When I first started reading this book I wondered whether I would take to a book about privileged folk and their wealthy lifestyles. The first chapter about Rupert's birthday party did not grab me but once the detective Caius Beauchamp was introduced into the story my interest level rose.
I really liked this character and the rest of his team. The storyline was engaging and the book just flowed. I believe this is a debut novel but this writer has skills and knows how to weave a good story.

Unfortunately I really didn’t enjoy this book, it felt painful to read and was unnecessarily long and dragged out at points. The ending was anti-climactic and disappointing.
It often felt as though the author was using fancy and over complicated words to fluff up the book, however it became difficult to read when you have to look up the meaning of multiple words per page.

I was all set to hate this book as just the names of the characters let alone their privileged aristocratic lifestyles is usually enough to irk me. However I have to eat my words as I thought it was an enjoyable read from the off. The quirky police team have their work cut out to try and untangle the mess created by a bunch of Oxbridge Classics and Art History graduates; Detective Caius Beauchamp is fast becoming my new fave detective. Laugh out loud funny in places and very quick and easy to read. Personally I preferred it to Lucy Foley’s books, although I can see many people loving both authors due to the similar “them and us” theme. I predict it’ll be a bestseller.

I absolutely loved this book! The larger-than-life characters were both hilarious and eye-wateringly cringy. The plot moved along at a great pace and kept me hooked from start to finish. I can't wait for Charlotte Vassell's next book.

I persevered with this book but ultimately DNF'd at 70%. I just didn't care who did it. I didn't like any of the characters (I suspect this was purposeful) and found it all very unrealistic and bothersome. The writing is not bad, it just wasn't my cup of tea. Or perhaps being a mood reader, it just didn't hit the spot at the right time.

This was a very disturbing but good read.

Thoroughly enjoyed from start to finish and could not get enough of.

The room was full of the sort of people Tatler thinks you should know.

The Other Half is the story of two men, both with what looks like the same surname. Rupert Beauchamp is the heir to a baronetcy and his thirtieth birthday party is a catered-with-butler event at McDonalds in Camden Town. Think Bollinger and cocaine. His surname is pronounced 'Beecham'. Caius Beauchamp is a detective inspector with the Metropolitan police and is bi-racial. His surname is pronounced as you see it. The two encounter each other when Caius, out for a run, stumbles across the body of Clemmie O'Hara, Rupert's girlfriend. Rupert thought that she was being deliberately late for his party. She was dead under a bush.

Clemmie was in thrall to Rupert. She'd been dropping half-brick-shaped hints to Rupert about getting married. Rupert had been saying for about a decade that he wanted to be free of Clemmie. He was usually telling it to Helena (Nell) Waddingham, whom he swears he loves despite the fact that it's fairly obvious that he loves no one but himself. Nell has just broken up with Casper, in whose flat she is still living, and appears to be drawn to Alex. Throw in people with names like Jolyon Armstrong-Wile-de Fflouffe, Tabitha de la Croix, Bella Villiers D'Arcy and Julian Hinckley-Smythe and you know pretty much who you're dealing with.

I very nearly gave up on this book fairly early on. I'd had enough of the Prince Harry fandango where privileged people seem to take potshots at sitting ducks to the extent that you wonder if any of them have anything to recommend them. Could I read a story about them? Well, it turned out that I could and that I could thoroughly enjoy it. The Other Half is exquisitely plotted, with characters, most of whom you feel no guilt about loathing, which is always a bonus.

I loved this book and I'd like to thank the publishers for letting Bookbag have a review copy. I can't wait to read what Charlotte Vassell writes next.

This is a really fun book, with plenty of twists along with a couple of murders!
I started off slightly underwhelmend as we met what seemed like a trail of sterotyped upper class characters ... but within a chapter the book took plenty of twists and turns. It challenges race and class ideas. You discover more about each character as the book progresses in a way that really kept me reading, and leading up to what was a fairly unexpected ending.

I felt this book started a little slow, but once I got the characters straight in my head I read it faster. There were twists I saw coming, but many that I didn't. Definitely worth reading

This is a great debut novel and certainly one with a difference. It is a novel about the class system which still exists in the UK. The characters are a bit stereotypical and have stereotypical names but that does not deflect from the story. There is a bit of a message at the end about the entitled rich but overall it is a good crime story and I love the Classical mentions. The hero is definitely the policeman Caius! Thanks NetGalley. An author to remember..

This is a satirical psychological suspense story with a detective.
We open with a birthday party held at Kentish Town McDonald’s by a posh 30-year old called Rupert. We follow the POV of Nell, his old classmate from Oxford. The next morning a body is discovered in Hampstead Heath and Detective Beauchamp is called in. We flit from the detective’s POV and Nell’s POV.
This a darkly interesting read. I enjoyed it throughly. I loved the nuanced depiction of the detective being mixed raced and the obstacles he faces. Vassell writes searingly about this world offering an unflinching reflection of the ridiculousness of the wealthy, old school rich families of England. I did find, however, that at times her points became repetitive and I wanted the story to move on faster, and I found Nell’s relationship with Rupert bizarre at times. I couldn’t understand why Nell was so in love with Rupert. But it was such a compelling read and Beauchamp and Matt are such a unique duo, and I loved their view of the world as men of colour. I hope Vassell writes a sequel following the stories of this detective duo.

