Thank you to Random House and Net Galley for giving me an ARC of this novel, which I was anxious to read. The description sounded intriguing, but I found the execution a little disappointing.
The story is told in first person from the point of view of Elspeth, a one-time actress visiting L.A. from New York to attend the 50th birthday party of her former husband, Richard, a stereotypical domineering Hollywood director. Her grown daughter Lillie is supposed to meet her there; it was Lillie who persuaded Elspeth to attend the party in the first place. The intimate guest list consists of shallow Hollywood types connected with Richard's most recent film, with whom Elspeth has little in common. There are also a couple of old friends whom she hasn't seen or talked to since her divorce from Richard a decade ago.
My first question was, once it becomes apparent that Lillie isn't going to show up, why does Elspeth stay at the party? It doesn't seem like she's having a particularly good time or making a connection with anyone there. Seeing Richard stirs up some painful memories of their rocky marriage.
But she does stay. She continues to drink herself into a stupor and ends up spending the night. As do all the guests. And in the morning, Richard is dead. The cause is an apparent heroin overdose, but on closer examination, the police conclude he has been murdered. All of the party guests are suspects.
Elspeth stays in town, living at her daughter Lillie's house, during the investigation. The narrative then alternates between interrogation scenes at the police station and flashbacks from the party.
Act II opens with Richard's memorial service, which is co-hosted by Lillie and Richard's live-in boyfriend, Honey. Another pretentious Hollywood party, in the same location, including the same guests who were at Richard's 50th. Interspersed with scenes from the memorial, we get flashbacks of a different decadent Hollywood party full of drugs, excessive drinking, and shallow conversations: Richard's 4oth birthday, which marked the end of his marriage to Elspeth.
In Act III, after an arrest is made at the memorial service, we get flashbacks of Elspeth's early career in L.A. and her courtship with Richard. It's a stereotypical story of a beautiful, but poor, teenager who leaves home to find fame and fortune in Hollywood, and then catches the eye of a handsome, up-and-coming director who launches her career, sweeps her off her feet, and then becomes abusive.
While the writing is excellent, I didn't feel much of a connection with any of the characters, including Elspeth. Probably the most interesting character was Persephone, Richard's sentient, giant pet octopus, who has been caught on film escaping from her aquarium every night. Elspeth becomes fascinated with octopuses after the party, and the reader learns quite a bit about them as well.
I'd recommend this book for readers who enjoy stories about the glitter and the dark side of Hollywood.

This is a very good debut with lots of nuance and a strong point of view. The information about the octopus was fascinating. Elspeth is a well drawn character who makes complicated decisions for complicated reasons. I look forward to more from this author. Highly recommended for mystery/thriller readers who are looking for something without a pat ending.

Interesting read. . Tess Little takes us into the Hollywoodish entitled elite for a powerful story where I didn’t care for the characters but the writing kept me reading so kudos to Little, an author I haven’t read before.

Man, I really wanted to love this but what a mess. An octopus was a suspect at one point. An octopus! I didn't end up liking or caring about anyone, it looped around and dragged on forever. By the end, I was hoping it was going to be an "and then there were none" situation so I didn't have to read about them anymore..

Elspeth Bell reluctantly agrees to attend the 50th birthday party of her ex- husband, Richard Bryant, for the sake of their daughter. Richard is a well known Hollywood director who has launched careers, including Elspeths’. She was expecting his usual blowout party but learns that he has invited just 7 guests and he makes each a target during the evening. After a night of too much drink and narcotics, the guests wake up to find their host dead.
The only one who witnessed what happened? Persephone, the giant octopus that Richard keeps as a pet.
As the investigation unwinds, Elspeth is holed up in her daughters apartment reliving her past and the secrets she kept. Each of the guests had a reason to hate Richard but would they frame Elspeth as well?
This is a locked room mystery with an inordinate amount of attention on the octopus( who in all honesty was the most interesting character).
I felt this dragged and the ending fell a little flat. I did not connect with any of the characters, they were all self absorbed and boring. The emotions were stilted and the ending a bit rushed.

I was looking forward to this book-being compared to Agatha Christie, but was very disappointed. This was a slow moving story, with pages that I just skipped(which is something I really don’t like doing).
Elspeth attends the 50th birthday party of her ex-husband. The small group of guests party through the night and upon wakening, discover the ex-husband is dead. The story goes back and forth through Elspeth's life, in trying to give the reader connections to why things have happened. Some of these were confusing, while others made complete sense.
I just felt overall that the story was slow, for so few characters, I didn’t feel I knew them and the ending was a let down. Not like Agatha Christie at all.
Thank you to NetGalley for providing this ARC, in return for my review.

