So there is a core to this book that is really in my wheelhouse - a locked room mystery at a fancy dinner party. Really, the set up is pretty analogous to my all time favorite mystery, CARDS ON THE TABLE. However, the writing and pacing in this was really just not for me. It felt quite herky jerky and it kept taking me out of the story. So while there were definitely elements I enjoyed in this, it didn't fully connect for me as well as I wanted it to

I absolutely loved reading The Last Guess by Tess Little! It’s the perfect amount of drama and suspense. The characters are well developed and the ending is shocking! I highly recommend this book!!

"A glamorous birthday dinner in the Hollywood Hills ends with the famous host dead and every guest under suspicion in this dark, cinematic suspense debut reminiscent of an Agatha Christie page-turner crossed with David Lynch's Mulholland Drive.

When Elspeth Bell attends the fiftieth birthday party of her ex-husband, Richard Bryant, the Hollywood director who launched her acting career, all she wants is to pass unnoticed through the glamorous crowd in his sprawling Los Angeles mansion. Instead, there are only seven other guests - and Richard's pet octopus, Persephone, watching over them from her tank as the intimate party grows more surreal (and rowdy) by the hour. Come morning, Richard is dead - and all of the guests are suspects.

In the weeks that follow, each guest comes under suspicion: the school friend, the studio producer, the actress, the actor, the new partner, the manager, the cinematographer, and even Elspeth herself. What starts out as a locked-room mystery soon reveals itself to be much more complicated, as dark stories from Richard's past surface, colliding with memories of their marriage that Elspeth vowed never to revisit. She begins to wonder not just who killed Richard, but why these eight guests were invited - and what sort of man would desire to possess a creature as mysterious and unsettling as Persephone.

The Last Guest is a stylish exploration of power - the power of memory, the power of perception, the power of one person over another."

You had me at Lynchian with a dash of Agatha Christie!

I really wanted to love The Last Guest. But I found myself annoyed at every page. The skipping in time, the constant feeling like I am missing something, unlikeable characters. The only thing I liked was the premise. .

Richard Bryant throws the party of the year with his closest friends celebrating his fiftieth birthday. Richard isn't exactly well-loved by everyone. He is a director know for launching careers and directing amazing films but he has a very dark side. He isn't exactly the nicest man in Hollywood. As the guests wake up the next morning,, Richard doesn't wake up. He is dead....... suicide, murder, or merely and accident? All the guests are questioned and the case is torn apart.
I found The Last Guest by Tess Little, very intriguing and suspenseful. I love books that share everyone's dirty laundry. However, I didn't care for how it was written. I found it extremely hard to follow, especially when it was skipping around in time. The are no chapters. Just little breaks in between paragraphs and the book is divided into acts 1, 2, 3.
I will be recommending to others with the one caveat that they have to be very attentive to the time frames since the book does jump around. I will also be looking for future works by Tess Little. Special thanks to NetGalley, Tess Little, and Random House Publishing Group - Ballantine Books for the advanced digital copy in exchange for my honest opinion. 4 stars for me. #TheLastGuest #NetGalley

I spent this entire book trying to figure out what happened in this book. How did the dude die? Was it an accident? Did he do himself in? Did one of the guests kill him? Was it the octopus? And yes you did read that correctly.

A man invites 8 of his closest frenemies to his house for his fiftieth birthday party. The narrator is the ex-wife, who arrives at the party last. The food at the dinner is all basically digs at the guests, a commentary of sorts, even if they don't get it or pretend not to.

It's a cross between clue and a locked door mystery.

I really liked it. I'm still thinking about it. But if I say anything else, I might give away a spoiler.

Such a fun revisit to the classic whodunit genre, and with an awesome cover! Lots of great characters, plotting, and dialogue - would highly recommend to A. Christie fans!

Right up front, I'll say this is one of the strangest, for wont of a better word, books I've ever read. More to the point, I spent several "chapters" (of which, notably, there are none, BTW) telling myself it was bound to get less confusing. Long before the end, though, I decided that not only was this a good story, but in a sense, a real work of written art.

