Thank you to Netgalley, Aries & Aries and Head of Zeus for approving me to read this arc. From reading the blurb on this book it sounded like my type of book.

The story follows the disappearance of baby Megan. 4 couples attended a dinner party in 1979 in a perfect suburb, safe and quiet. One couple return home to a nightmare, their 4 month old baby Megan has vanished. Megan’s sister Amanda has never stopped searching for her. 40 years later a women turns up on her doorstep claiming to be Megan. Where has she been all this time? What happened to her?

I loved this book. I enjoyed the different timelines between present day and back to 1979 on the night of the dinner party, we got to see the night unfold and I really liked that aspect. It revealed a lot of things that we didn’t know had happened. It really kept me guessing, I was trying to solve it myself, constantly trying to work out who took Megan, what happened to her.

Some chapters were from the point of view of a podcast about the case, I really enjoyed these chapters and that different perspective, following it along whilst they try and solve the case. I feel like this would probably be quite good to listen to as an audio book with those chapters.

This is a great domestic thriller, lots of twists, really kept me gripped and wasn’t too unbelievable in how it unravelled.

This domestic thriller was my first read by Rebecca Heath. She created a cast of characters that were easy to either root for or against. The protagonist, Billie, was a good lens to view the plot through, and the reader could experience her joy and pain clearly throughout the story.

I both liked and disliked the format of this book. I thought that the flashbacks to the night of the dinner party were good at first, but then they got really long and confusing with made me want to skim through them. The same thing goes for the flashbacks to the podcast which seemed to get more verbose as the book went on.

Book Review: The Dinner Party: A Twisty Domestic Thriller that Keeps You Engaged

⭐⭐⭐/4 Stars

Summary:
In the summer of 1979, amidst the perfect lawns and lit-up picture windows of Ridgefield, four couples gather for their regular dinner party. It's an ordinary evening, a chance for friends to catch up and showcase their seemingly ideal marriages. However, behind closed doors, secrets lurk, waiting to be exposed. When Frank Callaghan discovers his 4-month-old daughter Megan missing from her crib, the dinner party attendees deny any knowledge of her disappearance.

Forty years later, Amanda, Megan's sister, remains haunted by her sister's vanishing without a trace. Just when she has given up hope of finding answers, a stranger arrives at her doorstep, claiming to be Megan. Skepticism turns to astonishment when the stranger presents Megan's blanket, taken on the night she vanished. This unexpected turn of events unravels a web of unanswered questions: Where has Megan been all this time? What truly happened on that fateful night? And how well do we really know our neighbors?

Review:
The Dinner Party offers a thrilling and suspenseful ride that kept me hooked until the very end. As an avid reader of domestic thrillers, I found this book to be a fun and quick read that provided just the right amount of entertainment without requiring excessive mental exertion.

Rebecca Heath skillfully weaves together multiple timelines, alternating between the night of Megan's disappearance and the present day. This narrative structure adds depth to the story, allowing readers to gradually piece together the puzzle while maintaining a sense of urgency. The author's ability to maintain a quick pace throughout the book ensures that readers will find themselves turning page after page, eager to uncover the truth behind Megan's disappearance.

Heath's characterization is another strong aspect of the book. Each character has their own secrets and flaws that make them relatable and intriguing. The dynamics between the couples at the dinner party are particularly well-crafted, as their seemingly perfect lives are shattered by the shocking events of that fateful night.

While The Dinner Party may not offer groundbreaking twists or deep psychological exploration, it succeeds in delivering an engaging story that captivates readers from start to finish. This book is perfect for those seeking an entertaining and suspenseful read that doesn't require too much mental investment.

Conclusion:
In conclusion, The Dinner Party by Rebecca Heath is an enjoyable domestic thriller that provides readers with a quick-paced, suspenseful narrative. With its well-developed characters and intriguing storyline, this book is a perfect choice for those looking for an entertaining read to keep them engaged and entertained.

⚠️This review was written based on personal opinions and experiences with the book. Individual preferences may vary⚠️

Lisa Jewell vibes. I do wish there would have more closure at the end of the story. So much was emphasized about people doing Amanda wrong and then it just ended. Overall, a good read.

This book will have you on the edge of your seat. The book has so many twists and turns. This thriller will blow your mind. A very good and interesting read.

