Member Reviews
YES! This is exactly the type of novel that I love to read. I had high expectations and a burning desire to play detective and solve the case before anyone else :-). Imagine 6 people held captive in a hotel room, one dead body and a ticking clock. It'll all go BOOM if Morgan Sheppard doesn't solve the case. So why Morgan? Good question! He is a reality TV host and has his own show called Resident Detective (it's all a bit Jerry Springer honestly if you ask me). It's all just an act though except this time, he'll have to give it his best if he wants them to survive.
It was fun fun fun guessing who the killer among them was. I didn't actually know so I kind of settled on a suspect who was the most likely one if I thought about it rationally and just zoomed in on that person like a crazy person. I'm really wondering if everyone had a favorite character to be the killer because I know I had one!
I thought the reactions and thoughts of Sheppard and everyone in the room felt very natural to me. I was floating along with the paranoia and trust-no-one attitude in the room. I also loved the secrets everyone had but most of all those of Sheppard! About halfway through the novel a tip of the veil is lifted why this is all happening and I was very surprised how deep the backstory went and how it was connected to the scene at the beginning of the novel. I knew of course there was some explanation but not in my wildest dreams did I think up this scenario. It's all very plausible though and makes perfect sense and I was definitely just as invested into the plotline in the past as I was in the present, they were both just as interesting. Lots of surprises to be discovered in this locked-room mystery. How will they get out of this situation? Who is behind all of this? It's sure to keep you turning these pages. I'm very impressed with this debut novel and I really want to see what else he can pull out of his hat. Well done, I really enjoyed reading this!
Liked the whole idea behind this book and I found it quite unique. Good gripping storyline that kept me hooked and guessing right to the end.
I was lucky enough to win a copy of this through TBC on Facebook and I wasn’t disappointed.
Morgan Shepard wanted to be ‘someone’ right from when he was little. At 11 years old he solved the murder of a school teacher who was assumed to have hung himself and now is a famous and wealthy TV resident detective (similar to Jeremy Kyle).
One morning he wakes up to his worst nightmare, he is handcuffed to a bed with five other strangers in the room in London. No one knows how any of them got there or even why they are there.
Someone is also dead in the bathroom and it seems Morgan has to work out who killed him in just three hours or everyone in the hotel will be killed in an explosion.
This story is very good and keep you reading all the way through. It is fast paced and keeps you reading because you want to find out who the killer is and if Morgan cracks it. As the story goes backwards and forwards a little we find out the truth and it’s not what was expected at all.
I enjoyed reading this and would recommend it to others.
Since he was a child, Morgan Sheppard always wanted to be famous. It didn’t matter for what as long as he was recognized and adulated. When he was eleven-years-old something happened that put him on the spotlight and now, many years later, he is the famous presenter of a detective show. Spending his days popping pills and not caring about other people’s feelings, Morgan wakes up one day chained to a hotel room. There are five other people in the room, they don’t know each other and they don’t know how they got there, but the biggest surprise is the murdered body in the bath tub. A man wearing the mask of a horse appears on the screen of a TV to explain that they are all in the room of a hotel in central London. One of them is the killer and if Morgan manages to find out who it is in the next three hours they will all be free to go. If he doesn’t, the hotel will explode killing everyone inside it.
Morgan has recognised the man in the bath tub, he is someone who had been important for him for many years, and even the other people in the room all seem to have a connection with him. After making sure that there is no way out, Morgan starts the investigation, but his mind can’t focus as he struggles with his drug addiction and regrets from his past, and things get out of control as suspicion raises among the other “guests”.
This is a fast-paced novel, everything happens in a few hours, with flashbacks and memories that take the reader back in time to discover what happened that led this five people into this room. A real-life Cluedo with touches of Agatha Christie – although with a more claustrophobic atmosphere since much of the action happens inside a hotel room and, at some point, in a vent – this is an edgy and gripping read which I was surprised to discover is a debut because it’s very well-written and carefully plotted.
A cleverly written and mega thrilling debut novel that once started I just could not put down.. I gave up trying to fathom everything out and just let the storyline take its course. This is an author to watch out for. Thanks to TBC and Netgalley for giving me the opportunity to read this awesome book.
First of all thank you to NetGalley and Orion publishing for the chance to read this novel..
You would never think this was a debut. It was fast paced , addictive (I couldn't put it down) and totally compelling.
A murder mystery, whodunit set in modern day with a slightly sinister theme of 5 people locked in a room with time slowly running out. The scenes go from the present to the past slowly building up as to why they are there and why it is happening. You should feel sorry for Morgan but unfortunately I couldn't(but that is just my opinion).
I would have no hesitation in recommending this book.
Format: Kindle Edition
This book starts off with a group of strangers locked in a hotel bedroom with no idea how they got there or what’s going on, what follows is a fast paced story whilst the protagonist attempts to solve a murder. This book does not disappoint and I couldn’t put it down. I was sent down a journey of twists and turns never sure what direction the story was going to go in and unlike many books I did not at any point predict the ending.
If you like crime novels with a little edge to it this book ticks all the boxes.
