Do you ever pick up a book and by the end of page one you know where it’s going? This was The Rule of Three for me.

The writing was good enough that I second guessed myself at times, but not shockingly, I was spot on. Whether that’s because I read a lot of thrillers/suspense or because the novel was just that predictable I’m not sure. Regardless, it was entertaining and enjoyable. Just not one that will make a particularly lasting impression.

I do always love a novel that includes multiple narrators, mixed timelines, and an investigation and this one checked all the boxes. Some pieces of the novel were pretty out there but again, it was entertaining enough.

Generally, the story felt familiar - almost like it was a mashup of a few different books I’ve read recently.

This would be a fun vacation read if you’re looking for something that might keep you guessing but won’t flex too much brain power.

Thank you to Dutton Books and NetGalley for the copy.

This was a fast paced domestic thriller that had so much drama, but I really enjoyed all of it.

I enjoyed the short chapters and multiple perspectives we got, it kept the story moving and I'm a lover of different points of view. While this didn't stand out as an amazing thriller, it still had me guessing and I wanted to keep flipping the page to figure out what was going on.

Definitely a thriller I would suggest to people who want rich people drama and something to get them thinking.

3.5 stars...

Overall, an interesting and creative plot!

Two issues I had:
1.] There were 6 main characters (8 if you count the detectives) but 3 couples. I found myself halfway thru and still finding it hard to keep track of who was married to who – especially because the author switched back and forth from calling the men by their first names and last names. So, I found it difficult to keep track of 6 names, all their last names, and whose spouses belonged to another.

2.] Possibly because the above, I felt like it was a little dragged out and didn’t flow as smoothly as I would have enjoyed.

I appreciate the imaginative, original, twisty plot!

I started off very intrigued, but I slowly lost interest. At times, the multitude of characters was confusing. Overall it was just okay. The Rule of Three is only getting 3 stars from me.

✔️ the overall concept of the story was really good but…
✖️the execution was just ok… between the various narrator and the many characters .. it just dragged on at times , but I didn’t want to see how it unfolded so kept on reading

The Rule of Three is the first book that I have read by E.G. Scott. I enjoy books told from multiple POVs but this one was a little hard to keep all the characters straight - at least in the beginning. The plot was pretty clear to me early on so I wasn't surprised by any twists, but the book did keep my interest throughout.

Great Who Dun It! Perfect quick read - one sitting for me!
It was difficult at first to get which woman went to which husband - but it clicked. Well written - very interesting.

Incredibly paced, brilliant plot, and exceptional characters. I loved this one so much and the way these two can write a great story combining so many elements of thrillers and crime fiction is stunning. 5/5

This was a domestic thriller with a good plot, however, at times it failed to hold my interest. The multiple POVs got confusing and I didn't care for any of the characters. The short chapters helped me push through and although I had guessed the big reveal at the beginning of the book, there were other good twists that I didn't expect.

Thank you @netgalley and @duttonbooks
for the e-arc of this book.

This was a fast-paced, interesting thriller, one that I was happy to be surprised by. At some points, I got confused by who the women were but by the middle of the book, I got the hang of them. I appreciated the short chapters and the conclusion.

This was a fun thriller that starts off with a bang and quickly drew me in. I did struggle to keep the characters straight, especially who was married to who, but after the first few chapters I finally had them sorted out. In addition to all three of the wive’s POVs we also get two detectives, but I thought would have worked better with just one as they felt like they were too similar to differentiate. I was able to predict where this was going early on, but still was entertaining to see how it would all come together. It’s not the most unique plot, but I enjoyed it and would recommend the audiobook version if you’re looking for a popcorn thriller type easy listen. 3.5 ⭐️ rounded up

Thanks to @Dutton and @Netgalley for the DRC!

This was a domestic thriller high on drama, secrets, power and vengeance. The premise was intriguing and the plotting clever. I enjoy multiple PoVs in a thriller but in this case there were way too many because of which it was hard to keep track of the characters. What I did enjoy were the twists and turns that kept me guessing and an ending that tied up all loose ends together perfectly. I am looking forward to reading more books by these authors.

The suburban setting and upper class characters reminded me of Big Little Lies and The Stepford wives. So if you liked these you will definitely find this one appealing.

Thank you @duttonbooks for sending me the digital ARC to read and review.