The confusion, I should explain, mostly came because of those non-chapters. There are something like four different "scenarios" - starting with the self-planned 50th birthday dinner for Hollywood director Richard Bryant during which all his guests (with the exception of his pet octopus, Persephone) get totally drugged out and Richard ends up totally dead. But, I assume on purpose, there's no delineation other than a couple of hard carriage returns between the scenario shifts. Without warning, I'd read two or three pages wondering what the heck was going on until finally I discovered I was reading about a whole new time and place. That said, once I realized what was happening and what the clue was to the switcheroo (i.e., those extra carriage returns), everything began to make sense.

And from then on, I was hooked; in fact, I was somewhat in awe of the skillful writing. The story is told by Elspeth, an actress and former wife of Richard - till she left for early-on unexplained reasons and he married a young Black man who goes by "Honey." Richard, known for his volatile temper almost as much as his directorial prowess, has invited just a few of his closest friends (enemies?), including Elspeth. After he proceeds to humiliate most of them, the ever-flowing drinks and drugs send everyone (except perhaps Persephone) to La-La Land. Problem is, Richard doesn't wake up.

Although there's some question about his death, the police conclude it was a murder; as such, the list of possible killers is limited to the not more than a handful of party guests. Elspeth didn't wake up until after the others, so she's fairly certain it wasn't her (although goodness knows she had plenty of motives). But who did it, and why?

The rest of the book looks at interactions between Richard and each of the other characters, none of whom is particularly likable and all of whom had means opportunity to do the deed (even the tanked-up Persephone can't escape suspicion). As Richard's true character begins to emerge, their motives - all based on hatred of the despicable Richard - become apparent as well. But who is the guilty party?

I know, but I'll won't say another word except that finding out was a totally enjoyable experience. Many thanks to the publisher for the opportunity to read and review a pre-release copy. Well done!

This was a very strangely written book. It’s told with two timelines that change rather randomly every few pages instead of chapters. It wasn’t that hard to follow, I’m just unsure as to why the author wrote it this way. The mystery was good but I didn’t really care for any of the characters or what happened to them. I think perhaps the octopus was the most interesting character and only because she escaped her tank from time to time.
Thanks to the publisher and Netgalley for the early copy

This book was sent to me by the Ballantine Publisher in exchange for an honest review. I have not read anything by Tess Little before so I didn't know what to expect. The storyline was intriguing...I wanted to find out the who-done-it but at times I found it a little slow and going into too much details/reminisce that was a little unnecessary. I really enjoyed the ending and discovering how had Richard died once everything unfolded.

Thanks NetGalley, Ballentine books and Tess Little for this ARC

A Hollywood director throws himself an intimate 50th birthday party with only eight guests, including his ex-wife Elspeth. After a lavish dinner and lots of alcohol, things get weird and wild and the guests find Richard dead the next morning. Was it a drug overdose, suicide, or did one of the guests murder him?

“The Last Guest” has some definite Agatha Christie vibes, but unfortunately it didn’t quite live up to its potential. Richard was a horrible guy and each of the guests had plenty of reason to despise him, but the characterization is flat, with some of the characters indistinguishable from each other. Even Elspeth is pretty bland despite all of the time we spend in her head. The non-linear timeline – flashing between the party, the investigation, and various points in the past – also hampers the story’s momentum.

I received a free copy from NetGalley. Locked room mystery, but I spent a lot of time rooting for the octopus. The characters are rich and spoiled and unrelatable and easy to hate. Could they have all done it? I didn't really care because he as a jerk alive and he was a pain dead and they all had secrets, many that should have put them in jail if they didn't have money too.

At his intimate yet lavish 50th birthday party a famous Hollywood Director is mysteriously murdered. The eight guests are suddenly all suspects. As the complicated and often dark individual relationship unfold,, you find yourself wondering and second guessing your prediction as to who would commit the crime.

