While this book is graced with a memorable cover, the story as a whole fell a bit flat.

The Other Half is a satire about how the other half live and die. Perhaps the satire was somewhat responsible for me not getting invested in any of the characters or the outcomes of the murder mystery.

I also found the writing style incredibly difficult to follow and the humor would have been better received as a play or movie under the expertise of trained actors who could pull out the nuances through voice and body language. I have a feeling that had I seen this as a film production, I would have liked it a lot more.

The one aspect of this story that had me curious about future books was DI Caius Beauchamp's character. He had the most depth and prospect for growth than any other character. I would check out the next book in the series just to see how he was getting along.

There were some highlights to this story, but overall, it was a challenge to keep picking up. If you are someone who likes satires about the London elite with a tad bit of crime solving on the side, you may be intrigued by this story. I think the author's writing style will work for some readers and not as well for others, so if you are interested in the story, give this a try and see if its your cup of tea.

2.5 ✨'s

Thank you to Vintage Anchor via NetGalley for allowing me to respond to this book with my honest opinions.

Many thanks to NetGalley and Vintage Anchor for gifting me a digital ARC of this wonderful book by Charlotte Vassell - 4 stars!

Rupert is the perfect example of "the other half" - he lives with no rules, , no job, no budget, no worries, no thoughts to his boorish behavior. He decides to hold his 30th birthday party at the local McDonald's - but burgers aren't really on the menu. Instead, it's champaign and cocaine. When his girlfriend, Clemmie, is found dead the next day, who could have killed her? Detective Caius Beauchamp just happened to be the one who found Clemmie, so he's in charge of her case, for now. Because the other half extend into every part of life. Can Caius find her killer before her case is turned over or forgotten?

I adored Caius and can't wait to read more of his story - because this is the first of hopefully more to come. He's pining for a woman who left him and moved to France, so he has decided to change. He tries to eat right, exercise, read the right books, but you know, life interferes. This was a good "who-dun-it" made even better by Caius and his coworkers.

*deep breath* Okay. So. I had a LOT of problems with this book and some of them were my fault but some of them were definitely the book. So this review is going to be a mess. I'm sorry in advance.

So. The first problem was a me problem. I did this one on audio and I listen to audiobooks exclusively while driving. Well. The male narrator had an ~extra deep voice (and a very thick accent), that I just could not understand, at all, while driving, no matter how loud I made it. So I definitely missed about half of the story that way. I should've switched to print but I was doing audio for ~convenience (and because I had several work drives) so I suffered through it and missed what probably made the mystery good?

The female narrator, on the other hand, I had no problems hearing and that character was, uh, terrible. Honestly *all* of the characters were terrible which was probably my biggest problem with this book. They weren't fun or interesting terrible. They were infuriating terrible and that just made me so uninterested in this story (which is why I didn't switch to print).

But there was one thing toward the end that made me truly HATE this book. It is revealed that Rupert raped Nell and Clemmie recorded the whole thing and Nell STILL AGREES TO MARRY RUPERT and is still in love with him even though he's a narcissistic asshole and she had a lot of trauma because of him. I didn't ~love either of them to begin with but I absolutely loathed them both after that revelation. And, of course, no one faced any consequences for their behavior which just made me absolutely loathe this book.

So. I just did not jive with this one. I probably would've enjoyed the mystery aspect if I would've done print but, frankly, I just did not care enough about these characters and lost interest about halfway through. I was mostly just glad to be done with this book and move on to better things. This, sadly, was just not for me. I truly wish I'd just skipped this one.

But thank you to Libro.fm, Penguin Random House Audio, NetGalley and Doubleday Books for allowing me to listen to this in exchange for an honest review!

Detective Caius Beauchamp is a character I would follow in another book, but the other characters in this mystery were repulsive. Caius, with his co workers Matt and Amy, had a great energy and relationship, but there was much I didn’t like about this mystery novel. I also did not get the humor that was described in other reviews. Rupert, Nell, Clemmie, Minty and the others were all spoiled brats, spouting Austen and Greek mythology. This one was not for me. Thanks to NetGalley for the ARC.

