BLOG TOUR – The House Party by Mary Grand

Beth hasn’t seen her close friend Kathleen for a while, so when there’s a get-together of close friends at Kathleen and her husband’s stunning new home in the Isle of Whight, she expects to find her content and settled in what can only be described as a stunning architectural masterpiece. The house is a dream, and everyone’s so thrilled to see it and to be together with their closest friends in a happy, intimate setting. But Beth is shocked to find Kathleen tense and uneasy, finally confiding that someone in their tight circle, who is here at this very same house party, has threatened her and that she is living in fear. Beth can hardly believe. These are their closest, dearest friends who they know so well. Who could it be. Kathleen promises she will confide more details in the coming days.

But the following morning Kathleen is dead. Suicide? An accident? Murder? Beth is determined to find out. But in doing so, is she going to alienate all those who are her nearest and dearest. It seems that she might not know her friends as well as she thought she did, and the more she digs, she’s disturbed to find that everyone seems to have something to hide … even her own husband, and teenage children!

I loved Beth’s somewhat naive detective skills. The way she goes about trying to find out what happened to her friend and her determination to get to the bottom of it all, really endeared her to me. She’s really just this down-to-earth mom, doing her best and she’s been thrown in the deep end here. But she’s made up her mind that she’s going to see this through no matter what and she sets her mind to the task at hand. She certainly has quite a few surprises in store for her. But I kept thinking that if each of us had just one friend like Beth in our lives, we’d always know there was someone looking out for us, someone who had our back, and that we’d be okay!

This is a bit of a slow-burning psychological thriller, but it does force you to question: “How well do you really, really know the people who you think are closest to you?” We tend to assume that if we open ourselves up to others that they’ll do the same for us, but more often than not, that isn’t the case. People hold back; people keep secrets … whether it’s for their own good, or whether they tell themselves it’s for yours.

This is an absorbing 4-star read that kept me guessing, and then guessing again! Thank you to RaRa Resources and Boldwood Books for inviting me along on the tour. Take a look at what bloggers are saying about The House Party …

Purchase Link – https://amzn.to/35kKciQ

Author Bio:

Mary Grand is the author of five novels and writes gripping, page-turning suspense, with a dark and often murderous underside. She grew up in Wales, was for many years a teacher of deaf children and now lives on the Isle of Wight where her new novel, The House Party,  published by Boldwood in July 2020, is set.

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Blog / website URL:   https://marygrand.net/