For me the biggest marker of a five-star book is when I lose sleep because I just can’t put it down. This book is a popcorn thriller that is somehow still thought provoking and funny. I felt that the twist was really well done because it fit so well with the story as a whole. It felt authentic.

The book is a thriller based around a popular MLM. Drew is desperate to find a job to support herself and her ailing father with no luck, when she bumps into her old best friend, who is living an expansive, glamorous lifestyle thanks to LuminUS, a wellness MLM. She is extremely skeptical but reluctantly joins because she feels like she has no other option.

Drew’s story reflects on a lot of issues prevalent in MLMs, from going into debt to afford a starter kit and product, to being expected to post constantly on social media and cold messaging of people you haven’t seen in years. If MLMs are of interest to you, this is a really fun read.

I loved this book! Laugh out loud hilarious. As a former MLM’er this book hit everything about them out of the park . The jargon that is used right down to the “posts” .
I hope the author writes another. One .

Thank you to the publisher and Netgalley for providing an advance copy in exchange for honest feedback. A good thriller that should entertain anyone whose ever gotten a "hi girly" message from someone they haven't spoken to in 20 years. One note - palette is for paints, palate is for food

This was sweet and entertaining, and it certainly sheds a lot of light on the predatory nature of MLMs, though I’m not sure I’m buying the “this could happen to anyone” and the “anyone involved is a victim” parts of the narrative.

I’m not sure the author fully buys that either despite the contradictory message, as she was very careful to keep her protagonist and heroine well clear of the predatory components of involvement with something like this.

It makes a lot of sense to have empathy for people who get scammed into buying this stuff or even for those running themselves into debt trying to sell it, but once you’re aware of what’s happening and you’re recruiting others into the racket (looking at you, Steph), you’re a willing part of the con.

But this is certainly a good story, the heroine is likable and easy to root for, and the mystery itself moves well and is solved satisfactorily enough. If nothing else, i hope this helps even a handful of people make better choices about get rich quick schemes and pyramid schemes, which are, of course, what every MLM is.

An enjoyable satirical look at modern women, MLMs, and life long friendships.

I can't say I found it as laugh out loud as others seem to have, but it did have some fantastic one liners and pithy come backs. So, my kind of humour! I could relate to the MLM side of things - not from being in one - but from knowing intelligent, driven, focussed friends being in them. I've hosted many a party for them to sell at. But only the good stuff, no brands named, no getting free advertising in my review! 🤣

But the hustle felt real, very relatable. The main protagonists mixture of cynicism and desperation to have the money for food, accommodation, etc was very real to me, and I think what made it such a fabulous read. The raw truth, the ridiculous rules of a downline ( that are funny but also, sadly, believable), the friendship... it was a great mix and balanced out into a great modern day mystery/ thriller. Thank you for pointing out to the world, in a semi- light hearted way, what some women today face to try and keep food on the table and a roof over their heads.

Highly enjoyable, would definitely recommend. Though some may cringe at how close to home it is to their own MLM mistakes.

Calling all #BossBabes and #SHEeos, are you ready to #rise to the challenge and become your own boss? Do you want time to make money while staying at home taking care of your kids (and husband, #lolz)? Well, join my team with LuLaRoe! Wait no, Arbonne! Ah, shoot, no, I meant LuminUS! A life-changing opportunity that’s only available for a select few more girls on my team awaits! #itsnotapyramidscheme

Death in the Downline gives us a humorous look into the dangers of “direct selling” (because pyramid schemes are illegal, duh!) and the manipulative cult tactics they use to entrap women into their schemes. I really enjoyed this book, especially how - while it definitely went into how those entrenched in this #hustle culture change as people, it never demonizes the women trapped in the cult and who are too ashamed to see a way out.

While taking some extremes about the measures some of the women stuck in MLM cults do to keep their downlines and their wealth, at many points the things in this book echoed what anyone who has escaped these cults have talked about. LuminUS is a fake MLM company - but the things it is doing reflects very real companies that have ruined countless lives. The founder, pushing for women to serve their husbands while also looking a certain way - to the point of potentially dangerous plastic surgery? Look no further than LuLaRoe! A MLM company that gives out flashy cars and other “benefits” while never actually footing any of the danger in the cost? One that has too many products to keep track of, with shady ingredient labels and insistence on how “miracle” their stuff is? Arbonne comes to mind. Not to mention the countless other MLM’s that have come and gone, still tricking desperate women into shelling out money they don’t have with the promise of a better life.

Humorous, dramatic, and deadly all at once, Death in the Downline lets us explore these manipulative cult tactics from the safety of our homes - and allows us a glimpse into the fragile, house-of-cards lives many of these women have to live to try to survive being a #BossBabe. While criticizing those at the top of this pyramid, this book handles understanding that many of the women lower on the pyramid are victims themselves - even when they are still taking advantage of other women, as well.

