I LOVED this!

A group of teens head off to a post graduation week away before heading off to different colleges after the summer.

All well of friends from the prestigious Marian school, apart from Isadora (Izzy) who works part time at a books tore and lives with her single mum (a teacher at the school) and her disabled sister. Kassidy is Izzy's best friend since childhood and surprises her with the weekend at a stately home on Sparrow Island which was the setting for their favourite whodunnit film set in the 20s. Kassidy wants to make it an immersive week so has provided period costumes for everyone and makes them send their clothes and phones back to the mainland.

We know from the very beginning that Izzy has a secret about Kassidy's boyfriend Blaine, and she's ready to do something about that secret with the knife that she's got hidden in her bag. But this whole week is a week of secrets and when they start to come out at a dinner, the week turns from the joyous one last hurrah that Kassidy planned, and when Blaine is murdered. It gets worse, especially when it turns out he was stabbed, and Izzy was seen leaving his room shortly before his body was found, did she manage to get even with Blaine or did someone else beat her to it?

The police come to the island and a storm prevents everyone from leaving, as the teens are interviewed and more secrets and lies come out, will the killer be found before they all leave?

As I said I loved this book, the ending reminded me of old shows like Murder She Wrote and Colombo, where everyone is gathered together, motives and alibis are discussed and the killer is unmasked.

The writing is great, I could picture everything, and there was enough backstory to get to know the characters without slowing down the book and going into too much detail. There's so many twists and turns and red herrings, that this YA novel will keep you hooked until the end.

I love both of these covers! The US one is glamorous and very cool, and the UK one looks like a lot of fun. Which maybe isn't very appropriate for a murder mystery, now that I think about it...but it sure is nice to look at, and I think it catches the eye.

This is the most directly Agatha Christie-inspired novel I've read in the current wave of murder mysteries. We have an enclosed setting (island in a storm), a(n artificially imposed) 1920s setting (grad party for rick kids), a consulting detective who notices tiny details with an accent - but instead of following the detective, this story is following one of the suspects, which is a fun twist.

The narrative tries very hard to convince us that one particular person is guilty, which automatically made me think they probably weren't - the cynical times we live in! I don't want to spoil anything, but if you've read it, you know who I mean.

I loved the setting and the descriptions of the clothes and surroundings. The mystery itself wasn't that exciting to me, but I did love the atmosphere and characters and I was excited to see what happened at the end. This is a great read that I think will go well for readers who enjoy this kind of thing.

Suddenly a Murder was an excellent YA mystery – solid in its plotting, atmosphere and characterisation. It draws on those Golden Age mystery vibes, but feels entirely modern and refreshing.

Right from the start, I was entirely drawn into this story. The opening page is such an excellent hook and I was all in. Muñoz has crafted a conniving whodunnit, following the traditional structures of the very mystery films Izzy and Kassidy love. The tension only ramps up from there. This is such a well-plotted story with excellent twists and turns, mostly revealed through these individual interviews and of course, the final denouement scene that I adored. There is such a sense of love and honouring of these Golden Age mystery narratives. However, Muñoz is careful to challenge many of the bigoted and outdated ideas embedded in some of these narratives. Here, we have a diverse and far more modern cast of characters, albeit most from luxurious and wealthy backgrounds. There is a keen sense of classism and racism being explored throughout the narrative.

Muñoz has such a way with characterisation. Through both the interview snippets and their interactions with other characters, we get to learn so much about each person through very little information. It is all in the slight quirks and the layered levels of secrets each character is holding dear. Of course, everyone here is a suspect. There is the extra pressure of the locked room style claustrophobia in the remote location. Muñoz adds an extra gloss of privilege and power to these proceedings. It is all gilded facades and moneyed luxury. That power imbalance adds a new atmosphere to the book, as with the theme of the party. This is a place out of time, seemingly in limbo while the mystery unfolds.

Suddenly a Murder is the YA equivalent of Knives Out - carefully balancing a love letter to the roots of its mysteries with an entirely new, surprising and thoroughly enjoyable story.

i was really looking forward to reading this book, as this genre is right up my ally. unfortunately it fell short of my expectations and i was left feeling disappointed once i finished it.
firstly, one of the main issues i faced when reading this book was the constant changes in perspective. i found it hard to follow the plot and the characters when every chapter changed from following izzy in the first person in the present to the other characters in third person in the past. it made it hard for me to be able to enjoy the book as i felt i was spending more time figuring out who's story was being told, rather than getting to focus on the plot.
i also going to so hard to connect with the characters of this book. there wasn't anyone that i had a soft spot for, and in the end i grew tired of them all. i also found the chapters to be extremely repetitive. i felt like i was just rereading the same chapters over again but they were just focused on a different person. i honestly found the book to be boring at parts, and the only bit i found myself enjoying was the second quarter, which is why i'm giving this book 2 stars.
i did enjoy the premise though! i thought the setting was fun and different from other books in its genre, but that was pretty much the extent of my enjoyment for this.