‼️‼️‼️‼️ARC REVIEW‼️‼️‼️‼️

Thank you to the author, the publishing team and Net Galley for allowing me to review this advanced reader copy!

The Dinner Party by Rebecca Heath
Release Date: January 4th, 2024
⭐️⭐️⭐️/5

I enjoyed this book. Parts were definitely a bit slow and I feel like it could have been a bit shorter, but I enjoyed it

This book has
➡️multiple POVs
➡️missing person cold case
➡️multiple time-lines
➡️podcast entries about the story
➡️unreliable POVs

I sometimes struggled distinguishing the different characters and it made it a bit hard to follow but I enjoyed the story. It definitely had twists and turns that kept me intrigued

If you enjoy more slow-burn mysteries I definitely recommend this book!

#TheDinnerParty

This was a pretty good thriller, however it felt a little incomplete in my opinion. I really liked the plot of Billie trying to help her mom come to terms with her mother’s missing, maybe re-appeared sister. I loved the house of the podcast scripting within the sorry. I liked the flashbacks of the actual dinner party. All together, they didn’t intertwine well at all. There was a lot of pacing issues and almost too many characters to make it a really enjoyable thriller with all of those components. I think if anything, it would’ve worked as just a story of the dinner party, no current plot or podcast, OR just the flashback and current day story. It felt like with all three, the characters didn’t really get the development they needed and that there were too many story lines going on at once in the different sections and POVs of the story.

The mixed reviews I saw on this book before starting had me hesitant on if I was going to like it, but I'm happy to say this book had me in its grips the entire time.

The story follows a family who has gone decades dealing with the loss of a family member. That dynamic in and of itself brings on intense emotions and dramatics, but Rebecca Heath tied in questionable identities, family ties ripping apart, and question after question keeping me guessing the entire time. I really enjoyed the suspense that was built up between the family members. I could feel the tension building the entire time and at times I wanted to scream at the pages. Heath wrote some great, deep characters that had their own issues going on and the story not only followed the main storyline, but we got little personal storylines about different characters. I feel that really rounded the feel of the story out to make it more full and realistic.

My only qualms about the book were the flashbacks. I understand the idea of them, but I feel like we got a lot less information from those flashbacks and this story would have been perfectly fine without them. I do not feel they added anything and at times I felt myself itching to skip forward past them to get back to the current story. Either they needed to be written more in a way that added more information or removed altogether. Aside from that, I was a little confused by some of the reveal at the end. I know what happen, but I have questions I wish I could have answered. I won't divulge those questions because they contain spoilers, but I'm curious if others have questions as well.

Either way, this book caught me in the beginning and I was not walking away until I knew what was happening. I loved the intensity of the feelings of the characters, the doubt that crept in every time I thought I knew what was happening, and the nail-biting climax. I will be checking out other novels by Rebecca Heath and you should pick up a copy of The Dinner Party.

Thanks to #NetGalley and #Aria&Aries for the ARC #TheDinnerParty by #RebeccaHeath. First time author for me and I am pretty impressed. This book included secrets, abuse, and deception. What really happened to baby Megan? Who can you trust?

This book took a while for me to get interested in it. There were quite a few characters which I had to go back and forth to try and remember who was who but ultimately the twists in the end made up for it. This was a solid 3.5/5 domestic thriller and is perfect for thriller fans of all shapes and sizes! It only took me 3 days to read which says a lot for me!

very fun and interesting booked, kept me hooked until the end and good plot twists that made me gasp out loud. thank you netgalley for an opportunity to review this book :)

I really enjoyed this one, it was perfectly paced and had a good amount of twists and the tension and atmosphere was great.

This fun, fast paced thriller was definitely a 5 star read all around. From the moment I picked it up, I was hooked. It's one of those books that struggle to put it down because you MUST find out what happened, as you're trying to solve it yourself and even so you still don't see the blind side coming. Rebeccah Heath is a new to me author and I must say I LOVED this book. I enjoyed the plot bouncing back and forth between the current point of view of the missing sister drama, the podcast episodes and that night of hell which created all of this. Highly highly recommend.


Thank you Aria & Aries and NetGalley for the opportunity to read this advanced reader copy. All thoughts and opinions are entirely my own.

This was a slow-burn book that was a heavily character-laden domestic thriller. I regret I will be in the minority here as I struggled with the number of characters (past and present), and many remained only names to me. There were too many characters to sort out, along with their connections and relationships, for me to proceed at a comfortable pace.