As I was reading, I was reminded of two sets of videos I’d watched münecat on YouTube deepdive onto both LuLaRoe (LuLaRoe: The Real Untold Story) and Arbonne (Arbonne is a Cult), two very informative videos that gave me a stronger understanding of MLM cult tactics and shady business practices, and if you have any interest in MLM content - and I feel like anyone who is reading this book does - I’d highly suggest checking them out. In many ways the things reflected in this fictional MLM are the very same things done by real companies taking advantage of desperate women, and the better we all understand how this is done, the better we can help our friends and our family escape the cult.

A huge thank you to the author, NetGalley, and Quirk Books for providing this e-ARC.

I love the absolute chaos and delusion surrounding anything MLM so I ate this one up. A hilarious “rich” people behaving badly book.

Hey Hun, do you know what would really revitalise your life? This book! It's gripping, it's funny, and it'll completely change your view on the murder genre. You absolutely must get a copy, I don't know how anyone can live without it!

#netgalley#mlm#luminus

This book was a brilliantly executed thriller comedy about how MLM's work (or rather, don't) and the lengths that people will go to to make sure they meet targets and increase their downlines.

Many years ago, I was sucked into a rather famous MLM based in the UK and convinced that I could work from home and make copious amounts of money from selling what basically amounted to overpriced tat. Guess what? I made zero money. But thankfully, I was able to see the error of my ways pretty swiftly, and even though out of pocket several hundred pounds... I didn't murder anyone.

I need more books like this in the future.

Thank you to Quirk books for allowing me an advance copy of this book via Netgalley.

Hey girlfriend! Do you want to own your own business and make your own money? Just click my link and you'll start making money as soon as day one with these leggings/essential oils/household products....

MLM's are the cockroaches of sales. They just won't go away. Death in the Downline has taken this industry and added a hilarious twist and murder mystery. Maria Abrams has absolutely been hit up by that girl in her junior high class that has 7 kids and is a little TOO tan to try and sell her a 'jewelry party'.

Just...plain fun!

Thanks to NetGalley and the publishers for the opportunity to read this hilarious book.

This was a fun popcorn thriller for me. I am honestly shocked that a MLM based thriller/horror hasn't been published before this. I ate this up.

The only issue I had was the writing but it was easy to look passed, it was an ARC copy so it is common but there were so many grammatical errors it made my head spin a bit.

I really enjoyed this otherwise and would read more by this author!

✨REVIEW: 4.5/⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️✨

💜Death in the Downline by Maria Abrams 💜

💅synopsis: Drew thought she was destined to rise above her small New Jersey hometown and make it as a serious journalist in New York City. But now she’s back in Clearfield, pushing thirty, newly single, and living with her father.

After a chance encounter at the grocery store, she reconnects with her former best friend, Steph, who married young and never left their hometown. But Steph looks . . . good. She’s tanned, clear skinned, and glowing. She drives an expensive car and wears only name brands. What’s her secret? A multi-level marketing scheme called LuminUS that’s taken the ladies of Clearfield by storm. With nothing left to lose, Drew gets sucked into this glamorous world of downlines, sales parties, and girls’ trips.

💅my opinion: heyyy y’all, how are you all doing? 🫣💕 I just started being my own boss!!! 🤑 Only with a small investment... I have a lot of benefits! 💸💸My marriage is saved, my five kids and eight dogs are living happily and my 45 luxurious purses are dusting in a corner of my mansion.🙂‍↔️💝👛 All this thanks to #LuminUS #MyLifeWithLuminUSChanged 🙏🙏💞

Ok, now seriously... I loved this book, it was super interesting from the first page to the last and I read it in a day and a half!!

So, our main character, Drew doesn’t have a job and well... things are tough in the market, so she starts consulting for a skincare distributor that APPARENTLY is too perfect to be real. 🤔

Picture this; the main characters of The Stepford Wives start selling skincare products, everything is perfect (or not) and murder happens. 😱💅

It really felt like that and I LOVED it! <3

✨Highly recommended if you✨

💋Like skincare
💋Like “perfect wives” scenario
💋Like mystery cases

I would like to thank @abramswriter, @blackstonepublishing and @netgalley for the advanced e-copy. <33

A laugh-out-loud murder mystery with a killer twist — literally. In the latest release from mystery author Maria Abrams, “Death in the Downline” follows Drew Cooper, a down-on-her-luck journalist, who stumbles into the glittery, selfie-filled world of LuminUS, a skin care MLM promising empowerment and designer handbags. But the dream turns into a nightmare when one of the perfectly coifed “huns” drops dead at a convention. Is it suicide, or something much darker?

Armed with her wit and rusty investigative instincts, Drew dives into a hilariously twisted web of influencers, pyramid schemes and dangerous secrets. Packed with biting humor and sharp social commentary, “Death in the Downline” is a juicy treat for mystery fans and MLM snarkers alike.

