This absorbing thriller really races along as the stakes continue to grow, while none of the couples really stood out for me - it was interesting to see how the game soon escalated. He drives to Rhys house and finds Juliette with Rhys in her arms and she said it was an accident but when she told him what happened he wanted to go to the police, it was Kathryn that killed Rhys, Jakob, she just got Juliette to cover Rhys death up. The Silver was polished, flowers bought, and an ‘elevated’ chef was hired to cook and serve the meal. All of the characters were stereotyped into one-dimension. They were all walking-talking-acting in a way that said they didn’t know to be anything else. Seriously, it was almost to the point of ridiculousness, the way Chris ALWAYS talked about food and dips, Marie ALWAYS seemed to be thrusting her breasts onto other men and how Beth was ALWAYS the voice of reason, even though she was flawed character herself. Here’s all you need to know about the characters in case you don’t believe me:

Dinner Party: A Tragedy by Sarah Gilmartin | Goodreads Dinner Party: A Tragedy by Sarah Gilmartin | Goodreads

The biggest issue I had with this book was the people...there was about 13 different people to remember the names of. 8 of those were in a couple so not only did you have to remember their name, you had to remember who they were married to as well. This was hella confusing even 65% the way through. I'm still planning to read this book, as it has been on my radar for months! I have it on hold at the library now :) To mark the anniversary of a death in the family, Kate meticulously plans a dinner party - from the fancy table setting to the perfect baked alaska waiting in the freezer. But by the end of the night, old tensions have flared, the guests are gone, and Kate is spinning out of control. Dinner Party by Tracy Bloom was the perfect escape from my usual, dark thrillers or emotional reads. The story begins at a dinner party hosted by Chris and Beth. They are soon joined by their friends Duncan, Sarah, Tony and Marie. The 6 usually have dinner parties once every month. They also have a hosting rota for each of the couples. A tradition that they have maintained for years. However, for the first time, a stranger joins them. Simon was invited by Chris who then forgot to tell the others. He doesn’t really know him but he thought the dinner would cheer him up. Little did the group know that their lives were about to change. All it took was one surprise guest. Now the only thing that was disappointing was the fact that it was not a laugh-out-loud comedy. There were lot of humor spread across the whole book, but I felt that it was not strong enough. Other than that, the writing was really simple, the story development was gradually done, and the emotional conflicts were described in a really good way.This is a story about 3 couples in their mid-forties who regularly take it in turns to host a dinner party until one day they are faced with an unexpected dinner guest which turns all the subsequent parties into chaos Kate Gleeson was a twin, and on Halloween 2018 she hosts a dinner party for her siblings to mark the anniversary of twin sister Elaine's death. The dinner party is an intriguing look at the way the death has affected her and her siblings. By the end of the evening, the dessert is in the bin, the guests have left and Kate is no longer herself and is experiencing turmoil. We later go on to explore Kate's demons and particularly look at the character of Bernadette and her mothering techniques including verbal cruelties, which often Kate faced the brunt of. Despite the ending, however, I still think this one is worth reading. This author was on to something, and I foresee better work in the future. There are secrets and lies aplenty ... add suicides, possible homicides, drugs, alcohol and well hidden pasts that are slowly being revealed, and the suspense is palpable. I found the first half riveting, but them it kind of fizzled toward the end. The story was all wrapped up, but some of it didn't rise to the level of tension I had expected. Family get-togethers are inherently dramatic as they are often accompanied by so much expectation, pent-up emotions and long-held grievances. They often start out with the best intentions but can spiral out of control into feuds. There's an intense familiarity yet often family members can feel like strangers to each other. This is something Sarah Gilmartin understands well as her debut novel begins and ends with a dinner to mark the anniversary of a death in the family. In between these dinners we learn about the history of the Gleesons, a contemporary Irish family of farmers with two sons and twin daughters. The story focuses on daughter Kate as she struggles to reconcile with family tragedies, emotionally connect with the family members who remain and progress forward in her own life. It's an engaging story with many moments of high tension and heartache because it's clear that these people care deeply about each other but also drive each other crazy.

