The Girl at the Party
Danielle Stewart
290 pages
8 hours 35 minutes
Bookouture
published July 12, 2023
About the book
Slamming the door shut behind her, Stephanie takes one last look at the party where her best friends are busy celebrating. As the drinks are poured and music blasts, she disappears into the darkness alone. Some say she was crying. Others think they heard an argument that night. But we never saw her alive again…
Ever since our best friend Stephanie was found murdered four years ago, I’ve been haunted by the feeling that I should have done more. The eight of us at the party were inseparable – and we always thought she was the perfect one. The one who stayed out of trouble. The one who always looked out for us…
But when we discover more about the events leading up to that fateful night, I realise that our friend was far from perfect. The golden girl was keeping secrets. Secrets that someone would kill to keep quiet. The more I learn about that night, I realise I never really knew her at all.
And as we get closer to the truth of what happened, the threats start. A warning message is keyed onto my car. Then the house is broken into, and my belongings are destroyed. The killer is watching us, and they are coming out of the shadows…
But when I find out that Stephanie knew her killer, my blood runs cold. Are they closer to me than I could have ever imagined? And just how far will they go to make sure the truth stays buried forever?
This addictive and gripping psychological thriller is perfect for fans of Megan Miranda, Lisa Jewell and Laura Marshall.
My review
I’ve never listened to a podcast, but love reading books about them. But I should warn you this one is heavy on the research and light on the actual podcast components compared to some books I have read with podcasts. at the heart of them. The duo hosting the podcast could just as easily be PIs or detectives investigating the case.
Chris tracks down Laura and invites her to help him produce a true crime podcast that investigates the death of their friend. back when they were in college. There is a mystery surrounding her death at a party. And Chris, Laura and a bunch of their friends were all there yet no one claims to know what happened. I liked the angle that Chris and Laura kinda had a relationship back then. And I knew they were on to something when things start happening to the two of them.
It was kinda a different type of mystery. As I read, the story seemed to put a spotlight on a character and give you a ton of reasons to think aha, this person did it. Then the spotlight would shift to someone else without ever really clearing the previous person. So this “spotlight” just kept rotating around basically cast a shadow over everyone. And man when you get to the end, there is quite the unraveling. There is no way you’ll figure out all the moving pieces.
This is another of my reads that I also had the audiobook. And I both were terrific. The narrator does voices and I am not a huge fan of her male voice, but not enough for it to take away from the story. She was able to keep my attention and keep the story at the focus.
While being a slow burn mystery which just hints of danger for the characters, I really did like it.
About the author:
Danielle Stewart is a USA Today Best Selling Author of over 50 books. She has held the number one book rank on Apple Books, Amazon and Barnes and Noble. Danielle currently lives in Charlotte, North Carolina with her husband and son. She works hard to perfect her ability to write in a noisy house and create story lines while daydreaming and folding laundry. She loves hearing from readers so please find her on social media.
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