The Night of the Party by Anna-Lou Weatherley - Book Review

The Night of the Party by Anna-Lou Weatherley

Publication Date: 12th Jan 2022
Genre: Thriller 

3.5 Stars 

One Liner: Interesting, but nothing new to offer 

*****

The Drayton family is enjoying dinner with close friends on a cold night. Libby is a 17-yo and the perfect daughter of Evie and Tom Drayton. Brandon, Evie’s stepson, doesn’t enjoy the same adoration. 

Una and Jim are Evie’s college friends. Jim is a GP and a docile middle-aged man, while Una is the life of the party. When Libby goes out for an event and doesn’t respond to Evie’s messages or calls, Evie starts to panic. When the girl doesn’t come home, Evie knows something is wrong. 

Dan Riley is assigned to find Evie and soon discovers that the girl was neither perfect nor as innocent as Evie believed. Soon enough, Libby’s body is found, and thus begins a murder investigation. As secrets are uncovered, we realize that no one is who they seem to be. 

What made Libby turn into a manipulative daughter? Can Dan find out who the killer is? 

The story is revealed in multiple perspectives, with Dan’s voice in the first person and the rest in the limited third person. This gives us all the necessary information to solve the case ourselves even before Dan does. This is both an advantage and a disadvantage. 

Plus Points: 

• I got to know after reading the book that it is a part of a series of cases solved by DI Dan Riley. Makes sense that his voice is the first person. It worked so well as a standalone! I wondered why there was a chapter at the end with more details about Dan. Now I understand. 
• The main characters are all flawed, some more than others. The side characters are decent, though. 
• The story moves more like a show on the telly. Given the characters, this approach worked well. I could read the book without being involved and still enjoy it. 

Not-so-Plus Points: 

• There isn’t anything new in the book. Story-wise or character-wise, we don’t have much to look forward to. 
• The twists are super easy to guess (especially for a thriller reader). That does make the book slightly dull. Since there wasn’t any action, the story felt bland towards the end. 
• Readers following the Dam Riley series might connect more and like it better than I did. For me, it was just another regular thriller. 

To sum up, The Night of the Party is a decent thriller with a fast-paced narration. Non-thriller readers might find it more entertaining. 

Thank you, NetGalley and Bookouture, for the ARC in exchange for an honest review. 

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