A black tie birthday party taking place in McDonald’s, that can’t be right can it?
Yes it is and the party is for a loathsome man called Rupert it’s for his thirtieth birthday and there’s plenty of champagne and drugs to add to the burgers.
All of his acquaintances are at the party apart from his girlfriend Clemmie , the story that unfolds is one of murder , power and misogyny .The book is written a witty and light hearted way even though the subject matter is dark .
All of the main suspects aren’t likeable characters and Rupert is a selfish , arrogant and repulsive man .
The story is full of twists and turns with the odd stereotype thrown in for good measure at times it’s very tongue in cheek and it all adds up to a very enjoyable and clever read.
I hope this is the start of a series and we see Caius and Alex return to investigate more tales of murder and criminality.
Thanks to NetGalley and Faber and Faber Ltd.

I enjoyed this at first, the Bullingdonesque group of friends are well drawn if predictable (I can't help seeing and hearing Rupert as Boris Johnson, even though he's supposed to be young and handsome). However, the police investigation makes Hetty Wainthropp look like The Wire. This would work if the detectives were being mocked as well but (I think) DI Beauchamp is meant to be a thoughtful and sympathetic character.

Crime fiction fans would likely be exasperated by the lack of pace and realism in the murder mystery, but the novel has a fun, breezy voice which may appeal to readers of contemporary fiction. DNF

This is a well written, caustic, entertaining debut novel. It flits between a group of friends who live an incredibly self indulgent life and a detective investigating a murder. It was sufficiently interesting to maintain my interest, but, it’s over wordy in parts and I got a bit confused by the storyline. However, overall an enjoyable Good Read.

Thanks to Faber and Faber and NetGalley for the opportunity to preview.

I LOVE a good whodunnit every day of the week, and the other half scratched my itch!

Throw in the glitz and glamour of london's elite, and you get a combination that will make it hard to put the book down!

The Other Half deserves to be turned into a tv show it’s so enticing. From the moment you start reading you feel like Caius and Matt are old friends and you wants to go on the journey of this case with them. The mystery is fun to read, the characters intriguing and I want another book asap!
Highly recommend you pick this up, you’ll have it finished within a day!

A lot can happen in 10 days: a millennial guy can have a birthday, a love affair can start, a girl can die! Rupert Beauchamp, heir to a Baronetcy, is seriously, so rich that he can hire the upstairs half of the McDonald's in Kentish Town so that he can have an outré birthday party for his similarly spoilt but not quite as rich friends, most of whom he has known for years and was a student with atr Oxford. Many have wildly aristocratic family names denoting a heritage that goes back to 1066. First name's too are the sort rarely found outside such circles: Tabitha, Jolyon, Casper, Mungo, Minty . . . In such company Nell (Helena) is a bit below the salt, but she's the great love of his life – or, more exactly, his dreams as they have never been a couple. Instead, his long-term girlfriend is Clemmie (Clemency) who is desperate to become engaged; which Rupert definitely doesn't want. The party rocks on into the night, drinks and drugs flowing freely. The only oddity is that Clemmie is late, then very late, then no show. Unsurprisingly her body is found the next morning in the bushes beside Parliament Hill. Coincidentally, the discoverer is DI Caius Beauchamp, no relation to Rupert, who then become SIO for the investigation. Rupert is the obvious culprit but his alibi, the party and subsequent shenanigans, is witnessed by lots of people ruling him out. So, another friend, or love rival, or her boss at the Gallery where she puts in a few lackadaisical hours, or someone else in the close-knit world of these “Bright Young Things”? It is unlikely to be a stranger since she was apparently poisoned, but then had her throat cut post mortem. Caius is ably assisted in the investigation by DS Matty Cheung and DC Amy Noakes.
The language in which the story is told is beautiful, amusing, complex and cultured. The style conveys a strong sense of the world in which these believable characters exist, while simultaneously being tongue in cheek, even knowing. It took me a chapter or two to engage with it, but once hooked by the style it became a really enjoyable read and the plot turned out to be considerably more complicated than it initially seemed. As far as the whodunit element, I did solve that quite quickly although the story did try very hard to push me off the notion (there are a few early clues, but these are well hidden by both the plot and the style). Overall, it is a gentle satire on the clash between the world of the rich and spoiled and that of the workaday “oiks” personified by the police officers, all of whom are deliberately from ethnic or sexual minorities. I’m not hundred percent sold on the rating but it’s too entertaining to be as low as 4 so I’m being slightly generous.
I would like to thank NetGalley, the publishers and the author for providing me with a draft proof copy for the purpose of this review.

Rupert is self obsessed, handsone, privately educated and filthy rich. His girlfriend Clemmie is murdered and three police officers are on the chase to solve who done it.

I loved the cover of this book and was really looking forward to a great murder mystery, instead I just found the book boring and pretentious. Sorry this book was just not for me!

I was sent a copy of The Other Half by Charlotte Vassell to read and review by NetGalley. I absolutely loved this novel! It is light, funny, engrossing and quite irreverent at times. The characters are all well drawn though slightly exaggerated - which I felt just added to the general tone of the book. There is a great storyline with more than one murder mystery, lots of plot twists and various pockets of excitement. I can’t really praise it highly enough; it was a delight! I can’t wait for the author’s next novel – I am really hoping that it will include some of the core characters that we have already met in this marvellous debut.

This is a murder mystery that starts with Rupert's birthday party. He and his friends are all influential aristocrats. Rupert's girlfriend Clem doesn't arrive at the party and is later found dead on Hampstead Heath by Detective Caius Beauchamp. He investigates the case but some of the suspects have high level connections so he cannot proceed. I liked the detective and his colleagues Amy and Matt. Rupert and his circle were horrible.