Hannah Ford is about to go travelling so her close family and friends hire a house for a send off party. But in the morning, one friend, Katherine, is discovered dead and the rest of the group decide to cover up the death to prevent secrets being revealed…
The Party at No. 12 is a psychological thriller set in the UK. The book is written from the third person perspectives of Hannah and Zack who is Katherine’s boyfriend.
Hnnah is excited about her party but has invited a old friend at the last minute. There is tension when Katherine arrives at the party as she feels that another friend Sophie stole her boyfriend years ago. Beth doesn’t think Hannah should be wasting her money on travelling while Charlotte is using drugs. But all of these niggling things are thrown into greater focus when Katherine’s body is discovered the next morning.
To protect each other and themselves, the group hide the body and deny that Katherine ever attended the party. Big warning bells were ringing out for me at this point as it didn’t seem logical yet the fierce need to protect loved ones is definitely something I can identify with. But Hannah knows one of them must be a killer and is plagued by guilt and fear, especially as Zach refuses to give up until he finds out the truth. I felt that the emotional elements to the book were really believable and easy to relate to.
The writing is quite fast paced and I was swept up in the plot, often goggling at the decisions the characters made. There were some fab twists which I did almost guess but I was still surprised by how they unfolded within the plot. The ending was a little abrupt for me and I had to suspend my disbelief several times but overall the book was very entertaining.
In a grand townhouse rented specially for the evening, Hannah beams at her guests under the sparkling chandelier. Her sisters, her mother and aunt, her best friends… although she’ll miss them all so much when she moves away, tonight is about celebrating the happy times and raising a toast to the future.
But the next morning, one of the guests is found cold and lifeless in their pristine white bed.
Hannah is desperate to call the police. After all, it must have been an accident. Perhaps too much wine, on a night where emotions were running high. But it soon becomes clear that every single person at the party has something to hide.
A mother who’ll do anything for her daughters.
Best friends with dark secrets between them.
A sister with a jealous streak.
What if one of them is a killer?
And what if this is just the first victim?
An absolutely unputdownable thriller that won’t let you sleep until you’ve reached the final page! Perfect for fans of Lisa Jewell, The Hunting Party and Shari Lapena.
Author Bio:
Kerry Wilkinson is from the English county of Somerset but has spent far too long living in the north. It’s there that he’s picked up possibly made-up regional words like ‘barm’ and ‘ginnel’. He pretends to know what they mean.
He’s also been busy since turning thirty: his Jessica Daniel crime series has sold more than a million copies in the UK; he has written a fantasy-adventure trilogy for young adults; a second crime series featuring private investigator Andrew Hunter and the standalone thriller, Down Among The Dead Men.
