A thrilling book that keeps you turning the pages until the shocking ending. Full of twists and turns and shocks.

The Dinner Party is domestic thriller that kept me guessing and second guessing throughout. Baby Megan went missing in 1979 while her parents engaged in a dinner party with the neighbors and her sister Amanda (age 10 at the time of her disappearance) has never given up hope of finding her one and only sibling. Now 40 years later, Megan’s disappearance continues to affect the next generation. The majority of the book was told from Billie’s perspective. Billie is Amanda’s daughter, Megan’s niece. The book also sprinkles in episodes from The Callaghan Baby Podcast and flashbacks from some of the women during the dinner party.

I enjoyed the story and stayed intrigued throughout. The podcast portions seemed “off” to me. I understood the podcast was important to the case details, but each episode was presented with an intro and outro making it seem like the reader was hearing the podcast in its entirety, but really each episode would have been 5-15 minutes long. It’s a small thing, but that bothered me the most. There are also a lot of characters from past and present. It took me awhile to keep everyone straight, especially the original Dinner Party guests (who was couple with who and which house they lived in). I was reading an e-read ARC, but if it had been a hard copy it would be helpful to have a map at the beginning of the book with the Wattlebury Court homes labeled with family names. Overall, I really enjoyed this book!

Thank you NetGalley, Rebecca Heath, and Aria & Aries Publishing for this ARC opportunity.

Publication date: January 4, 2024

I don’t think I know where I stand on this book. Was the plot interesting? Sure. Original? Not the most. Predictable? In many ways, yes. I will say, predictability has ruined many books for me, and though i found this one pretty predictable, it didn’t ruin it. I enjoyed this read, and I think it’s great for people just venturing into the thriller genre.
I enjoyed the flashback chapters, too. I did feel like they should’ve done more or less with them, because it certainly left me wanting more.

I thoroughly enjoyed this captivating read, finishing it in a single day! The compelling narrative, rich characters, and story packed with intrigue and hope and heartbreak make it an absolute page-turner. Loved how this was written too, with the podcast layered on top of the present day story and then bits from the ‘dinner party from hell.’ So good. A solid 5/5. Loved it!!!!

The dinner party was an okay book. I wouldn’t read it again and probably would t recommend it. One thing about the book I disliked was the number of characters. In my opinion there were too many characters to keep track of. I mostly got confused when it came to the dinner party guests and when ‘pops’ thought his granddaughter was his daughter. The interconnecting of the families was also a bit confusing. I did like how episodes of a new podcast was sprinkled in. The podcast really tied into the story and helped tell what happened to baby Megan. I didn’t care for the ending. I thought there were still a bit of answers needing to be talked about. The ending just didn’t feel complete. Also the flashbacks could’ve been taking out. I feel like they didn’t progress the story at all. Overall it was a compelling story and had me turning the pages. I just wish it ended better.

Thanks to Netgalley and Aria & Aries for a copy of this arc in exchange for my honest review.

Heart pounding thriller that left me on the edge of my seat. I thoroughly enjoyed reading this one. Definitely one of the best books this year.

I enjoyed this book from the start!

You’re kept wondering if what’s going on is too good to be true or a miracle that no one expected.

The characters are all intriguing in their own ways and everyone plays a part in the story somehow.

I would recommend this book to friends and family.

The Dinner Party by Rebecca Heath is a tense domestic thriller jam packed with deceit, twists and secrets stretching back from the present to a fateful evening in 1979. Four up and coming neighbourhood couples meet at a home for dinner, leaving their kids alone as was the typical of the era. But horrifyingly, four-month-old Megan is discovering missing.

Still no answers four years later. Megan's sister Amanda and her adult children have had hopes dashed numerous times but when Donna shows up with proof she is Megan, Amanda soon welcomes her with open arms. Amanda's daughter Billie is suspicious which contributes to family angst. Present podcasts are told as alternating chapters to multiple narrators. The idea appeals to me but the podcasts didn't add value in my view. Still, the writing is sharp and clever and the characters are interesting. The author did an excellent job of writing in numerous subplots which added to the atmospheric and suspense.

If you seek something a bit different from the every day, add The Dinner Party to your list.

My sincere thank you to Aria & Aries and NetGalley for providing me with an early digital copy of this engrossing novel.

Thank you to NetGalley and Aria & Aries for sending me an advanced readership copy of this book in exchange for an honest review. This will be published January 4, 2024.

Firstly, this book needs a major edit. There are misspelled and missing words and too many adverbs as a whole. Some of the sentences were a little convoluted and would do well with some rewording.

Secondly, some of the character interactions and the voices fell flat. I think the premise is interesting and the suspense was great. However, there were simply too many characters that I couldn’t keep them straight because they all seemed to be basically the same person.

I think the idea of this book was really great but the execution just didn’t work for me. I really don’t understand what the flashbacks were for because they didn’t give us any insight into the characters or what happened that night. I really enjoyed the premise and would read more of Rebecca Heath's books.

The Dinner Party follows the disappearance of a baby in the 1970s. While at a dinner party, a baby is abducted and the case was never solved. There was a podcast about the disappearance and the family is still trying to find the truth. For me there was way too character heavy in my opinion. I could not keep the cast of characters from the party itself straight and ended up not even trying. There was very little substance to any character. Although I finished the book, it was not one of my best reads. #netgalley #thedinnerparty

This was such an edge of your seat story! Great premise. Interesting how you think you have it figured out but are then served a big twist.

The Dinner Party follows the disappearance of a baby in the 1970s. While at a dinner party, a baby is abducted and the case was never solved. There was a podcast about the disappearance and the family is still trying to find the truth. A woman shows up claiming to be the missing daughter and the family is trying to find the truth.

