A whodunit that I struggled with. The style of writing made it a difficult read, the jumping about from before the tragic event to after and the characters did not interest me. Thanks to netgalley and the publisher for the arc.

I'm afraid this book wasn't for me. Although it was a wonderful idea - a twist on a traditional whodunit - it just left me blinking at the screen often. The jumping around in time was hard to keep track of and the victim was just so horrible, I didn't care who had killed him! That said, this is obviously my personal opinion and I can see it appealing to other demographics; I know, for example, that I might buy this book for my mother. It certainly has merit, just not that which I enjoyed.

A murder mystery. A birthday party and a dead body. The style of writing I found to be off putting. The story was on springs and constantly all over the place and I must admit I was really struggling. I am sure other readers will enjoy it more just not for me.
Thanks to Hodder and Stoughton and Netgalley for the ARC.

Not a book that thrilled me I'm afraid and I struggled reading it with the continual switching between the past and present. I didn't really like any of the characters so all in all a disappointing read that I couldn't recommend

A murder mystery with a twist - there are 8 humans present at the house on the night of a murder- and one octopus. Hilarious!

Quirky octopus aside, this was an intriguing mystery novel in three parts. Famous film director Richard Bryant invites 8 guests from his past and present to a dinner party in a sprawling showcase home, a house which features Persephone, a Northern Pacific octopus in a giant aquarium at the heart of the house, who glides in and out as a silent watching presence in addition to the guests. The eight guests range from childhood friends and ex-wife to current lover and work colleagues, actors and actresses on Bryant’s films. Our narrator, Elspeth, doesn’t want to be there and was only lured to the party by a lie, as she soon realised. The party unfolds; it is strange, intimate, and wild - made even more bizarre by the presence of the Octopus, who we learn can escape her tank but is still ultimately trapped, because always has to return to breathe if she doesn’t want to die. Most of the guests don’t know each other well but all drink alcohol and get very drunk, and end up falling asleep one by one. When they wake up in the morning, Richard is lying among them, clearly dead.

The guests come under suspicion one by one while Elspeth tries to make sense of her own hazy memories of the night, and slowly the character of the victim is revealed to us, as well as his relationships with the guests, while we flash backwards with Elspeth too in order to see her past with Richard. Why did he invite these specific eight guests to his party and no-one else? And was Persephone just an onlooker?

I found this a quick and engaging read, and didn’t see the ending coming, so it kept me guessing. There are smart parallels at work revealed by the ending which make this more than just a simple whodunnit. An enjoyable and quite psychological read.

Thank you to the publisher, Hodder and Stoughton @hodderbooks, and #Netgalley for the arc to review.

#bookstagram #TheOctopus #TessLittle #arc #booksofinstagram #bookreview #booklove #crimefiction #murdermysterynovels #whodunnit

The Octopus is the ideal who-dun-it murder mystery about a birthday party. The host is murdered and each guest is under suspicion. One by one, the victim's ex-wife works to find out who killed her husband.

This was a fun book, and I tend to like books inspired by Agatha Christie. My only reservation is that the murder victim reminded me a bit too much of Harvey Weinstein, and so I found it difficult to find any empathy towards him.

I would say that with murder mysteries of this type, you need to at least be curious about who killed the victim and what drove them to do so. The motive was quite obvious from the very beginning, and I honestly find it hard to believe that someone like Harvey Weinstein would be missed by anyone, let alone his long suffering ex-wife.

I gave this book a 3 star out of 5 because I couldn't care less about the victim but the book was well written and structured.

Disclosure: I'd like to thank the publisher for my advanced reader copy. This is my honest review.

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would like to thank netgalley and the publisher for letting me read this book

an old fashioned murder mystery....guests are arriving at the house for a party...only instead of there being loads of people there are only a handful of people

and by morning the host is dead.....

i did struggle with this one...i dont mind any book without chapters but the way it would go from one scene to the next backwards and forwards without any warning got a bit to much i was wishing for chapters in the end....

the actual murder and mystery were well staged though, with hints of agatha christie style murder....thank god the victim did die, he wasnt a nice at all...

felt sorry for the octopus, she sounded sweet

I received this book in exchange for an honest review.

Well written? Reasonably so but the leaping from time to time with no easily discernible identification made it harder to read than necessary.

Characterisation. Good for some but absent for others and there was too much that could have added to the characters and thus the story that was missing.