The book has different timelines, starting with a party attended by four couples in 1979. During the party, a four-month-old baby, Megan, was stolen. We learn of the aftermath and that the case was never solved. A fund was established to help find Megan and other missing children. Forty years later, there is a blog aimed at solving the long-ago mystery of what happened to baby Megan and who was involved in her disappearance. Was the child murdered? The men in the story all hold secrets involving cheating and betrayal.

Recently, a woman showed up claiming she is Megan. Amanda, her older sister, happily accepts her. Amanda's daughter Billie is skeptical and believes the woman is an impostor and may have a hidden agenda. This woman has a baby blanket that belonged to Megan when she disappeared and agrees to take a DNA test to prove her identity. The DNA test results are positive, but Billie remains suspicious against all the evidence provided. What could be the woman's motive for pretending to be the long-lost baby, and could she be faking her proof?

Billie is the strongest and most well-developed character, and we follow her conflicts with her sister, Eve and her husband, Nathan. Most characters were only minor additions to the cast, and trying to keep them straight made this a slow read. There are many surprises, twists, and turns. Towards the end, there is much tension, family drama, and danger. If the reader follows the various characters and their connections better than I did, they will find the solution to the mystery and the ending satisfactory.

It is 1979. The families in the quiet cul-de-sac get together regularly for dinner parties, leaving their young children at home with the fathers doing a patrol to make sure all is well every half hour or so. When Frank Callaghan goes to check his four month old daughter Megan is missing. Extensive searches reveal no answers. Megan's sister Amanda never got over what had happened. She was in the house at the time but saw & heard nothing. Henceforth his dinner was referred to as the Dinner Party from Hell, by the media & others.

Forty years on. Amanda has two daughters. One day a woman appears on the doorstep. She claims she is Megan & has the blanket that disappeared with the baby. Amanda is delighted but her daughters, particularly her elder is very doubtful.

This was a good read with quite a large cast of characters, many not particularly likeable! It kept me guessing. Thanks to Netgalley & the publisher for letting me read & review this book.

December 1979 and three suburban couples, who live in the same street, are attending a dinner party at another neighbour’s house. They have left their children home alone, after all it is a safe neighbourhood and they are taking it in turns to do periodic checks, what could possibly go wrong? Later that evening, as Frank Callaghan checks on his 4 month old baby (Megan) and 10 year old daughter Amanda, he discovers that Megan is missing. Despite a mammoth search, her whereabouts remain unknown.

40 years later, Amanda Callaghan has set up a successful fund in her sister’s memory which helps other people in their search for answers about their missing loved ones. She has two daughters Billie and Eve and three grand-children.

As the family come together at Amanda’s house to remember Megan on the anniversary of her disappearance, a stranger (Donna) knocks on the door claiming to be Megan. There have been other such claims over the years and Amanda has been left distraught after these proved to be bogus but Donna claims to have evidence to substantiate this. While Amanda and Eve welcome Donna, Billie is more apprehensive and doesn’t believe Donna.

The story is told through flashbacks, podcast extracts and present day. Is Donna who she claims to be and what really happened on that night 40 years ago?

This just edged into 3 stars for me. I had to force myself to keep reading so that I could reach the conclusion. I may be in the minority but while I found the premise intriguing, the book just did not hit the mark for me. There were too many characters and it was difficult to keep track of who was who and what the relationships were. Apart from two or three main characters, I found there was very little in character development and often things happening and hinted at which were either glossed over or never mentioned again.

Thanks to Netgalley for an advanced read copy of this book in exchange for an honest and unbiased review.

The Dinner Party by Rebecca Heath.
Four Couples.
Summer 1979. In the idyllic suburban neighbourhood of Ridgefield, during a scorching heat wave, four couples gather for their weekly dinner party.
An ordinary evening.
It’s a chance for friends to catch-up, to show off their perfect marriages, to have a break from the kids... but secrets hide behind the lit-up picture windows and carefully curated lawns. The beginning of a nightmare.
When Frank Callaghan checks on the sleeping children, he finds an empty crib where his 4-month old daughter Megan should be sleeping. The party-goers swear they didn’t see anything. No one left the dinner table. Forty years later, Megan’s sister Amanda is still searching for answers when a stranger knocks at her door claiming to be Megan. The family are sceptical until they see what she is holding – Megan’s blanket, taken the night she disappeared. This shock appearance unearths many questions: Where has Megan been all of this time? Who knows what happened that night? And how well do you really know your neighbours?
This was a good read. Little weird as it is a podcast bit then normal story. Took me a while to get into. Very twisty. I certainly didn't see that coming. I did like Billie. Wasn't sure about Donna. Didn't trust her. There was slow bits in this. I did have to keep putting it down then picking it up again. A little weird with the ending. I don't know how I feel about that. 3*.

