Due to a sudden, unexpected passing in the family a few years ago and another more recently and my subsequent (mental) health issues stemming from that, I was unable to download this book in time to review it before it was archived as I did not visit this site for several years after the bereavements. This meant I didn't read or venture onto netgalley for years as not only did it remind me of that person as they shared my passion for reading, but I also struggled to maintain interest in anything due to overwhelming depression. I was therefore unable to download this title in time and so I couldn't give a review as it wasn't successfully acquired before it was archived. The second issue that has happened with some of my other books is that I had them downloaded to one particular device and said device is now defunct, so I have no access to those books anymore, sadly.

This means I can't leave an accurate reflection of my feelings towards the book as I am unable to read it now and so I am leaving a message of explanation instead. I am now back to reading and reviewing full time as once considerable time had passed I have found that books have been helping me significantly in terms of my mindset and mental health - this was after having no interest in anything for quite a number of years after the passings. Anything requested and approved will be read and a review written and posted to Amazon (where I am a Hall of Famer & Top Reviewer), Goodreads (where I have several thousand friends and the same amount who follow my reviews) and Waterstones (or Barnes & Noble if the publisher is American based). Thank you for the opportunity and apologies for the inconvenience.

I didn’t really know what to expect going into this but I have to say that I was pleasantly surprised, it is definitely more gripping and thrilling than the cover would suggest.

We start the book at the scene of the crime and you think you know exactly what’s happened, it sure does look pretty clear cut but things aren’t quite as they seem…

We go back in time and start to see the lives and friendship of Bec and Izzy, how close they are and everything that leads us to the final scenes. I have to say, I really didn’t like Izzy and definitely agreed with some of the comments Bec’s brother made, she just doesn’t seem like a nice person and I couldn’t see much good in her…

As we head into the aftermath things take an interesting turn which I kinda saw coming but it did feel a bit awkward for me and I kept expecting something to go wrong or for a big reveal. Which of course did come, although it wasn’t the reveal that I was expecting at all - I’ve definitely got someone else down as my prime suspect!

I ended up getting pretty hooked to this and found myself wanting to read on and discover the truth, I’d definitely have a read of more books by Polly in the future!

Best friends Bec and Izzy have been friends forever. But lately they've been more frenemies than actual friends. The situation gets out of hand, and they have a fight. Izzy ends up dead, and Bec will be the first suspect. Or will she. The book is seriously entertaining, and anyone that has had a friend forever and a day, will recognize themselves.

I really enjoyed this fast paced and engaging thriller, I couldn’t put it down! I will definitely be looking out for more from this author

Great plot to get yourself lost in. This book has everything. A real fast paced thriller. Will get your heart racing on more than one occasion. Very well written. Highly recommend this book

My first book by Polly - please write more.
I started this late one evening and that was the problem I couldn't put it down. My husband took it off me until the next day so I could get some sleep and thankfully it was the weekend so I could continue.
Well written, kept me hooked which is good, good characters and I need more.
Definitely recommend.

New author Alert - My Best Friend's Murder by Polly Phillips Narrated by: Jane Collingwood I enjoyed the book, The narrator was Excellent and the, plot was too. However,and But........ the ending was just so abrupt. and so wrong! it came out of nowhere and i was left wanting more, more of the story. Plus it ruined this book/audiobook for me!

Narrator was excellent, I couldn't stop listening and finished the whole book in four listens!

Loved this! So good, so exciting, so gripping and great story. Can't wait to read more by this author - absolutely brilliant.

Bec and Izzy have always had a fiery friendship but they’ve stuck by each other through everything. When Izzy winds up dead at the bottom of the staircase in her own beautiful Clapham townhouse, Bec knows that she has a reason to want Izzy dead. It’s only a matter of time before the police discover it. I’ve never read an adult friendship as toxic as the one between Bec and Izzy. I found it fascinating to see how these two adult women interacted while still managing to find reasons to remain friends. There were so many possible answers that the novel could have come to but I would never have suspected the truth in a million years. An incredibly fun, fast-paced thriller that will definitely keep you guessing -even when you think you’ve cracked it!

Wow what a great listen ! I really enjoyed this one and with the narrator being so good as well made it even better ! At first I got a bit frustrated with the main character Bec being such a walkover and letting Izzy be so mean to her but over the story Becs character becomes stronger and she starts to stand up for herself. I must say the ending totally got me as it was so unexpected!!

