rachel is invited to join their book club. She also goes to one of their dinner parties; the one where Matthew dies...

The reader learns just enough to remain glued to the pages as the story unravels. Set in London, The Dinner Guest is narrated in two timelines by Charlie and Rachel. With extra helpings of malice, secrets and lies this is a fascinating, well-written and highly absorbing tale. The characters are adeptly constructed and believable in their roles, whether intended to be inherently good, bad or somewhere in-between. The clarity of B. P. Walter's writing made it an easy storyline to follow, and the comfortably paced, tense, and twisty plot went down a treat as it snaked along. The author created a sinister tone that continued until the very last page. Would I read more from B.P. Walter? Yes... this is such an awesome book! 😊

I received a complimentary copy of this novel at my request from One More Chapter via NetGalley. This review is my own unbiased opinion.

"I murdered Matthew Allerton-Jones. I went to the house to do it. It was the easiest thing in the world. If you're a real detective, it shouldn't be that hard for you to work out why. You'll see I had a very good reason to. But I"m not doing your job for you detective. Charge me. Let's get this over with. I'm not going to speak to anyone"

Thank you HarperCollins UK, One More Chapter and Netgalley for giving me an advanced review copy of this book in exchange for an honest review.

This is a really fun murder mystery, solid 3.5 - 4 stars. As the blurb says, we already know that Matthew, Charlie's husband, has been murdered, and Rachel confessed to the crime. We switch POVs between Rachel and Charlie, and move forward and backward in time from the murder, as we learn more and more about the motivations of these characters. The first half of this book moves very slowly. We learn that Charlie and Matthew are the picture-perfect couple, literally, because Matthew is constantly posting pictures of them on instagram showing off their family with their son Titus. As we get further into the book, it becomes clear that nothing is perfect in their lives. There's not one character in this book who is a good person, and that makes it really interesting. There's one twist, regarding Charlie, that I thought came out of nowhere, but otherwise I really enjoyed this book. It reminded me of the Kind Worth Killing, where we get into the mind of a remorseless killer.

This reminded me of an old fashioned who dunnit but in a good way. Very descriptive of the area and surroundings that keeps you guessing throughout. Not the first I've read by this author and it won't be the last.

I really enjoyed B P Walter's The Dinner Guest. It is an interesting glimpse into British society with enduring intrigue into who the murderer is! Well written and engaging.

The Dinner Guest tells the tale of love, murder, and scandal, all centered around a murder over dinner one night. Rachel takes the fall for the murder, but what really happened?

Charlie and Matthew live in a wealthy neighborhood with their perfect son, Titus. One day, they "randomly" meeting Rachel, who starts to become an integral part of their lives, but what do they really know about her?

Throughout the book, the reader gets flashbacks from both Charlie and Rachel that reveal information and secrets leading up to the murder, while also giving us chapters of the impending investigation following the crime.

I thoroughly enjoyed having two perspectives and found myself reading for hours consecutively as a result of the narrative structure of this novel. I definitely recommend The Dinner Guest for any fans of thrillers/mysteries!

Thank you so much to NetGalley and Harper Collins UK/One More Chapter for an ARC of the Dinner Guest!

The Dinner Guest by B P Walter was a great read. Matthew and Charlie are married and have a son named Titus. Early in the book, they run into Rachel at a book store and get to chatting. Rachel somehow worms her way into their lives and she is at every corner. What is Rachel hiding? What secrets are Matthew and Charlie hiding?

The book is a suspenseful thriller that grabbed my attention from the very start with a murder already in the prologue. It is narrated in various timelines of the main character, who tells it’s own perspective of the story. Matthew is murdered at dinner time and one of the characters confessed to the crime, raising suspicious questions. At a certain point Charlie, Titus and Rachel had motives to kill Matthew, and the author knew how to keep the tension in the air with the possibility of murder falling on any one of them. I was very interested till the very end because I couldn’t figure out who the murderer was!

Matthew and Charlie have been together for 6 years - raising Matthew's nephew, now 14 yo.
Rachel wants revenge - she tracks him down, rents a flat on the outskirt of his neighborhood. Rachel strolls down streets, around shops. Until they meet.
Matthew welcomes Rachel into their lives- and his book club. Charlie guesses a hidden agenda - but no one believes him.
Excellent plot and writing. Realistic relationships and issues. Great read.

This will be the thriller of 2021. One word, WOW. I stayed up all night reading this book as I just couldn’t put it down. This book has more twists and turns then a roundabout! I honestly can’t recommend it enough. Wow, wow, wow!