December 9, 1979 - Australia

Four couples who live near one another enjoy a weekly dinner party. They gather at one person’s house while leaving their children in bed. They feel the neighborhood is safe and they regularly check on the children during the evening. When Frank Callaghan goes to check on his daughter, Amanda, 10, and 4-month old daughter, Megan, he finds Megan missing. Now, 25 years later, there is still no sign of Megan.

Ruby Costa runs The Callaghan Baby Podcast. The cold case is fascinating for many. Today, Amanda still lives in her parents’ home. Her mother has passed away and her father is in a rest home. Amanda’s daughters, Billie and Eve, would like to see Megan found and ease some of their mother’s pain. So, when a woman comes to the door claiming to be Megan and carrying what looks to be the blanket that went missing with Megan, they wonder if this is truly the missing person.

Oh dear. This book was so long! Flipping back and forth in time and so many characters was enough to give me a headache. First of all, I cannot believe parents would leave their children at home unattended to get together for a party. That is simply unheard of and even in the 1970’s did not happen. I had small children in the 1970’s and would not dream of going somewhere without having a reliable babysitter for them, and the drugs did not happen either. Amanda is ridiculously naive and I had little sympathy for her. This book was so confusing at times too. Sorry. Not for me.

Copy provided by NetGalley in exchange for a fair and honest review.

I think we've all been to dinner parties that we've regretted, but the night of 'the dinner party from hell' has a longer lasting impact than normal. Forty years after the event the fallout is still being felt and The Dinner Party by Rebecca Heath chronicles the impact on the children and grandchildren of some of the attendees.

In the summer of 1979 four couples attend a neighbourhood dinner party. It's an adults only affair so the kids were left at home, tucked up in bed. Periodically, a couple of the dads would pop home to check that the children were okay. And they were, until the final check of the night and 4 month old baby Megan was missing from her cot, the bedroom window smashed.

Forty years later and Amanda, sister of the missing baby Megan, has never given up hope of one day being reunited. It's a hope that became an obsession and has spawned the Megan Callaghan Foundation as well as The Callaghan Baby Podcast.

So on the 40th anniversary of that fateful night, a knock on the door reveals a woman claiming to be the missing Megan. She's not the first to make the claim so the family's hesitant to accept her at face value. But could it be true? So many questions. And that's when things start to get really interesting.

This turns into a rather complex domestic suspense story. It has me immersed in the lives, some of them rather grubby, of the 4 couples. The story is told through a combination of flashbacks, excerpts from the podcast and the present day narrative that focuses primarily on Billie, Amanda's daughter.

As desperately as the rest of the family want to believe that Megan has been returned to them, Billie remains sceptical. It's an attitude that eventually causes a schism within the family dynamic. And so the drama grows!

To add to the potential breakdown of the Callaghan family are additional revelations that start to pile all kinds of tension onto what had been a settled family unit. Author Rebecca Heath does a stellar job in building an ever-increasing level of drama into the story. The fascination lies in finding out which level is the breaking point.

I liked the flashback scenes to the '70s and thought they felt very authentic from the food eaten at the dinner party to the attitudes of the attendees. I was also humming along to the songs that led into the start of each episode of the podcast. They brought back some fond memories for me.

All the elements of intrigue play out in the course of this mystery. A seemingly unarguable case backed by DNA evidence, a slight skerrick of doubt raised by a single person, a building wave of information comes to light (both old and new). Through it all I was trying to keep an open mind while also trying to work out where the twists were going to come from.

The result is a compelling mystery that builds nicely from a fairly sedately paced start.

My thanks to Aria & Aries and NetGalley for providing me with a digital ARC copy to allow me to read, enjoy and review this book.

This book had me hooked and dying to figure out what happened. The ending was slightly anti climactic but I still enjoyed the ride. It was like a good lifetime movie