As someone who formerly sold products for a multi-level marketing (MLM) company, this book really resonated. I loved that it explores the darker, cult like side of these kinds of organizations, taking it just that step further where the products sold are actually hurting and even killing the users (primarily the sellers themselves). Fresh, original, funny and dark all at the same time. I enjoyed it a lot and thought the audio narration by Megan Tusing and Mia Hutchinson-Shaw was well done. Many thanks to NetGalley and the publisher for an early digital copy in exchange for my honest review. I look forward to reading more by Maria Abrams in the future!

I don't know what it is about MLMs but I just cannot look away from the trainwreck that they are (probably because I feel like I was close to getting sucked in a few times). Although not exactly lighthearted, this murder mystery/MLM story definitely kept my attention. I flew through this one, trying to figure out what was happening. It was kind of over the top ridiculous but I was into it. There was a lot going on in this book-- too much at times-- like the author was trying to decide which way to go with the plot and just decided to go all the ways- but even still I enjoyed this.

Thank you to NetGalley and the publisher for this eARC in exchange for an honest review.

I have been a fan of Maria Abrams since her first novella, She Who Rules the Dead, was published by Weirdpunk Books. When I learned through her Instagram that she is releasing her new novel through Quirk Books, I preordered it before I was offered an ARC through NetGalley. I could not have been more excited to get the ARC and read it in less than two days.

The novel centers around Drew, a woman down on her luck. She just broke up with her boyfriend, lost her job at Buzzfeed due to budget cuts, and is now returning from New York back to her childhood home in Clearfield to live with her father. She has no money, and even though she applies for jobs on her phone all of the time, she has no prospects. One day she is shopping at the store when she runs into Sarah, her high school friend, whom she had lost touch with in college. Sarah seems to have the perfect life, marriage, kids and money. Sarah has convinced Drew to join LuminUS, a multilevel marketing company selling beauty supplements. Before long, Drew spends money she does not have and is trying to keep up with the selling strategies set by Sarah and those up the chain of command. She is not the type of person who completely buys into the business of LuminUS, and it does not take long for her to question the entire company. The women dying around her does not help.

Death in the Downline is a fast paced, fun book. Drew is an empathetic character, and we are on her side the entire time, having the same questions that she has. While Drew starts to investigate the deaths around LuminUS, she does not really have a hard time getting information. We also do not get much sense of risk in Drew poking around in shady dealings of a multimillion dollar business. I feel like this lack of peril that Drew feels, like there will be nobody to kill her even though they are killing those around her, makes the novel, especially the latter third where she is really getting information and pushing for more, feel soft. Most of the people involved want to talk to her, tell her everything going on, even if they know that they are in danger as well for telling their story. Drew getting information seems a little easy, and this keeps the final scenes from being too tense. I enjoyed Death in the Downline, and I had a good time reading it. Getting into the world of MLM and knowing that none of them really are anything more than ploys to milk desperate people from their money, is an interesting topic to think about. I like Drew and Sarah as friends, and even some of the other ladies selling LuminUS are good people in a bad situation. In the end, the fall of LuminUS does not cause enough danger for Drew, the biggest whistleblower.

I received this as an ARC from NetGalley in exchange for an honest review.

We love a cozy mystery and we LOVE to hate mlms. This book is so funny and so unique while shedding light on the VERY predatory practices of multi level marketing companies.

Thank you to NetGalley and the publisher for the ARC of Death in the Downline! This book was a wickedly clever and darkly funny mystery that hooked me from the start. Drew’s journey back to her small New Jersey hometown felt raw and relatable, and her dive into the glitzy, cult-like world of LuminUS was as hilarious as it was unsettling. The author did a phenomenal job skewering MLM culture with sharp wit and laugh-out-loud moments, while also weaving a compelling murder mystery that kept me on the edge of my seat. The dynamic between the characters added depth to the story, highlighting the complexities of friendship and ambition. Equal parts satirical and suspenseful, this is a must-read for fans of biting social commentary wrapped in a page-turning whodunit. Highly recommend!

MLMs and murder??? I was so excited for this! For some reason MLMs have long fascinated me, and with more coming to light about their predatory and shady practices, there are so many interesting (and horrifying) stories coming out from previous members. Unfortunately, this didn't quite pull it off like I hoped it would, but I still appreciate what it was TRYING to do. Drew is newly single and newly unemployed when she moves in with her dad in New Jersey, at a total loss. She reconnects with Steph, a friend from high school with whom she had a falling out years ago. Of course, Steph has an AMAZING OPPORTUNITY for her with her direct marketing skincare company, LimunUS. You can imagine where things go from here. I just wish the writing would have been a bit better and the characters more developed, but this has promise!

I really enjoyed the premise of the book but felt that it missed the mark on all fronts - especially the plot twist.

A lot happened but we dipped so shallow each time that it felt as though someone was telling me the key story points, rather than me watching it unfold on the page.

MLM meets darkness and danger is right up my street, this book was very enjoyable and funny overall.