3-4 stars. There is some nicely clever, biting wit in this one as it reveals and eviscerates aspects of wealth and society. It can drag a bit at times, though. Excellent, interesting, complex characters, however, make up for that and the cleverness of the mystery is intriguing.

An enticing murder mystery with plenty of suspects and hilariously portrays the British class system.
Many thanks to Vintage Anchor and to Netgalley for providing me with a galley in exchange for my honest opinion.

The Other Half was a very posh, very witty murder mystery but it feel a little flat for me overall.

My main problem was the book was SO wordy. It might just be the English wit and humor but I was so bored at the very beginning. It took a lot for me to finally get into it. But when I finally did, I did find myself enjoying it.

The book felt set up for a sequel because I had a lot of unanswered questions by the end. This was fine but I really hated that Nell’s story, the whole reason I kept reading, ended so abruptly.

Overall, this book was fine. I listened to the audio as well and that seemed to help.

I heard so much hype about this book and the cover is truly darling. However, I struggled with making connections with the characters and the plot. I would set it down, then try again, and then set it down. Finally, I decided that I would mark this as DNF. Maybe later on a slow day, I will try again. So for now...I rate this as a 1 star. Many thanks to #netgalley #theotherhalf #charlottevassell for the opportunity to read and review this book.

I loved the synopsis for this one, as you know I love a good 'rich folk behaving badly' story, however this was just ok for me. This one had a bit of an identity crisis in that it didn't know if it was a police procedural or a take on how bad the rich can behave and mixing up the two did not work here. I think had it stuck with one or the other this would have been much better, because as we know, the rich normally get away with things and do not get investigated like us normal folk do, which is why we love reading about them. I think that is the root cause of why this one did not work for me.

I did enjoy the audio version of this as an FYI. Thank you to Anchor and PRH Audio for the copies to review.

The Other Half is such a different type of mystery read. It was super slow for me but the writing and procedural part was amazing.

I didn’t guess the killer which was a nice change but admittedly it was a tough one for me to get through.

Annoying characters and a whodunit makes it still a decent read and I’m def interested in this author in the future.

Thanks to NetGalley and the author for my gifted arc

a wonderful intriguing mystery, lots of interesting complex quirky characters. Lots of twists and turns, murder and mayhem, making this a real page turner and a must read!

Thank you to NetGalley and Anchor for my complimentary eARC. And to libro.fm for my complimentary audiobook. All thoughts and opinions are my own.

I have seen conflicting reviews for The Other Half, but I thoroughly enjoyed this mystery/thriller. I must have since I binge read it in a day.

Were some of the characters annoying ? Yes.
Seeing how the other half lives is always an eye opening experience. But the way they act like they are better than everyone else and above the law just makes you wonder how much we (the little people) really know what’s going on.

But the actual police investigation was top notch. I was happy to find out there is another book in the works.

I was pairing the audio with the book but had to give up halfway through the arc. The detective had a wonderful accent, but it was hard to understand at 2x speed. I was having to drop the speed down every time the POV changed and it was annoying.

This is in no way critical of the narrator but my own personal pet peeve.

Enthralling!

The Other Half was hard for me to get into at first, but soon I found myself reading at every chance I got. The characters were, in my opinion, so vividly written that I had actual.feelings about them.

#Netgalley #CharlotteVassell #AnchorBooks #BookOne #DICasiusBeauchamp

I looked forward to reading THE OTHER HALF, the first book in a new series DI Caius Beauchamp. From the very beginning I found it wordy . I think I reread the first few chapters several times. When I finally got everything straight, the book started moving. Then again I would find myself rereading. I do feel like I could see this book better as a short series on Netflix or Acorn where visually seeing what was happening would work better. I found too many characters not likable. Both Clemmie’s boyfriend, Rupert Beauchamp and DI Caius Beauchamp have the same last name; however, the names are pronounced differently. I don’t know how many times that was mentioned in the book. So who murdered Clemmie? Rupert, his wife, her boss Oswald or one of the other guests at the party.
I think this book would have worked better for me if there was not so much repitition. My thanks to NetGalley and Vintage Anchor for an ARC of this book. The opinions in this review are my own.