Full of twisty suspense, this upscale community has secrets to hide! Black mail, revenge and murder are on the menu and nobody can be trusted!

If you’re a fan of domestic thrillers with a twist, give this one a read.

My thanks to Dutton for this gifted DRC.

A Poker Night Gone Wrong

In the luxurious gated community of Kingsland, it’s poker night for three friends while their wives, Laura, Vicky and Monica, attend their book club. It seems like a night like any other until the wives arrive home to find two husbands dead and one in the hospital. Kingsland is a luxurious community where the ultra rich live and plan their deals. It is also filled with secrets and drama.

The detectives sent to investigate the murders seem rather mundane and not excited about solving the case. The women are distraught, but you have to wonder what they knew about their husbands dealings. There is an underlying tension that all is not exactly the way it looks.

The book is a fast paced thriller with short chapters that keep you reading. The characters are not well developed. The detectives are dull and the three women are too similar to be real. However, the plot moves quickly. Each chapter has a different narrator including the police and the three women. Some are written in third person others in first person. It’s not confusing, but I think having so many viewpoints made the characters seem less real.

If you like murder mysteries in luxury settings, you may enjoy this one.

I received this book from Dutton for this review.

There is nothing better than a gated community full of rich people with loads of personal demons and drama, you know nothing good can come of it. E.G.Scott hit this scenario on the nail head with their new thriller The Rule Of Three.

The story is fast moving from the beginning, providing the reader with secrets, vengeance, blackmail and so much more, keeping those pages turning until the very end.

The book takes place in a gated community where all the people are not on the up and up, they have been shunned or canceled by others in the past, and they are a bunch of shady characters with plenty of secrets.

The men play poker regularly, and while that is taking place, the women attend book club at another house. As simple and pleasing as that may sound, it is not, Scott turns it into a well-written and twisty domestic thriller that is engaging and entertaining, and has an ending that will surprise most.

#FirstLine - Nine-one-one.

This book was so good. I loved that the story such a great premise. It was original and fun. It was filled with twists and turns. It had so many secrets that were revealed. The reader will be pulled into this exclusive neighborhood realizing things are not as they seem. A must read!

Once a week, three women get together for a book club in Kingsland and their husbands meet up to play poker, where much more is being planned than anyone could guess. What happens on this night will change their lives forever! When all three men end up dead or hospitalized, and the entire town is being questioned, no one seems to know what the hell happened?

The Rule of Three by E.G. Scott was a fantastic read! It's full of drama, compelling characters, gossip, lies and a gripping story that pulls you in and keeps you on the edge of your seat! It's told from multiple points of views which was a little confusing at times but it was still a great read! There are plenty of twists and turns to keep you guessing! The build up was great! I really enjoyed the ending! It was surprising how everything played out and came together! Thank you Dutton Books for sharing this book with me!

This was sold to me as "three couples whose game night goes horribly wrong"...and that's not quite it. I was expecting all three couples in the same house, playing the same game, and you know, someone's necromancer summons a foul entity that shows up in corporeal meatspace and does some real-life murder and mayhem. No. That's not this book. I probably should have read the whole synopsis, not just one line (but I think they need to revisit that line!) So, actually, the wives are having a book club night and at the same time, the husbands are having a poker night. All three men end up either dead or hospitalized, and if you're thinking "gee, I bet they deserved it," you'd be right; all three of them were pieces of work. So, who did it, and why? In this exclusive, posh community, it seems like every neighbor has a motive...and that's not even counting the various reasons and resentments their own spouses might be harboring. Speaking of the wives, their internal dialogues/external conversations sound so familiar to one another that at first, I had a hard time telling who was who among the three main characters. They eventually differentiate themselves, but the "hive-mind" feel to their thoughts did throw a bit of a stumbling block for immersing myself in their story. Was it still a gripping story, fraught with tension, intrigue, and drama? Sure, it had all of that, and it was a fast-paced story that eventually drew me in and kept me engaged. I've just got a few nit-picky problems, is all.

Poker Night in the exclusive gated community of Kingsland, New York comes to an explosive close when a series of frantic 911 calls comes in to dispatch. The first is by far the most pressing. The normally composed and elegant Victoria Barnes has come home to find her politician husband shot to death in his study, and fears that his assailant might still be in the house.