I was on the struggle bus the entire time and it wasn’t until maybe the last 30-40 pages that I enjoyed this book to any degree. This had the potential to be good, but nobody was likable and the transitions between points in time were sometimes too clunky. Persephone could have been more interesting but I felt like she disappeared halfway through. Hopefully this book worked for someone else.

I think my favorite character was Persephone. As she didn’t drone on back and forth.

I expected a locked-room mystery but the dialogue was just too much. Actress Elspeth has been invited to her ex-husbands birthday party. She has made it clear she will only attend if their daughter is with her. When her daughter is a no-show, things get weird.

There were a whole bunch of odd people invited. Including her ex-husband’s current lover. They were having dinner and then drinks and then, lights out.

Elspeth wakes up to a dead ex and a room of sleeping guests. The police are suspicious of all of them. The story doesn’t make sense. And it really does not.

I honestly only liked the octopus. The rest of them were just self-involved.

If you are a fan of weird things, this is for you.

NetGalley/October 5th, 2021 by Ballantine Books

Hmmmm

This one fell flat and I really don't know why. It had everything that I like in a mystery and I was excited for the closed door aspect with a small cast of characters, but guys I don't know I didn't love it.

A Hollywood director throws himself an elaborate birthday party at his home and ends up dead. The guest list is very small, everyone is together in his house, so one of them had to do it. Sounds like the perfect who-did-it book but for me it fell flat. The author had a good story line but did not follow through with it.

The story is told by the ex-wife who attended the party and tries to solve the mystery but for me she was a very shallow character. The other guests were kind of overlooked as we never get to really know much about them. And I did not understand the reasoning behind why so much emphasis was placed on the octopus as it did not add to the story line for me.

After several attempts to finish this book, while hoping that my interest would be piqued, I did finally finish it. Even though the mystery is solved in the end I was left feeling that a lot had been left out. Sorry, but this book did not appeal to me.

"A glamorous birthday dinner in the Hollywood Hills ends with the famous host dead..." This describes the peculiar and spooky story. It's "Agatha Christie meets Mulholland Drive."
It's a whodunnit mystery with a lot of character development and interest in marriage in Hollywood. Richard, the wealthy, famous host, has a party for his birthday and invites even his ex-wife. Richard ends up dead and everyone at the party is a suspect. If you like Clue you may enjoy this odd Hollywood mystery.
It's a slow book and I wasn't fully invested, therefore I give it 3 stars for keeping me reading. Thanks to Netgalley and Ballentine for the ARC.

The Last Guest by Tess Little didn't live up to the hype, for me. I thought it would read like a locked-room mystery, since much of the story takes place at Richard's 50th birthday party and Richard ends up dead by morning. With only 7 or so guests at the party, we don't know who killed him, but we know someone is guilty. I expected to feel the excitement of wondering who was guilty, maybe revealing some dark secrets or motives for each of the guests ... but instead, the story just went on and on until it finally fizzled out at the end.

The entire story is told from the point of view of Richard's ex-wife Elspeth, who isn't really loveable and whom we don't really get to know despite her long inner-monologues. The timeline bounces back and forth between the 50th party, the 40th birthday party, Elspeth's acting debut from a few decades ago, and Richard's memorial.

There were brief moments of intrigue as the reader wonders if Richard killed himself and staged it to look like a murder, and as Elspeth wonders if the octopus killed him. Actually, there is quite a lot of time spent on the octopus: watching her, researching her species, talking about her; it was a very unique part of the story.

My biggest issue with this book was that, although it was a slow, slow story, we did not spend any time really getting to know the characters. Rather than learning all about the party goers, we just glossed over each of them. While the writing is haunted and sets the right tone for the story, I felt let down that it was just a lot of time spent on words without getting to connect with characters.

Reader warnings: there are mentions and allusions throughout to the dark side of Hollywood, drug use, and physical and psychological abuse.

Thank you to NetGalley for an advanced copy of this book in exchange for my honest review.

This was a good story, but it was so slow moving that I didn't end up enjoying it as much as I'd hoped. The jumping from past/present was too much at times although I understand the reason the author did it.