Striking, Clever Debut

There are more nuances in this mystery and I use the term mystery loosely. There is a main group of characters, but before they enter the plot, the reader knows there’s a big birthday for Rupert Beauchamp, an heir. He holds a 30th birthday party for himself at a London McDonald’s . This private party is served fast food that they wash down with champagne and coke.

But this is a whodunit and the victim is Rupert’s girlfriend Clemmie Ohara. She is discovered by DI Casius Beauchamp, who is no relation to Rupert. Is Beauchamp a common British name? This murder solves a problem for Rupert since he really loves Nell Waddingham. He wants to marry Nell but she is not high-class enough.

Added to this fun cast of characters is who believe in the sense of entitlement. They are elite and loaded with secrets. So many twists and turns, the author uses a clever whodunit to show she can write a slick novel for Brits and the rest of the English-speaking world.

A Murder Among British Socialites

On his morning run in Hampstead Heath, Detective Caius Beauchamp finds the body of a young woman clad in a party dress. She is Clemmie, a social influences and long time girlfriend of Rupert, a wealthy young man. He celebratied his 30th birthday the night before Clemmis’s body is found at McDonalds with his cronies. There’s plenty of champagne, cocaine and other drugs of choice.

Detective Beauchamp with with his fellow officers, DS Matty Cheung, and DC Amy Noakes, are given the case. To solve the case they are forced into the world of the incredibly wealthy and well connected where Rupert and friends don’t think the rules apply to them.

The case itself is an interesting police procedural. I like Detective Beauchamp and is crew. They work hard under difficult circumstances. If this novel is prelude to another book featuring these characters, I would like to read it.

The socialites making up Rupert’s circle are another matter. I found them all quite unpleasant. They don’t seem overly bothered by the murder of one of their circle. The author sharpens her satirical pen on these characters to good effect.

The early chapters of the book are slow due to meeting so many characters. Once the police begin to investigate the pace picks up. One of my criticisms is the ending. The plot has several loose ends. This may be the prelude to another novel, but, for me, it was an unsettling way to end.

Thanks to the publisher and Net Galley for this review copy.

- FUN!! An easy, fun read. A whodunnit with a detective that is very interesting. I love reading about rich people and their squabbles. Throw a murder in and this made a really great read.

Noooope. This did not work for me. I didn’t like the writing, it felt so incredibly pretentious like as if the author was consulting a thesaurus as she wrote. I didn’t like any of the characters. It felt like just caricatures of entitled people. Even Caius I found annoying (though he was very anti rich) - he was completely obsessed with his ex in a way that bordered on stalkery. Made it to 25% and had to stop because I was hate-reading and it felt like a waste of time. Sorry this was not for me. 2/5 because I could see it appealing to some and the plot wasn’t bad so far.

This book is satire at its finest. Told of the class system of London and how Brit’s can be really intolerable characters.

Rupert is throwing his 30th birthday and the party can only be one thing: black tie affair! Come dressed in your finest and be rewarded with champagne and cocaine. The morning after the night comes the worst part of the part.. the death of Rupert’s girlfriend Clemmie, whose body is found sticking out from under a bush. Of course all the party members each have an alibi, so naturally it’s all up to Detective Beauchamp to really solve this crime.

Think Agatha Christie murder mystery but add in a bunch of rich snobs that are insufferable. Each has an over the top name with over the top attitudes.. but that’s what makes the story that much more.

It’s definitely a journey that will make you question sanity but let’s be real, there are people out there that are obnoxious and jealous and money hungry asses. The satire of this story just really made it enjoyable.

An absolutely wonderful introduction to a new to me author that not only wrote an excellent murder mystery, she populated it with a cast of characters that you will not be able to forget. The community surrounding the story line displays some definite lines that are not to be crossed. At least not until one of the upper crust is murdered and the suspects include the majority of the "names" from the local registry. The characters are so well defined you'll have no questions as to motives. When DI Beauchamp starts his investigation, his interactions with this group of snobs is highly entertaining and leaves no doubt what he thinks of their actions.

This is the first book in this series and it's a really good read. DI Beauchamp has now been added to my TBR list. 5 easy stars and a wish that book #2 is out soon.