Thank you to NetGalley, B P Walter and Harper Collins UK for an ARC in return for an honest review.

The Dinner Guest by B P Walter is hands down my favourite thriller of the year so far. It is edge of your seat gripping from the start to the finish, with enough twists and red herrings along the way to satisfy any ardent thriller fan. No spoilers here…But the story starts with a with a murder and a dramatic confession and then via flashbacks you unravel what led up to this event.

The book picks up on a trend for 2021 – thrillers featuring influencers. When you live your life in the public glare, trouble is often only a few clicks away and this could not be truer for two of the protagonists of this book Charlie and Matthew, who live the kind of glamourous life we all dream of. But into this seemingly picture-perfect life comes Rachel who is the catalyst for a mire of secrets and lies that will have you page turning into the early hours.

The pacing of the book is brilliant each secret leading to the next like a delicious trail of breadcrumbs. The characters are deliciously unlikeable at times and The Dinner Guest has a strong modern Agatha Christie vibe that permeates the book.

A gripping story of secrets, lies and vengeance 5 out of 5.

Thank you to NetGalley and Harper Collins for an early copy of this novel!


Aaaah, what a hard one to rate!

It took me a loooong time to decide whether this was a 3-star or a 4-star read.

In the end, I ended up going for a 4-star rating for two reasons:

1) The first thing I expect from a thriller/crime book nowadays is originality. There are SO MANY thrillers to choose from; the one I'm reading has got to be different from the others to catch my attention.
In that sense, The Dinner Guest succeeded! It starts off with a murder AND a suspect, and the rest of the story is all about finding out who did what why, rather than being about a cop/family member/other person trying to found out who did it.
The plot as a whole was really well done, and though some things were really predictable (for example, who Rachel is and why she's in London), the whole thing ended up on a satisfying note.
I think what made me a bit unsure about the rating was that, somehow, the plot didn't end up completely captivating me, as some others have done in the past. Honestly, though, this might just have been from a bad timing in my pick of books; there's frankly nothing I can pinpoint as to how the plot went wrong.


2) The characters have to have something that makes them memorable. In some cases, it might be that despicable cop that we love to hate, or the team of cops who love dumb jokes. Sometimes, it's the family member that's set on getting revenge.
In here, it's a set of characters who are, frankly, pretty despicable. Which somehow makes them more endearing. They all live in a way that very few of us can even picture, and yet, they all somehow fuck up in terrible and irreversible ways.
In the end, I found myself hating them and yet rooting for them. It was a weird feeling, but it's a feeling that I will remember, and kudos to the author for making me feel that!


So, all summed up? A solid domestic thriller that could maybe have been made a bit more fast-paced, but was successful in giving us a surprising plot and great characters!

I requested this book because I read a lot of people raving about it and the plot sounded promising.
I struggled to read it because I didn't like the characters and found it a bit too slow and confusing.
Not my cup of tea.
Many thanks to the publisher and Netgalley for this ARC, all opinions are mine

My star rating on a review, much like a storyline, is based on three things: the beginning, the middle and the end.

• The beginning needs to be sharp and catchy. This sets up the whole feeling for what is to come and is when we decide as a reader how quickly we want to find out more.

• The middle needs to be consistent, both in pace and surprise. This is what keeps us reading until the end. No one likes a DNF pile!

• The ending needs to be bang worthy or emotional. This you could argue is the most important part of a storyline, as its what the reader will finish with and will be the determining factor in whether they can’t stop thinking about what they’ve read or not.

This outline is how I base all my reviews; often waiting to see how I feel emotionally after I’ve finished a book before deciding on my star rating. More often than not, the ending is the difference between 4 and 5 star scores.

In the case of ‘The Dinner Guest’ the beginning was indeed captivating. It pulled me straight in and I was ready to go. A great start for the big expectations I had set for my first read of B. P. Walter.

The middle consistently gave us more information when we needed it, kept up the pace that had been set and threw in a few surprises for good measure.

The ending just didn’t have the desired result and fell short of the mark for me. I was left with questions I still wanted answering and overall, I felt things were rushed together. It does beg to question whether this ending style was done on purpose and whether or not there will be a sequel. There certainly is potential to continue.

Overall, I enjoyed the read, I just didn’t love it – 3.5 Stars.

Thank you to #NetGalley, #OneMoreChapter, #HarperCollinsUK and #BPWalter for an ARC of #TheDinnerGuest in exchange for an honest review.