With a title like My Best Friend’s Murder, it’s safe to assume that it’s going to be a hell of a read. And it was. Toxic female friendships is one of my absolute favourite tropes. Because it never gets old and because no matter how we evolve as human beings, there will always be that innate need for people to one-up each other, females specifically. I’ve had a few toxic friendships in my time, right from secondary school up to a lot more recently than that; although I wouldn’t always say it’s one-sided either. It’s hard to get out of that cycle once you’re in a toxic friendship (or relationship even, I guess, because that is also a thing), and it takes a lot of learning to make sure it’s not something you take forward with you, and you can’t let it affect your friendships from that point onwards.

Bec and Izzy have been best friends ever since Izzy plucked Bec from obscurity in secondary school, they’ve been through the works together; Bec losing her mum, but most importantly, Izzy stealing Rich from Bec when they were teenagers, or so Bec sees it. Regardless, they’re still there for each other, so when Bec gets engaged to Ed, Izzy is the first person she wants to tell; but Izzy’s reaction confuses Bec because she isn’t quite as enthused or happy as Bec expected her to be. And as the novel progresses, it’s hard to understand why Izzy is the way she is towards Bec and it’s really hard to like her. We know from chapter one that Izzy dies, the only question is how - was it accidental or intentional? And just how bad would Izzy and Bec’s friendship have to devolve before it would explode completely?

One of the things that fascinated me about My Best Friend’s Murder is how much I disliked Bec. Yes, that’s correct, I said Bec. Not Izzy. Bec. In my very humble opinion, Izzy might have been a bit of a bitch, but this was standard, rote behaviour. Izzy never changed, to be frank. Was she awful to Bec? Absolutely, but Bec was a grown adult woman who could have turned her back on Izzy at any point. In fact, she probably SHOULD have turned her back on Izzy the moment - the moment - Izzy ‘stole’ Rich back when they were teenagers. I’d hardly say someone deserved to be treated badly, but Bec literally took everything as a slight against her and as someone who has been known to do that in the past, but has learned that not everything is a personal attack, I just wanted Bec to grow up, to be honest. I feel like if Izzy was ignorant towards Bec in any way, it was merely by accident; and Bec exaggerated everything Izzy did in a bid to look like the victim. Now that may not be the case at all, but that’s how I personally saw it. Bec was very happily settled in the ‘victim’ role and that was where she would stay forever.

That became abundantly clear as the novel headed towards its conclusion; Bec wasn’t a sheep who let things happen around her, no, no, no. It seemed to me that a lot of it was orchestrated by Bec, as if she was the puppet-master despite blindly trying to tell everyone that Izzy was. I didn’t believe her narrative. She never quite got the facts to back herself up, and with her being the only narrator, it made it hard to tell exactly how bad Izzy really was. Now, don’t get me wrong, I am not in the slightest saying Izzy was a perfect angel, she wasn’t. In fact, I’d say Izzy and Bec were both as bad as each other and they deserved each other.

I really loved this novel, and it fascinates me how different I found the characters. I genuinely wanted to root for Bec, but I simply didn’t buy her narrative. I would have loved to have read Izzy’s narrative, to get a better glimpse of their friendship, because it’s super hard to know who’s really telling the truth; I may have gotten the wrong end of the stick with Bec and maybe she was the sweet, innocent victim. Despite not liking any of the characters - apart from Tilly, Tilly was adorable, I still really enjoyed the novel. Polly Phillips has a fab writing style, one I can easily get on board with and the pages just flew by. There isn’t a lot I’d have changed in the novel as it properly got me thinking, I just didn’t much like the characters. The story itself was incredibly gripping, I thoroughly enjoyed it.

Polly Phillips has written a cracking début set in London.

Bec and Izzy have been best friends for years. Rebecca (Bec) Maloney is a features assistant with Flare magazine and Izzy Waverly is a wife and a mother to her little girl, Tilly. Although Bec and Izzy are very different, Bec has always thought that her best friend would look out for her, after all, Izzy has helped her through the difficult times in her life, like when her mother died. Izzy has a perfect life - an opulent house in Clapham, enough money to buy whatever she desires, the devotion of her gorgeous husband, Rich, and an adorable three-year-old. Bec, however, lives in a small, dingy flat with her boring boyfriend and her dog, Missy. When a tragic accident occurs that sees Izzy lying dead at the bottom of the stairs with blood pooling around her head, the police point the finger of suspicion at Bec.

Polly Phillips has crafted a clever whodunit, and Bec and Izzy have supported each other through various life events, however, their relationship is not always plain sailing. The besties have a complex relationship dynamic and as tensions mount, a sinister tone to their relationship takes hold. My Best Friend’s Murder is narrated from Bec's viewpoint and I appreciated getting to know her, though I didn’t particularly like her or Izzy. Despite that, I still enjoyed following their relationship highs and lows. The men in their lives, especially Izzy's husband Rich, and Bec's fiancé, Ed, paled into virtual insignificance in relation to the prominence of the besties' relationship, but they obviously needed to be part of the story and were perfect in their roles. Not everyone was as they seemed in Polly Phillips' toxic début.