I found all the characters on this novel not likable. The victim, Richard, was really despicable, as revealed through the chapters. There are several suspects in his deaths including his ex wife Elspeth. She is the main narrator in the story. There are current prevalent issues thw story covers. I just found it ok. My interest kept waning as the story progressed.

This book started out so good, but some how fizzled out for me. Towards the end, I had to push myself to finish. I think it could’ve been so much more.

Thank you Netgalley and the publishers for the eARC for an honest review.

It is rare these days to find a book that gives thrills and chills and humor and great characters but this book is that, all that. and so much more! I literally could not put it down. Thank you author, for keeping me awake for two nights in a row!

Richard, a big name in LA, is hosting his 50th birthday party. His ex-wife Elspeth is invited, and although reluctant to attend, she at least knows her daughter will also be there. When she arrives, she expects a large crowd, but is surprised that only 7 other guests are there. She is given a tour of the very modern home, the center of which is a enormous tank with a very unusual inhabitant. The food is also surprising as Richard has selected for each guest a meal that links them in some way. Elspeth finds the whole evening quite bizarre, especially as she cannot contact her daughter. Then the host himself is dead,and all the guests are suspects.
I thank Netgalley, the author and publisher for my ARC in exchange for my honest review.

The Last Guest had me sneaking in chapters anywhere I could-on lunch break, in between calls, until I fell asleep book in hand at night. Told from Elspeth’s perspective and switching back and forth between the present, the past and one fateful party night, I was itching to see how everything tied together.
Elspeth attends her ex-husband’s 50th birthday party after years without speaking and attempting to forget the gritty details of their marriage. Richard is always a lot to deal with, but this party is particularly strange. When the night ends in tragedy, Elspeth is left to grapple with her hazy memories and a homicide investigation.
I loved Tess Little’s writing style. This was a dark thriller and I couldn’t put it down!

I will also be posting this review to my booksta @aksbookbites on pub day
I received an ARC of #TheLastGuest by #TessLittle courtesy of #NetGalley and #RandomHouse for my honest thoughts and opinions.

Thank you, NetGalley, for an advanced copy of this novel. The Last Guest is suspenseful, heartbreaking, and has you on your seat until the last chapter.

Without spoilers, I really wish the ending to this story had been given more weight. There were kernels of greatness that if expanded on, would have made for a more dramatic and suspenseful book. The story line looses some oomph about halfway through, but that doesn’t make the book any less enjoyable. I really enjoyed this one and could easily see it as a movie!

The Last Guest is an interesting murder mystery but difficult to follow with the author going back and forth between past and present scenes with no chapter divisions, just paragraph intentions. Many times you wondered who the narrator was Many lives were affected by the victim making the story similar to an Agatha Christi novel.

#TheLastGuest #NetGalley
A breathtaking novel with perfect psychological elements. A good read.
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.
I finished it in a sitting and will definitely highly recommend this to everyone.
Thanks to NetGalley and Ballantine Books for giving me an advanced copy of this book.

The morning after a celebrity party, the host is dead. Everyone is a suspect- including the ex-wife.

The biggest issue I had with this book is I never got a full character run down of anyone but Elsbeth (ex-wife) and Richard (host). This would have been a perfect scenario to do different perspectives from each guest and leave the ending surprise.

The book was a good mystery, i enjoyed the Hollywood and locked room themes. it held my interest enough to want to find out how it ended however I was able to pick up and put down the book a lot. i recommend this to thriller readers to enjoy

This book describes the seamy side of Hollywood so well that I kept feeling grateful not to be a part of all that. I liked how the story unfolded a little at a time, with flashbacks interspersed, and it held my interest to the end. I did feel toward the end that the story got a little repetitive and hard to follow at times. Thank you to NetGalley and the publisher for providing this ARC in exchange for an honest review.

This book was interesting at times and too slow at many other times. The host of a birthday party dies and the guests all have motives for killing him. but did they, follow the twists and find out

This book was a slow burn that never really caught fire. The premise is great...there's a party, the host is found dead the next morning, the party guests are the main suspects. As the death is investigated we get small flashbacks as the ex-wife tries to piece together all that she didn't know about how her ex had spent the last few years of his life. This really has a great potential but it missed the mark in several ways for me. First, the characters are developed in a very choppy way since we're learning about them from alternating past and present narratives. Then, there's this octopus that seems to have a a supporting role in the story. I think it's meant to be in a dark and brooding way yet comes off more as weird and incomplete. It kept my interest enough to want to finish reading and find out the truth but the process of getting there felt I was just slowly trudging through details that didn't pertain.