As the police are mobilized to deal with this emergency, another Kingsland resident, Victoria’s friend Monica Nichols, discovers not only her husband’s gun box out and empty but her husband himself missing from their home, having sent her only a cryptic text by way of explanation. Soon after, Victoria’s sister Laura Mathers is summoned to the hospital: her husband was found wandering down a forested road, bleeding profusely from a gunshot wound to the head. He’s been put into a medically induced coma in hopes of saving his life, though things still look pretty touch and go.

The three women are shocked by these developments but not necessarily surprised, given what they know of their husbands. All three men are fairly terrible people, as lead police detective Wolcott soon learns:

QUOTE
Terry Barnes, the former congressman and very-well-connected resident of Kingsland–and probably the lowest of the three on the notoriety scale–who managed to court his own share of controversy in certain sectors by staying in the good graces of the NRA with his staunch support of pro-gun legislation. I flash momentarily to the gruesome scene in the den and flinch at the morbid irony. Next up is Spencer Nichols, the disgraced former CEO of Galapagos, Inc., the geotracking company that touted the groundbreakingly small scale of the nanotech it developed–devices tiny enough to fit on the head of a pin, I remembered reading. Nichols was all over the news last year after Galapagos was found guilty of defrauding investors; and last but certainly not least, Gil Mathers, the deliriously successful motivational speaker whose career was undone after video leaked of him at a party, surrounded by drugs and underage women, drunkenly belittling the very people who looked to Gil for inspiration to better themselves.
END QUOTE

The three men took part in a long-standing poker game every Sunday evening at the Barnes’ house while their wives gathered together in the Nichols’ home for book club. Each man was influential in his own way, but together seemed like the perfect, unstoppable force for any endeavor they might set their minds to. Unfortunately, tensions between the men had begun publicly boiling over well before that fateful night, leaving Kingsland shell-shocked in the aftermath of what seems to be a friendship gone murderously awry. Their wives are left to pick up the pieces while also dealing with their own complicated emotions in the wake of so much violence.

For each of the women has had a fairly ambivalent relationship with her spouse, as we and the investigating officers discover over the course of this novel. Having grown up in a wealthy, prominent family, Victoria and Laura are used to keeping up appearances, standing loyally by their loved ones in the face of intrusive media and cruel gossip alike. To the sisters, Texan Monica is a wild card whom they’ve invited into their lives despite her rough-around-the-edges nature, and not just because it would seem unkind to uninvite her from their book group while their husbands all play poker together. Insecure Monica is grateful to have friends again after having to leave California in disgrace following her husband’s release from prison. Kingsland has become something of a refuge for her, and she eventually realizes why:

QUOTE
Vicky often reminds me that things are different here. Neither Vicky nor Laura has laid it out explicitly, but I’ve come to understand why no one is going to run us out of town. Most of the residents of Kingsland Estates have dark splotches on their own reputations, which keep them safely ensconced in their own glass houses, rock-free. We’ve all been “canceled” for our transgressions in some form, or more accurately, looking around at the room full of younger, exotically beautiful women, our husbands have.
END QUOTE

Following along as we discover what happened to the men and why makes for entertaining reading, even if whodunnit seemed pretty obvious to me from quite close to the beginning. The husbands’ hypocrisy and outright appalling behavior was breathtaking, such that readers will feel like they each got their just desserts. I was also amused by the constant references to the fictional self-help book, The Rule Of Three, that gives this novel its title, especially given how much it annoyed Gil, the cult motivational speaker who views the woman-penned manual as a threat to his own brand. This summer beach read serves up plenty of commentary on wealthy suburbia and privilege, and is a great thriller for anyone looking to see terrible men get their deserving comeuppance.

A domestic thriller full of so much drama! A gated community full of rich, entitled people, all of whom have their demons. It was a fast read for me, with chapters being told from alternating characters, we start to discover what really happened that night.

A hot, summer night in Kingsland. 3 women have their weekly bookclub while their husbands have their usual poker night. But what happens on this night will change all of their lives forever. By the end of the night, one man is dead, one is missing and one is in a coma in hospital. What happened? Who wanted them dead? The wives must come to terms with this horrific chain of events.. Police are baffled as they question them and the rest of the neighbourhood, Everyone has secrets, resentment, and somebody knows more than what they are saying.

A great thriller. I look forward to reading more by these authors. Thanks to Dutton and Netgalley for my advanced copy of this book to read. Published 9th August.