Presenting the reader with issues arising from marriage, parenthood, jealousy, image, loss, family, wealth and guilt, as well as friendship, My Best Friend's Murder was a thoroughly entertaining and mesmerising drama mystery/thriller that I'm certain many will enjoy.

I read My Best Friend's Murder in staves with other Pigeonholers as part of a group. A special thank you to Simon and Schuster UK, Polly Phillips, NetGalley and The Pigeonhole for a complimentary copy of this novel at my request. This review is my unbiased opinion.

This book had me intrigued from the beginning. We get the whole story from Bec's perspective and quite early on you can see the friendship between her and Izzy has never been equal, with Izzy always forcing her way out on top. Bec begins to notice how spiteful she is and there are a lot of petty arguments which all come to a head in the last 20% which really kicks off the mystery. Throughout the book I was always thinking who could have killed Izzy but the reveal was a complete surprise and I definitely didn't think of it.
Overall a good mystery that will keep you turning the page right until the end to find out the truth!

An engaging thriller about toxic female friendships: who can you trust when everyone's out for themselves? A strong debut

Yesss!! I raced through this, who doesn’t live a murder mystery with toxic friendships?! Twists and turns with relatable vivid characters and really cleverly written. Feels really contemporary and relevant, excited for the next one from Polly!

I find toxic friendships really fascinating in books, especially between women so I was very intrigued by My Best Friend’s Murder and it turned out to be a really fun read! The story follows childhood frenemies Bec and Izzy whose lives seem to have involved constantly trying to one-up each other. When Izzy’s body is found, Bec realises she may be one of the prime suspects in the murder of her so-called ‘best friend’.

Lately I seem to have been reading quite a few books filled with truly horrible people and this was no exception. Izzy is apparently the perfect woman – beautiful, smart, accomplished and in possession of a perfect husband and daughter. However, she has an extremely icy, cunning and controlling personality which makes her an intimidating and looming presence in the life of her best friend, Bec. Bec is constantly second-guessing herself and questioning every move she makes whilst also nursing an unhealthy level of obsession with Izzy and a need to have everything Izzy appears to. Honestly, there was no one I really liked in My Best Friend’s Murder, except perhaps Bec’s dog Missy and Izzy’s little daughter Tilly but I did find it quite fascinating to watch the unraveling of a very dysfunctional friendship and the demise of several terrible relationships. The story did not go in the direction I originally thought it would which I appreciated as it kept things unpredictable and interesting. Whilst I am lucky enough to have simply friends and not frenemies I did recognise some of the volatility and competition which is sometimes unfortunately present in unhealthy female friendships and I was intrigued to find out how things got to the place they did, with Izzy dead at the bottom of the stairs. Whilst I didn’t feel overly invested in these characters, probably because they are all terrible human beings, I found this an enjoyable read full of jealousy and insecurity!

great characters and although we know from the outset that it is not an accident it is clear that the police investigation raises more questions than it answers. I suspected the wrong person right up to the reveal and was then compleed to flick back to see if there were clues I missed along the way!

I quite enjoyed this book . I think it was a bit slow to start then the character started to develop a bit along with the stories . I found I couldn’t wait to find out who had killed Issa in the end . Not the ending I was expecting either . On the whole a good book , worth reading

My Best Friend’s Murder by Polly Phillips is an interesting storyline with a good twist at the end. Two girls who grow up together and Izzy then takes her boyfriend Rich and later marries him and has a daughter, Tilly. All the way through the story it is Izzy who always has the better life. She then falls and is discovered at the bottom of the stairs and dies. Was she murdered or was it an accident?
It is an interesting story with intriguing characters and the ending is very clever.
Highly recommended.

My Best Friends Murder by Polly Phillips revolves around the toxic friendship of Bec and Izzy. It is narrated from the POV of Bec who I found to be a great narrator because she was able to make you feel sorry for her and at the same time I felt like I couldn’t trust her at all. She also felt a little off to me especially because of some of the things that happened which I found to be very weird but I won’t say anymore because I don’t want to spoil anything. I really liked the way that the story opened with a dead body lying at the bottom of the stairs because it made feel like I knew something before it happened but at the same time I really didn’t know anything.

The secrets, toxicity, drama, twists and turns took me on a roller coaster ride that I didn’t want to get off. I didn’t think that was how the book was going to end and it was a surprise because I really thought that it was somebody else. I am definitely interested to see what this author does next.

I recieved an advanced copy for free, and this is my honest opinion.