Believable? Well up until the denouement yes but that ending I found quite weak. Not a twist really, more of a cop out and it seemed to contradict what evidence that had been presented earlier.

So overall not a bad book but not one I'd particularly recommend.

This story takes a classic murder mystery set up but then twists it until the murder loses importance as the characters' lives and the victim's crimes dominate the story. Elspeth is an unreliable protagonist. Her recall of events is haphazard, and she lacks insight until the end. Psychological suspense fuses with domestic drama giving all the partygoers motive for murder.

The victim is abusive and powerful using his money and influence against his acquaintances' friends' and family. The Octopus, Persephone portrays the victim's controlling nature. Her eight tentacles could equate to the eight guests? Elspeth sees Persephone's captivity and determined but futile escapes as a mirror of her existence with the victim.

The lack of chapters within the book is unsettling, but it keeps it pacy. The characters have few redeeming features but are poignant reminders of the victim's influence. There are dramatic twists as the extent of the victim's control unfolds.

It's intriguing but gives a bleak and unsettling view of humanity.

I received a copy of this book from Hodder and Stoughton via NetGalley in return for an honest review.

Pretty interesting but not a by-the-edge-of-your-seat thriller. I found it generally engaging and I think it would be a fun book to read on the beach or by the pool, a lighter summertime read. I loved that there was an octopus in the story which, honestly, was the first thing that caught my eye: that fun octopus on the cover. Reading about Persephone makes me want to watch a documentary on octopuses so that is a fun tie-in. I appreciated that the resolution was one I did not guess! I liked that it was not obvious, at least to me, but I'm not sure how I actually feel about it. It seemed a bit far-fetched.

One of the issues I had with the story was the jumping from 3 different time frames, all within 10 years of each other so not easily distinguished when the time frame shifted. As I read a galley, I'm hoping that the released book will have some definition to those time frames unless it was intentionally used by the author, which I've also considered happened. The characters also felt a bit flat and unlikeable. I definitely don't mind unlikeable characters in a story but I prefer them a bit more fleshed out, a bit more of a reason to not like them.

Overall, if you are looking for a quick, lighter mystery with an ending you might not guess, I say give this a try.

I received an advanced reading copy of this novel in exchange for an honest review. Thank you to NetGalley, Hodder & Staughton, and the author Tess Little.
A solid whodunnit thriller, but not the most gripping. There is potential here, but the slow delivery and disjointed timelines meant that I was never on the edge of my seat, not wanting to put the book down. It would be perfect for an easy holiday beach read.
3 stars, but could have been more with better execution.

I got to about halfway and just couldn't go on anymore. I was really bored as the pacing is quite slow. The characters are not engaging and what the freak is up with the octopus? Maybe I am way in over my head with this one but I am now in a reading slump because of this book. It just didn't grab my attention at all.

I requested this book as it sounded like a good old fashioned “whodunnit”.

A party ends with a corpse, and everyone attending is a suspect.

The protagonist Ella attends her ex-husbands 50th Birthday Party alone. After a wild party with drink and drugs, the guests wake up the morning after with a corpse. The host Richard is dead and it look like murder.

I was expecting a tough detective, and lots of secrets but I didn’t get this. Ella (or Elspeth) is a suspect and the story unfolds in a dual timeline format. Flitting between their meeting and early marriage, and the investigation. The dual format is difficult to follow as it flits from one paragraph to another and at times, I found it hard to follow.

What did unfold was a rather unsatisfactory murder story; and the outcome rather unsatisfactory.

One thing is there are several trigger scenes with violence and drug use.

I learnt a lot about octopuses though.

This was a quirky whodunnit which I really enjoyed. A clever intermingling of past and present really kept you intrigued about who the murderer could be - and I learned a lot about octopuses!

I really enjoyed that. It started like a somewhat classic whodunnit - eight guests at the 50th birthday dinner of acclaimed British director Richard Bryant, who wake up after the party to find the host has been murdered. The octopus he keeps in a gigantic aquarium in his LA mansion is added to the list of suspects.

But then rather than focusing on the investigation and the crime, we follow Elspeth, the ex-wife, who has been lying to everyone who cares to listen about what an amazing husband and father Richard was... when it doesn't take very long to find out he was abusive to everyone around him and any guest in fact had some serious motive to kill him. It is a really good analysis of abuse, power, and why people tolerate and even cover up for an abuser.

