A witty, noir novel set in REYKJAVIK, ICELAND
A sharply observed novel set around LOS ANGELES
15th July 2026
Hot Girl Murder Club by Ashley Winstead, sharp novel set around Los Angeles.
This is a brash and perceptive novel set in and around Los Angeles and clearly has been inspired by events over the past few years. As the novel opens, a woman is found dead and it would seem she has been a procurer and enabler for one of the bigwigs in Hollywood. There is a scrawled short message that is highly visible, and on further research the words seem to implicate Scout Sage, a superstar. Grey Holloway is tasked with investigating this and her sidekick Ellis has developed a curious theory that hardly feels plausible. A group of women on a ‘justified’ revenge spree? And yet….
This is a pertinent storyline about retribution, about being heard, about waving the red flag for terrible misdemeanours, and overall serving as a redress for some of the terrible things the men in power have done in this particular industry. It is about picking at the scabs of the protective layer that surround the mighty moguls, and, as a reader, giving a tacit thumbs up to the endeavours of the Hot Girls Murder Club. Readers will, of course, be able to equate quite a few of the characters with real-life notorious people. The story then fills out with unexpected swerves and backstories.
That said, it can at times feel like a disjointed story. It moves on from the opener, which happened 10 years ago to the present, examines more recent history and then goes back twelve years. The women – including Grey Holloway – are naturally depicted as sassy protagonists but can at times feel a little two dimensional behind their quick and incisive repartie.
It is quite a visual story, so there is a sense that the author has one eye on the book being picked up for TV or the big screen, and there I can see it working very well in the right hands.
Tina for the TripFiction Team
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