Special thank you to Random House Publishing Group - Ballantine, Bantam and NetGalley for allowing me to read and review this digital ARC of All Dressed Up

When I read the synopsis I was so excited to pick up this book - a weekend away, in a hotel...a murder mystery game that revolved around the 1920s (I mean it had Agatha vibes all over it!). While the idea was great the execution fell short - there was an initial grab but that feeling died off when the book moved on...I almost DNF but wanted to know who did it....so I did finish. This book just wasn't exciting - its a face paced read but not sure I'd recommend

My thanks to Net Galley, Random House, and Ballantine for the arc of this book.

Blake treats his wife Becca to a murder mystery weekend to try to repair an indiscretion he had done to.his wife. They gather with other couples to solve a "murder" of one of the characters. However the maid of the "murdered" character disappears thus activating a real mystery along with the clues throughout the book to solve the fake mystery.

Kind of a fun read, shades of Agatha Christie, but uninteresting flat characters. Was expecting more.

All Dressed Up by Jilly Gagnon is a story involving an interactive murder mystery similar to the dinner theater presentations at the end of the last century wherein the diners have to uncover the murderer. The twist here is that the novel takes place at a hotel/guest inn over the course of one weekend. Each of the four couples attending are given clues and assigned parts to play and the staff doubles as both staff and actors in this very silly play.

The couples and characters are not well developed, have marital problems and are all uninteresting. This reader only felt compelled to finish reading the book in order to write a review for NetGalley and Bantam Books, the publisher.

This is such a fun premise. A couple goes on a Clue-like murder mystery weekend with 3 other couples, and the main character begins to believe a real-life mystery has occurred. The real-mystery within a fake-mystery concept should have been a winner. But I had trouble following along because all of the guests as well as the staff had their real names and their game names and it got confusing. Plus only one of the mysteries was solved. And the main character is just annoying. Her husband has brought her on this weekend as a gift to somehow make up for cheating on her and she spends an inordinate amount of the novel obsessing about his cheating and about her perceived insufficiencies. Now I'm not saying she isn't entitled to be upset, but I don't want to read a whole novel about it. More mystery, less whining please.

This book reminded me of clue and the westing game but more modern I’d guess you’d say. I enjoyed it, I love a good mystery but my biggest ick for a book is infidelity. So that’s an instant turn off. I felt that didn’t really even need to be in the story to be successful. It was a bit predictable with only maybe 2 things I didn’t guess, but I am an avid mystery and crime lover so it may not be obvious to other readers. Otherall a good book I would recommend to friends.

Blake has surprised his wife, Becca, with this weekend mystery retreat so they can get away. Blake knows that Becca loves mysteries. He hopes that this time away will help heal their broken marriage. With five other couples, they set out to find out who killed Ida.

I am a mystery book addict so when I chose to read the advance copy of All Dressed Up it seemed to be a perfect fit for me. The idea and theme of the book - experiencing a weekend based on finding who did it - was great. I just wish the author had kept to that theme. There was too much emphasis placed on the marriage problems of Becca and Blake. Becca's character became very irritating and repetitive as she constantly whined about how Blake had cheated on her. I must admit that about a third of the way through the book I was skimming over parts of her dialogue as I was bored with it.

The author did pull it all together by the end of the book with a few surprises thrown in. The mystery was solved but I did not like that some of the issues were left hanging.

All Dressed Up is a murder mystery set within a Murder Mystery Weekend game. The main characters, Becca and Blake, are working at putting their marriage together after Blake had an affair. Knowing how much Becca enjoys mysteries Blake made arrangements for them to go away to a mansion that hosts Murder Mystery Weekends. It's an intimate affair with only 6 other people attending. As the events unfold Becca begins to suspect that a real life crime has been committed and sets off to investigate, putting her own life at risk. I found parts of the book to be predictable, but there were a few twists that surprised me. Within the story there is a definite thread exploring the masks we wear with strangers, friends, and even spouses. I found this to be a quick read for a rainy day. #netgalley #AllDressedUp

A themed murder mystery weekend was a fun setting for an actual murder mystery. Becca and Blake are in a rough patch so their weekend away turns out to be a little more than they excepted. I enjoyed how the book interwove the dossiers of each guest as well as the scenarios and benchmarks of the fictional murder. One of the cast members goes missing, but Becca is sure there is more the the story so she's trying to solve a real mystery, a pretend murder and decide if she can get past the challenges in her marriage. I did figure out the murderer, but I had the murder weapon wrong. Overall a satisfying read for mystery lovers.

This book was a fun treat! I loved it! It was a good reset after I read a heavier book. It kept me flipping pages well past my bedtime!!

Such a fun mystery within a mystery. It is Agatha Christie meets real like Clue. It makes you question relationships and what you think you know. What feels like a typical “who done it” turns out to be anything but one. Great, fun read with lots of intrigue and twists. I highly recommend it to every arm chair detective.

A really fun mystery! Becca attends a murder mystery weekend with her hubby and several other couples. Then things get very sinister very quick. Really good writing, unlikeable characters and lots of twisty turns. All of my favorite things!

