“THE PLANNING TOOK MONTHS. THE MURDER JUST MOMENTS . . .”
- Book: A Death At The Party
- Location: United States (USA)
- Author: Amy Stuart
Oh! How some parts of this storyline were so relatable to me personally, it was quite scary to actually see my traits written down in words this way. Like our main protagonist, Nadine Walsh, my life also revolves around lists. I too strike a line through the chores I have completed and at the end of the day, with any items remaining unfinished getting added to the top of my list for the following day. How often do I get to the end of a list – rarely! However the fact that the list is a tangible item of reference, is definitely my comfort blanket. Whilst this does undoubtedly mean that I have OCD tendencies and I can often get tetchy and very anxious if I don’t think I have made enough progress through my list, unlike Nadine, I have yet to resort to murder to achieve my goals! And, whilst every family has skeletons in the cupboard, if I discovered secrets in my family, of the magnitude that Nadine is about to uncover in her own, then I might have to think long and hard about that…
…
Nadine Walsh lives with husband Paul, who is partner with Seymour in their own successful law firm, and children Isobel and Damien, both teenagers. Nadine and Paul come from totally different beginnings, although Nadine is not ashamed of the fact that her mother Marilyn raised her single-handedly, in deprived circumstances, working at any job she could just to keep them together. Things however, were turned on their head, when Marilyn’s debut novel took off like a whirlwind, catapulting her to almost overnight fame, placing the two of them into the secure financial position they might have once only dreamt about. Through her mother’s generosity, Nadine is a wealthy woman in her own right and whilst Paul knows that she has her own account, he has no idea of its truth worth, until Nadine has to break the news that it is all gone – and why! It seems to the outside world that Nadine and Marilyn are inseparable and very close.
On their marriage, Paul and Nadine were able to purchase a pair of semi-detached Victorian villas, in an affluent area of town. One they developed for themselves, the other, its newly renovated mirror image, they rent to ex-pat Brit, Teddy. The houses were originally owned by two sisters, who each lived independently of the other, behind their own front doors. The hidden secret the houses hold, is definitely quirky, if not to everyone’s taste!
On this day, Paul and Nadine are hosting a 60th birthday party, with over one hundred guests, for Marilyn, complete with outdoor dance floor, live music and outside catering. The ever stressed, list making, Nadine, thinks she is uber-organised, especially since she has the added help of Paul’s niece Margot, who has been living with them and has been Nadine’s constant support and companion, since the life-changing accident Nadine had almost a year ago, which had kept her hospitalised for many months. Marilyn has only very reluctantly agreed to the party, as some thirty years ago, another similar party was thrown for her by relatives at the family farmstead and that was a night no one will ever forget, as it ended with disastrous consequences which changed both Marilyn and Nadine’s lives forever.
The entire story revolves around this twenty-four hour party day, with occasional flashbacks to the same period thirty years ago, as the past threatens to overwhelm the future, in a collision course of epic proportions. For Nadine, the party is the catalyst which brings so many locked away emotions and information she had no idea she knew, out into the open, threatening to derail her immaculate party plan organisation. Just about everyone she meets or has interactions with on this day, has the potential to be her hidden nemesis from thirty years ago, as all the suspects seem to have gathered around herself and Paul to live in the same few streets, infiltrating her family life and involving those she will do anything to protect. Nadine just needs to drop that last piece of the jigsaw in place to work out the answer, if only she could clear her mind of all the background noise, which has plagued her since that devastating night, allowing her to see clearly what had been there in open view all the time!
Before the night is over, confessions and secrets, including Nadine’s own little indiscretion, will be revealed; the dynamics of not only a family, but an entire neighbourhood, will be changed forever; and for Nadine, retribution will be swift, unequivocal and strangely satisfying.
…
Narrated solely by Nadine herself, this well-constructed, domestic thriller, is a dual timeline story, which moves back and forth between this single day in the present time and the lead-up to events which took place at her grandparents farm exactly thirty years ago to the day, when she was just a child of ten. Although I did wonder if the book was going to be a tad too lengthy for what would appear to be a relatively slow-burning, emotionally draining and multi-layered plotline, it actually moved along at quite a good pace, with some excellent descriptive narrative and dialogue, which offered a great sense of time and place, was rich in atmosphere and tension, and immersed me completely in the life of the Walsh family, their friends, colleagues and neighbours.
Well, I already knew right from the off, that our body was a ‘he’, so far so good. We also know the identity of the murderer, easy-peasy then! I therefore assumed that this back-to-front murder would be an easy nut to crack, just make a note of all the male characters and surely one of them will be instantly stand-out as a victim who doesn’t deserve to live – wrong! The twists and turns just kept coming and author Amy Stuart had in her cast, more male characters than I could keep track of, without making one of those ‘Nadine style’ all important lists of course! And she had cleverly scripted it so that almost any one of them could and possibly should, have been the deserving victim of Nadine’s fatal ministrations.
Nadine’s relationship with her mother is very complex, as she knows Marilyn’s darkest secret and is upset that Marilyn has never trusted her enough to share it. Nadine’s emotions therefore pivot between love and hate in equal measure, especially when Marilyn appears hardened and completely inured to events which, even to this day, can reduce Nadine to a quivering mess. Marilyn is aware that Nadine suffers greatly with her mental health anxieties and compulsive disorders, especially when it is on the day of such an important gathering for her, so she seems to have picked the most inopportune of moments to go public, not quite knowing how it will affect either of them, when their dirty laundry is aired in front of the good and great of the neighbourhood and beyond. Is Nadine made of the strong stuff Marilyn suspects and hopes she is, when push comes to shove?
There was quite a lengthy cast of characters in this story, all of whom were, if and when necessary, well drawn, defined and fully equipped enough in their own right, to command a situation and manipulate it to their own advantage. I think that Nadine’s husband Paul might have been the weakest, most gullible and ‘beige’ person amongst them, although knowing only a fraction of the baggage Nadine was carrying, he was quite happy to let her run with a situation, then step in to pick up the pieces, as and when necessary. If there was ever such a gathering of creepy, sleaze-ball men all in one place, I most certainly wouldn’t have wanted to meet them. Not the kind of neighbourhood I would want to live in, that’s for sure, or a group of people I would be happy to call ‘friends’. Whilst I accept that their lives were all quite complex, none of them were truly authentic, easy to connect with, or worth investing in.
As not only an avid reader, but also a confirmed ‘armchair traveller’, I admit to feeling just a little miffed that I read this entire book without ever having any indication as to where it was set, apart from somewhere in the USA. I accept that many authors use a mix of fictional and real place names and areas, however there are generally at least a couple of casual hints indicating whereabouts on the map I might need to search, to try and add that all important identifiable place and realism to my reading. However, this was a story all about plot and people, which could easily have been set in any neighbourhood, in any country, so I’m not going to get too hung up about it.
What always makes reading such a wonderful experience for me, is that with each and every new book I read, I am taken on an individual journey, by authors who fire my imagination, stir my emotions and stimulate my senses. Does the end always justify the means, I wonder? This rather unique and intense storyline definitely had the power to evoke so many feelings, that I’m sure I won’t have felt the same way about it as the last reader, nor the next.
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