~The Dinner Guest – Review~

Posted on March 25, 2021 by dkhundt

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‘Charlie didn’t want her at the book club. Matthew wouldn’t listen.’

‘And that’s how Charlie finds himself slumped beside his husband’s body, their son sitting silently at the dinner table, while Rachel calls 999, the bloody knife still gripped in her hand.’

THE DINNER GUEST is a multi-perspective narrative written in alternating chapters and timelines as seen through the eyes of Charles Allerton-Jones’—husband to Matthew and Father of fifteen-year-old Titus, and Rachel—a perfect stranger Charles meets at a Bookstore and later the market where Matthew insists on inviting her to his Book Club and upon doing so, their lives.

I wanted to like this book, but…

I couldn’t stand many of the characters (which is the author’s intent) specifically, Charles, a prudish elitist snob who looks down upon Rachel, who he considers one of the lower-class poor, undeserving of being a part of or in the presence of the Upper-class collective.

Don’t get me wrong, I love a book with a deplorable villain and even one that has some redeemable qualities, however, having to be submerged in Charles’ mindset for the majority of the narrative was nauseating, to say the least.

The one aspect of the synopsis that drew me to want to read the book is that it’s a who-done-it, so having characters depicted with potential motives for murder are essential. However, I personally would have preferred to view it from the perspective of an outsider looking in.

Thank you, NetGalley and HarperCollins Publishing UK, for loaning me an eGalley of THE DINNER GUEST in the request of an honest review.