This murder mystery was not for me. I thought it would feel more Agatha Christie from the descriptions but that’s not a good comparison. The main characters felt more like characters from a thriller than mystery.
I think the premise of a themed 1920’s murder mystery vacation weekend is fun and other readers might enjoy.

This book was great, the characters were well developed. The plot was interesting. Highly recommend it.

Thank you to Random House - Ballantine and NetGalley for this ARC in exchange for an honest review!

All Dressed Up by Jilly Gagnon is a love letter to the great mysteries of the past like And Then There Were None or Clue. The story revolves around Becca and her husband Blake, who has arranged for a weekend getaway at a manor with a murder mystery theme. Becca and Blake are given roles to play and cue cards for what they have to do. But when someone goes missing, the murder game becomes more real than Becca expected. Now, she'll have to find the real clues in order to sort out the murderer.

Here is a chilling excerpt from the Prologue:

"She squinted against the darkness.
“Hello?” Her voice seemed to disappear up the gaping maw of the hearth. She bit her lower lip, taking a tentative step forward. “Are you here?”
From the shadows beyond, a voice emerged, low and rough.
“I wasn’t sure you’d come.” The girl went still as the speaker stepped out from the shadows. “But I’m glad you did. It’s time you and I had a talk.”
“Does this mean . . .”
“Oh, yeah. She knows.”"

Overall, All Dressed Up is a murder mystery that will appeal to fans of Clue or Knives Out. One highlight of this book is the fun premise. As someone who has participated in role-play mystery games before, I found the premise to be really interesting. Another highlight of the book is Becca, who is a strong female protagonist. She's not afraid to defend herself and argue with Blake when he is wrong. It's also great how she loves historical TV shows like Downton Abbey, but isn't afraid to break decorum when the situation demands it. If you're intrigued by the excerpt above, or if you're a fan of murder mysteries in general, I highly recommend that you check out this book when it comes out in September!

A real murder happening during a “Clue” like murder mystery party weekend is an interesting premise. Unfortunately, the characters distract from the overall solid mystery. In the first half of the book I was too preoccupied trying to keep up with who’s who to stay as engaged in the mystery as I would have liked. All of the weekend participants and staff had a real name and a game ‘character’ name which made it hard to keep track. My biggest issue was with the main character. She was annoying and unlikeable for the entire story. She is constantly wrapped up in inner dialogue about how insecure she is and agonizing over her failing marriage. The personal ending for the main characters was frustrating and oversimplified. The main character somehow rationalizes her husband’s affair as at least partially her fault and her solution is “well maybe we should just be swingers”. Felt very disingenuous and shallow.

This should have been very up my alley -- a closed room murder mystery party gone wrong? But it got bogged down in the particulars of sorting out the "extra" mystery, didn't feel like it provided enough details for the reader to work through the fake mystery for it to feel engaging enough for the amount of page time and level of detail provided, and ultimately ended up kind of dragging. I also don't know if I bought some of the personal resolution for the characters.

Thanks Netgalley for allowing me to read this book. Becca agrees to spend the weekend at a gorgeous hotel during a murder mystery with her husband. Becca is mad at her husband and is not sure if she can forgive him. I enjoyed the different characters in this book.

I was given a free copy for an honest review and I actually agonized over how to assign a rating to “All Dressed Up”.
As I read the first 70% I was always very confused about who all the characters were. Players? Couples? Staff? Just way too many people to get to know very quickly right off the bat. And this is a mystery so getting to know each one is important. Plus each of the 4 couples had real names and then their assigned game stage names so I could never keep them straight. If, in the beginning and through the first 25% of the book, the author had called them by their last name “the Smiths” it would have been much easier to recognize them and then to seperate them from the help who also had two different names. All in all, there were just way too many names that really never entered into the meat of the story.
Then, there were even some slow moving extraneous scenes that in the end meant very little to the story yet was very distracting. I thought it dragged in parts.
To be fair, I hardly ever read mystery novels so maybe misdirection in general is part of the genre. As I was reading I began to think that the story would be much better as a movie so that you could see and identify each actor. I had figured to give this book 2 stars and even thought of actually quitting it, but I did keep going. And I’m glad I did because the ending was so very well written that it could definitely be a very nearly 5 star book. I felt the finale was certainly where the author’s talent really shined.
Nevertheless, in the end I give it only 3 stars for all the unnecessary ambiguities I had to push through. If the author would like to reach a large audience the book really deserves a cursory rewrite to make it more coherent and easier to read.

I received this book as a publisher preview via NetGalley. The premise of a murder mystery weekend in a hotel with an interesting assembly of guests is intriguing. There were moments that I was totally absorbed in the whodunit but the story got all convoluted at times. The addition of a potential murder of a hotel employee was a good twist to the plot. The main character, Becca, was quite relatable.

Where to begin. Blake Wilson decides to take his wife Becca to a Murder Mystery weekend to compensate for the fact that he has been cheating on her for six months. Becca, unaware of the scenario for the weekend, stumbles on the body of a maid and freaks out. This is only the beginning of her nervous breakdown. She constantly runs an inner dialogue about how dull she is and how no one could possibly love her and that's why her husband cheated on her. Yikes why give him the upper hand. Then she is semi propositioned by the woman from another couple for a swingers encounter. This was way over the top. Did not enjoy it at all. Hope there are no others in the series.