Guess Who by Chris McGeorge published by Orion and out now
So, you wake up, your handcuffed to a chair, there are 4 strangers in the room also waking, the hotels TV comes on to welcome you with a message that ‘one of you is a killer and you have 3 hours to ‘guess who’ the killer is or else you all die........’you’ are Jeremy Kyle for all intents and purposes and famous but who are the other 4?, who has been killed and why? who is the murderer? And how can you solve this or how can you escape?!...oh yes there’s a dead man in the bath....
Reminded me of the SAW films but with much more depth and back stories re the characters....
It was interesting to look at each character and try and decide who was the killer and why.....as he story develops and you see the characters past’s and why they are actually there you think you have it worked out, then change your mind and then change again
Quite a claustrophobic book in every sense and the plot at times is a bit hard to follow and the characters each in their own way obnoxious but then as the story ‘comes together’makes sense
A good read and interesting idea that does ebb n flow in parts but has enough to keep you.....
7.5/10 4 stars
A book that kept me up reading late into the night. I'd be interested to read more from the writer in the future!
Morgan Sheppard, host of a hugely successful mid-morning television show – basically, think Jeremy Kyle - is having a bad day. After an evening in France with a beautiful woman, he finds himself waking up in a London hotel room. The door is locked from the outside, the window doesn’t open and there are five strangers in the room, all waking up at the same time. And there’s a dead body in the bathroom…
A message arrives via the television screen, delivered by a man in a mask. Sheppard has to prove that he lives up to his reputation – an ill-deserved reputation – and solve the murder. He has three hours – if he fails, then a bomb will explode killing everyone in the room. But things aren’t that simple…
After a month in the Golden Age, it’s time to re-emerge into the twenty-first century and this debut novel from Chris McGeorge. But before we get into the review, let’s make one thing clear to my regular readers who might have seen the adverts for this one:
IT’S NOT THAT SORT OF LOCKED ROOM MYSTERY!
There’s an extremely over-the-top quote stating that McGeorge is new “King of the Locked Room Mystery”. Firstly, he’s written one book. You can’t be the king of anything based on that evidence. And in any literary definition I’ve ever seen, a locked room mystery doesn’t generally involve locking the murder and suspects inside the room with the victim.
Right, that’s out of the way, let’s take a look at what the book actually is. Pretty damn good, that’s what it is.
A finite set of suspects, an interesting lead – there are times when it looks like we are going down the unreliable narrator/point of view, but thankfully the author stays clear of that cliché – and, guess what, some actual clues to the murderer. Oh, you won’t spot them, but they are there. It’s hard to say much more without spoiling the book, but the plot is very well constructed, flashing back to various parts of Sheppard’s life without every feeling like padding, while keeping the momentum of the present day predicament at all times.
You have to take the villain’s ability to set things up with a pinch… no, a ton of salt, but the book gets away with it due to never trying to be anything more than an entertaining thriller/mystery (and what’s wrong with that?). So if you fancy an entertaining thriller/mystery, this one is well worth your time. But while it’s not that sort of locked room mystery, it’s still Highly Recommended.
Guess Who is an interesting debut. Think Saw, crossed with an escape room, crossed with some random completely unbelievable reality tv show.
Five people find themselves locked in a hotel room with no means of escape. As well as each other for company, they have old man’s dead body. A man known to each of them in different ways, brutally murdered.
Morgan Sheppard, drug addict, alcoholic and morning television’s detective answer to Jeremy Kyle seems to be the reason that they are all in the room together. But they don’t know him.
When they are contacted by someone outside of the room, it is Morgan that is put in charge.
He has three hours to find the murderer who is amongst them somewhere in the room, before the hotel and the rest of its guests, besides Morgan and his companions are blown to pieces.
There’s no denying that Morgan has upset people over the years, made few friends and a huge amount of enemies, but what exactly can he have done to cause such an extreme reaction?
Who on earth would want him and a bunch of people he doesn’t even know to suffer?
To find the answer Morgan has to delve into his own past, but after years of denial, alcohol and substance abuse, his mind refuses to cooperate.
Will he be able to discover the killers identity before it’s too late? Or will this be a guessing game too far?
Morgan Shepherd is not really enjoying his life as a TV detective but he is very shocked when he wakes up in a hotel room, hand cuffed to the bed.
He soon realises there are other people in the room with him but none of them have a clue about how they got there.
One of the women discovers a dead body in the bathroom and Morgan is then set the task to work out who is the murderer in the room within 3 hours.
Morgan has to interview each person and soon realises there could be a connection between some of them and the dead person.
This is a gripping read.
Thanks to Orion Books and NetGalley for the opportunity to read this book.
This was absolutely brilliant! So well written and suspenseful. I can actually see it being adapted into a film. The premise of being trapped in a hotel room had a bit of a “Saw” feel to it. Can’t wait to read more from this author and would definitely recommend. Thanks to NetGalley and Orion for the ARC in exchange for an honest review.
What a fun novel! A thriller with a thrilling thread keeping the players tightly tied together with just enough room to...well nothing really. The threads of the story unravel slowly and the clues start to form. It’s Cluedo in a book it really is. The really bad, grim, dark and gory version that is.