The end was somehow a bit disappointing, I didn't feel it brought the closure I was expecting - other than that, I really enjoyed it.

Sorry this is not my type of book. I did not like any of the characters and the jumps in time got confusing.

Thank you to Netgalley for my copy.

It took me several weeks to read this book. The author goes into great detail. If you want a book that dots every i and crosses every possible t, then great. For me it was too much. Too long. A good story though, good enough that I kept on going even though with most books I'd have given up.

Too much minutiae for me, but a good story.

Thanks to Netgalley and the publisher I read an advance review copy of the book. This review is voluntary, honest and my own opinion.

This is such an odd but interesting novel! The octopus is Penelope, a pet of Richard's kept in a gigantic tank in his home. On the eve of this fiftieth birthday party, the eight guests are introduced to Penelope who later serves as a metaphor for Richard's behavior and treatment of his "friends." In the morning when Richard is discovered dead, of course all of the guests (including ex-wife Elspeth) are suspects so the rest of the novel focusses on each of their relationships with him. Initially, it is confusing to read as it vacillates between time periods from the party, to the present, to his fortieth, and to the early days of his marriage to Elspeth; and these transitions are not defined but must be intuited. Ultimately, I did really enjoy it as it's very relevant dealing with the abuse of power, control, and manipulation.

Richard Bryant, a successful British film director is turning 50 and summons a disparate group of people to help celebrate including his ex-wife Elspeth Bryant Bell, Honey Carlisle his boyfriend, his manager Jerry, old school friend Tommo and so on. The house, Sedgwick, is stunning and contains an enormous aquarium in which a large octopus called Persephone is contained. By morning Richard is dead, which one of the guests killed him and why? The story is told by Elspeth in varying timelines from the evening of the party and episodes in her marriage to Richard.

This is a novel about abuse, power and control which centres around Richard, symbolised by his control of Persephone. There are some amazingly surreal images as she makes appearances throughout the evening and the guests must have wondered if they’d consumed LSD! Richard describes how she can briefly escape her captivity but has no choice but to return to the aquarium. Persephone is very original metaphor as although she appears to be powerfully alien, yet she’s confined. The dinner party, the house and the octopus are totally theatrical, the meal is Bacchanalian resembling a Roman feast but it becomes apparent that Richard is orchestrating something and tension grows especially as he demonstrates his power and hold over them all. There are interesting dynamics between the guests who vary in their attitude to Elspeth, the characters are well portrayed but not very likeable.

As the novel progresses a picture of Richard builds and its a deeply unpleasant one to say the least. It’s clear that any one of those present at the dinner party have motive to wish Richard dead. Elspeth is interesting as the narrator and observer but you question her truthfulness as she struggles with separating truth from lies, with memory and false memory and confronting the reality of her former relationship with Richard which only emerges towards the end.

Despite the many things to praise in the book I struggle with the format at times. It drifts from past to present with no delineation and that leads to some confusion. The minutiae of the night of Richards death becomes a little tedious in its length and I would have liked the role of Honey to have been more prominent too as I think he’s important. However, overall, this is a very powerful book and it’s obvious that the author has considerable talent. This is a complex novel with powerfully original imagery - who would have thought that an octopus could be so symbolic or even thought of the octopus in the first place! Kudos, Tess Little. The topic is very current in the light of #Me Too and the conviction of Harvey Weinstein and the book shows how reluctant and difficult it is to confront your abuser and the various forms of impact if you don’t.

With thanks to NetGalley and Hodder and Stoughton for the ARC.

Eight people at locked in a Hollywood mansion; come morning the host is dead. I thought I knew exactly what I was getting. Everyone a suspect, Enter one of Agatha's famous detectives to nose around a bit, then the great expose bringing gasps of surprise from the vaguely, innocent party goers and the readers. NOT! Eight at a party, and a victim, that much is true. However, Tess Little has already broken all the rules of the genre by making the story autobiographical from the perspective of one of the suspects, and as the story unfolds, even in the initial pages, she seamlessly flashes back and forward though Elle's life, almost mid paragraph.
What starts as a whodunnit develops into a far more disturbing and interesting exploration of power, charisma, friendship, loyalty, victimhood, survival and suspicion. The poison of suspicion.
So, if Agatha Christie, and her ilk, are your cup of tea, this book may not be for you. If your are prepared for a deeper, darker exploration of human relationships, coupled with a murder investigation then you will not be disappointed. I wasn't