I enjoyed this book! I really enjoyed the podcast element sprinkled between each chapter. I feel like that was a nice way to learn the information. The story unfolded in a fast way and it was an interesting book. I do feel like this book is very similar to many other thrillers so it wasn’t anything too new so I didn’t rate it higher. However, it still kept my attention and I was interested throughout.

My only complaint is that there were a lot of characters and with the different time lines it was hard to keep track at times.

Overall, it was a good thriller with a podcast element. Thanks so much to netgalley and Aria and Aries for the arc of this book in exchange for an honest review!

Thank you to #NetGalley, Aria & Aries Books, and Rebecca Heath for the opportunity to read an advance copy of The Dinner Party, to be published 4 January 2024. 4/5 Stars for this psychological thriller that combined podcast information as well as individual comments from the various people who attended the dinner party in 1979 and current day ongoings. A four month old baby disappears from a couple’s home during a dinner party in the neighborhood. The novel is about today’s relationships and whether a newcomer who says she’s the missing child is telling the truth. #NetGalley #Aria&AiriesBooks #TheDinnerParty #RebeccaHeath

I am an old soul at heart and have always said I was born in the wrong era. With this book kind of taking place in the late 70s, I knew this was my jam.

The night of the infamous dinner party from hell, a 4 month old baby goes missing. The story goes back and forth to current day to 1979 and some time in 2005.

I definitely liked the idea of this book however I kept finding myself saying “ok just get to the point, what happened??” There were many characters but I actually kept them all straight for the most part. I do feel like this book could’ve been shortened and some unnecessary parts taken out. You literally don’t find out what actually happened until the very end.

Overall pretty good book- it held my attention mostly because I needed to know what happened to the missing 4 month old baby.

Thanks NetGalley and publishers for the ARC!

The Dinner Party is a suspenseful, shiver-inducing read.

As anyone who knows my taste in mysteries will know by now, I very much enjoy inventive narrative formats that combine different forms of media. Here, I really enjoyed the mixed media style narrative, with podcast excerpts and flashback sequences amidst the present story. It served to heighten an already incredibly tense book, with a reveal you know is coming and several you do not. This is a slower burn of a book, matching that languid heat that slowly oppress you and turns into a sweltering mess. The podcast allows us to get a bird’s eye view of the bigger picture surrounding the events of forty years ago and in the present day. Like any good true crime podcast, it has interviews with everyone and anyone & legal transcripts, which all allow for suspects and clues to be introduced.

However, this is primarily a character focused mystery with the central mystery being one that weighs deep on the heart. It is emotional and vulnerable and all about wanting your family back together. The primary mystery is a living nightmare and one that instantly recalls some famous cases. There is that aching yearn within each of their hearts, but how reliable is this?

In fact, this is a key thread of the book: unreliable narratives. The entire time, you are questioning who has ulterior motivations for the truth that they are presenting. This is complicated with the ambiguities and nuances provided from both the podcast and the flashback sequences. You often have to piece together which character is talking from little details and suggestions. This adds to the whole hazy, heatwave atmosphere that hangs over the book.

The Dinner Party was an inventive and interesting thriller with a very emotional and fraught subject at its heart.

I want to first thank the author, publisher, and Netgalley for the opportunity to read the Arc of this book. I am going to be rating this a 4.5. In this book there are three perspectives; the podcast hosted by Ruby Costa, Billie, and the people who attended the Dinner Party. It has been a while since I have read something that has made me want to stay awake, but I could not put my Kindle down until I finished this book. While I pay have figured out a tiny part of the plot, the amount of characters in this story kept me guessing for the majority of this book. One warning, this is a slow burn, meaning that you will not find out what happened during the dinner part until the last 10%. This book is not fast paced however, I finished it in one sitting because I was intrigued.

40 years ago Megan Callaghan was taken in the night from her cot. Her 10 year old sister Amanda asleep in the next room whilst her parents attend a dinner party at a neighbours house.

Now grown up, with daughters of her own Megan's sister Amanda has never lost hope she will come home safe and well.

On the 40th Anniversary of her disappearance coinciding with the release of a new Podcast examining the 40 year old cold case, Megan, now named Donna finds her way home.

Amanda is overjoyed but, her daughter Billie has her doubts, is "Donna" really who she says she is.

The bonds of family sometimes run so deep it's hard to deny the impossible when its standing in front of you.

This was my first novel by Rebecca Heath and I loved it.

Full of twists and turns this one packs a punch! I loved the podcast pov alongside the main story, the use of flasbacks to bring the story together on that fateful night made this a really interesting read. A deep delve into the secrets families keep from each other and how far people will go for revenge.

I wanted to love this one but just didn’t. I called the ending very early on in the story. The dual timeline PLUS podcast was different in a good way.

A neighborhood is shaken after a group of friends attend a dinner party and a baby goes missing. What follows are some twists and turns that keep you guessing! I enjoyed how the story switched from a podcast style, to present day, to the past. Definitely recommend!

Four couples from Ridgefield regularly have dinner parties, taking it in turns.
On this particular night, Frank Callaghan goes to check on his daughters. Amanda, who is ten and four month old, Megan.
But Megan is missing.
Forty years later, Amanda is still looking for Megan. Then, a woman knocks on the door, claiming to be Megan. Is she really Amanda's missing sister?
I found it quite slow in places. I also thought it was a little over the top that Amanda kept taking Megan's side over her own daughter, Billie.
I liked that we heard from the pov of those who were at the dinner party that night. There were obviously plenty of secrets, and were they really good friends?
The podcast talks to other people who were connected to that night.
Even after all the revelations, Amanda still seemed to be in denial.
Overall, it was an enjoyable read.
Thanks to Netgalley and Aria and Aries for the ARC in return for an honest review.