Not your usual kind of thriller either. It’s definitely a high-concept one and ok, the story is implausible at times but I was more than happy to be taken along for this ride!
Sheppard as the boy wonder detective is the main character at the heart of the mystery and it was interesting to see his backstory explained and explored. The writing was sharp and the atmosphere very claustrophobic which more than ramped up the tension.
Not a booktrail book unless you want to look for hotels in London with more than 44 floors....but it was a lot of fun.
A psychological thriller, locked room murder mystery, with a hint of Saw.
Morgan Sheppard, host of Resident Detective reality tv show (sort of Jeremy Kyle with a detective twist) wakes up in a hotel room with 1 dead body, 5 suspects, and 3 hours to solve this whodunnit, or the mysterious masked kidnapper will blow up the hotel.
I enjoyed this immensely and didn't guess who (I couldn't help myself) which was a refreshing change in the genre. The twists, turns, and finally the revealing backstory come at a gripping pace and kept me up reading.
After a debut like this, I look forward to more from Chris McGeorge
"ONE ROOM. FIVE SUSPECTS. THREE HOURS TO FIND A KILLER." Who could resist requesting a book with a synopsis like that? The premise grabbed my attention straight away and I enjoyed this for the most part. The main character is Morgan Sheppard, who is some kind of TV true crime detective/Jeremy Kyle figure and, after a party, he wakes up in a hotel room full of strangers and a dead body. Sheppard has to figure out who the killer is or they all die.
I thought the flashback parts of the plot worked well and one particular section conveyed a sense of claustrophobia so well, it made me feel a bit nervous. I found it easy to guess who was involved but didn't find that it made any difference to my enjoyment. Unfortunately where it fell down a little was near the ending where the 'villain' proceeded to display the same fatal flaw as numerous Bond villains. (I'll say no more) Overall, it was an interesting read and I feel that with a bit of tweaking, it could have been a 4 star read.
Thank you to Netgalley and publishers, Orion Publishing Group, for the opportunity to review an ARC.
Guess Who is a highly enjoyable and original thriller, a fun whodunit and a literal locked-room mystery.
“Kidnapping six people. To make a murder puzzle. What are we missing?”
The minute I read the synopsis I knew I had to get my hands on this book! I love (amongst other things) a closed-circle whodunit and you don’t get much more closed-circle than a single room! It’s like a deranged, half-finished game of Cluedo: you know where the crime was committed and you know what sort of weapon was used but you do not know the culprit. And whereas normally the worst thing that can happen is that someone gets fed up and upends the Cluedo board, here the stakes are a little bit higher.
From the blurb, I’d initially been expecting something a bit more like Saw but, although there is some blood spilled and there are some genuinely creepy moments that reminded me of Hangman and A Snowball In Hell (and, at one point, Die Hard – you’ll know it when you get to it), it is less torture dungeon and more murder mystery – which was fine by me.
The set-up was clearly described and I could vividly see the room and the characters in my mind. I enjoyed getting to know the characters and following the clues scattered about the story. The book is cleverly plotted and there are surprising twists and revelations throughout, including some eye-opening flashbacks. The solution creeps up on you but it is not obvious and is a sound solution.
If you are willing to suspend your disbelief – which, as I’ve said before, I can always do for a good story – and, despite being left with a couple of questions at the end, I can highly recommend this bonkers and compelling (in equal measure!) mystery thriller.
Thank you to NetGalley and Orion Publishing Group for the ARC of Guess Who.
This was an okay storyline, but rather predictable in places. I won't be in a hurry to read another by the same author
I chose it as my next read I was excited to dig into a thriller having read very light hearted books recently. I have to say I was hooked from the first page. I really enjoyed this book.
It had short chapters so the just one more saying applied here and then it carried on. I read 25% of this book in one go on the way up to a hen do. I then proceeded to read it on the way back that night, before bed and the next morning. It was so good I needed to know what happened. It was one of those which you don’t want to put down but have o force yourself it.
It reminded me a bit of Chris Carter, but less gruesome. I enjoyed the plot of this book and I only guessed one part very late on in the book when it became clear, however I didn’t guess the other. I thought the characters were good and so was what happened. Although it had some sections that were ‘before’ I didn’t find this interfered with the story it only enhanced it.
Great read to dig into, if you have a few hours to spare then this is the book for you. This is only a debut, I cannot wait to see how this author progresses.
My Review: Guess Who is a brilliant page turner which kept me guessing and I didn’t work it out until the actual reveal.
A simple yet brilliantly plotted story about Morgan Sheppard a TV detective famous for his morning TV show “Resident Detective” who wakes up handcuffed to a bed in a hotel room with five strangers and one dead body.
Sheppard has three hours to work out who the murderer is before they all die, however all the suspects are somehow connected to the victim especially Sheppard who is struggling to deal with reality without his alcohol and pills and an overwhelming guilt of his connection to the dead body.
The author skilfully takes the reader back to Sheppard’s past in little snippets throughout the story which help unravel the truth or does it?
A throughly exciting and gripping whodunnit which I totally recommend.