The Dinner Party: The most addictive, twisty, psychological thriller of The Dinner Party: The most addictive, twisty, psychological

Now grow the kids up a bit, pair them off, and add in seeds of self doubt, marital discontent, and general passive aggressive self loathing. Each chapter focuses on a different character, but at the end of each chapter there are what appears to be an ongoing interview between a journalist and members of the group - and it was those that had me intrigued first. I had to know why there was a journalist and from the hints in the answers to the questions, just what happened, as its clear something large occurred at one party but that is all I am saying on the matter. But it is when Kate leaves home for university that the real trouble begins. Instead of the freedom she expected to feel, life becomes even more complicated. Sarah, Marie and Beth - three very different women who have been friends forever, and their husbands. Each couple has a different kind of history from each other and there are a lot of personalities to think about in this book, which makes it intriguing. Chef Michael: his food choices - Frog Legs - to represent the pharaoh in Egypt - was ‘not’ a hit prize traditional Jewish food choice.This novel is very much one of a nuclear Irish family dealing – dealing with the traumas that have occurred to them, the interactions between them both past and present, how childhood issues and words spoken play out for many years - the nuclear family term being I think particularly appropriate here in a book which explores both familial attraction and tension. For over a month - Sylvia spent energy and money preparing to impress the Rothschilds family. Henry was coming with his parents.

The Dinner Party by Richard Jay Parker | Goodreads The Dinner Party by Richard Jay Parker | Goodreads

Sarah Gilmartin's ability to find images that are both accurate and imaginative, both gentle and deeply physical, is just breathtaking.Not giving 5 stars because, the writing is simple, the story and characters though colorful and different are not memorable. But this book is not boring at all and is quite funny😁. Tension soon rises throughout the course of the evening and alarmingly comes to a head when one of the party members is found murdered. This book has a good variety of characters involved, and how each person views the same incident differently. And this book is told in different perspectives. So it makes it even more interesting to read. It's not the repetition of the same incidents, but the aftermath that is discussed. The plot is nothing new, bu the take on the plot is really refreshing to read. This is my first Tracy Bloom book, and i am really excited to read other books by her! Four couples who are apparently life long friends get together at one of the couple's houses for one of their regular dinner parties. It all appears to start off ok although even from the beginning the reader gets the feeling that these people are not as close as they pretend to be. There is tension in the air and the atmosphere gets worse after one of the women suggests that they play a game called the truth game. If you're looking for suspense, then look no further, this book certainly delivers. It offers the reader an atmospheric read with short chapters that will leave you saying "Okay, just one more chapter!"

Dinner Party by Tracy Bloom | Goodreads Dinner Party by Tracy Bloom | Goodreads

Who was she at all? Just a random woman in her thirties whose fine little life was falling apart. Impossible to isolate the problem. The break-up, which was connected to the apartment, which was connected to her job and her friends and her family, which was connected to the past, to her father, to Elaine, to the shared womb, to the mother they’d been cut out of thirty-six weeks later, to her scarred stomach that had never recovered. And who was so connected to where, all the messy ‘W’s, really, and the worst one of all: why. Why were any of them here? She was not suicidal—just a healthy appreciation of death. She’d known it from such a young age that it was impossible not to consider it, frequently, deeply. And maybe that was connected to the way she lived now, but on the other hand, she had a talent for hunger This fast paced psychological thriller hooks you from the very first sentence. The story so well told I gave up trying to figure out who did it and just enjoyed the twists and turns and surprises with an I did not see that coming ending which will make you think...wait what?? Wow! It was a good read but not excellent. It did grip me at the beginning and I was fully engaged. I started it before going to bed and thought I could just read through some chapters. Instead I read the first quarter in one sitting and had to go to bed because of work and continued the next day. I really didn’t like the characters and I found it hard to tell them apart. There are 4 couples, including our narrator and his wife, and I keep forgetting who was married to who and what made them different from the other couples. I understand that the author wanted to throw the readers off by who the killer was by adding more characters, but for me it didn’t work. They just blended together.The police finally found Jakob but they said he hung himself on a tree and told them it was a suicide, when the police were examine Jakob’s body they found the date rate drug in his system. But Juliette lied to ted she wasn’t at work she was at Kathryn’s and they were arguing. A copy of this book was kindly provided to me by Netgalley and Harper Impulse and Killer Reads in exchange for an honest review. Thank you! ***