A holiday escape afte exams are island made famous by a film during the golden era. The whole weekend fully themed to match. An unstable host, and then...suddenly...a murder. This was quite good fun. The main character investigates the crime in secret passages alongside the official police investigation. I enjoyed this generally - 3 stars from me

Suddenly a Murder, the debut novel from Lauren Munoz, is a fantastic page turner of a YA murder mystery. 4.5 ⭐️

I often think when it comes to reviewing thrillers or murder mysteries that the less that’s said the better; these type of stories are best enjoyed when the reader goes in relatively blind. That said I’m going to give you a breakdown of all the reasons why you need to add Suddenly a Murder to your TBR pile.

So here goes:
💀 we’ve got a locked room mystery, only it’s not a room but a glamours manor, on an island, in a storm!
🔪 the cast is a group of friends who are all, bar one, filthy rich and celebrating their high school graduation
💀 for the week they’re going to live it up 1920’s style, from the clothes, to the food, to the music. There are no adults in site, except for the staff
🔪 before anything even happens tension simmers between the group and it’s clear there are a lot of secrets amongst them
💀 suddenly one of the seven ends up dead, leaving each of the others as suspects.
🔪Then enter into the mix two detectives, one of whom gives serious Benoit Blanc vibes, only she’s a seriously sharp, and incredibly kind Mexican powerhouse, and you’ve got one hell of a murder mystery

Like many murder mysteries Suddenly a Murder took a little getting into, but once you turn that corner there is no putting this one down. I loved all the twists and turns and the complex dynamics between this friendship group. The then and now timelines worked well to give us a greater insight into exactly what was happening, whilst still providing some excellent misdirection. Overall this was a thoroughly enjoyable read and I’ll look forward to reading what Munoz writes next.

Suddenly a Murder revolves around a group of friends who are enjoying a 1920s themed gateway on a remote island when one of the group is murdered. The others are then trapped on the island with two detectives and secrets come to light as the detectives investigate.

This book was so fast paced and I loved all the gossip that we uncovered throughout the story. The characters all played on different teen stereotypes but they all felt really realistic and well developed. The plot twist at the end was great and I feel it would have an even bigger impact on a reread as there is some very clever foreshadowing throughout.

However, I did find that the use of flashback scenes in certain places did disrupt the flow of the story and occasionally they didn't feel like they added anything to the plot. I also found the first 25% or so to be slightly slow and I wasn't hooked until the mystery started.

Overall, this was a fun, quick read and I read the majority of it in one sitting!

Izzy is the odd one out in a school full of rich kids, but her best friend Kassidy doesn't care and loves Izzy so much she throws a graduation party on an Island where one of their favourite 1920s movie was filmed

The party consists of Izzy, Kassidy, her boyfriend Blaine, and a few other people important to one of more of these members

However, when one of the group ends up dead the group end up stuck on the island with only the staff and two detectives in a fierce storm

Everyone has their own secrets and lies, but could any of these be enough to murder one of their own....and one of them also turned up to the trip with a knife in their bag....

This was a great wee twisty tale that had me genuinely hooked. The setting was perfect and very murder-mystery'esque

If you like things like Knives Out and the Inheritance Games, this is one for you

Thank you to NetGalley and Bonnier/Hot Key books for the early review copy of this book

this was sooo good!! from the first 100 pages i was drawn in and although i found it slow paced (it picks up from page 100 when the character as said in the blurb dies) i still enjoyed it thoroughly! I loved the plot twist and i honestly didn’t guess it at all.. also marlow was soooo hot and the MC is so lucky lol

I had a really great time with this book, whilst there were some formatting issues I haven't let that alter my review of the book at all.
This was such a fast read for me, and the slow reveal of characters lives and hidden secrets really kept me involved in the story, I did sometimes lose track of who was who (this is probably just my issue) but overall the character dynamics and hidden secrets were really interesting. There were certain characters that you definitely felt closer to in terms of how much you know about them but that perfectly fit in with the relationships Izzy had with the other characters, you knew as much as she did.

I did not see the reveal coming at all, which is strange for me because normally I can figure it out pretty early, every character had a motive which made it difficult, for me at least, to work out who would actually want to kill them.

I did find the beginning a tad slow but once the murder happened I was completely hooked, I would highly recommend to anyone that enjoys Karen M. MacManus and ya murder mysteries, it was a cute quick read and I'll definitely read more from this author! :)

thank you to netgalley for this arc!

“don’t tell anyone what happened,” she says. “let it be a mystery.”

this book starts when a group of private school students go to an island, which was the location of an old movie two of them love, for a graduation party. the narrator is Izzy, who is the only one in the group that isn’t rich, and has a secret involving another person in the group that she doesn’t want to get out.

When Blaine, Izzys best friend’s boyfriend, and the person involved in the secret, dies, suddenly a fun trip turns into the group being stuck on an isolated island with a murderer.

I really enjoyed this book! i’m a big fan of murder mysteries, and i thought this was really well done. there where quite a few plot twists which surprised me, and i loved the ending.

i recommend this if you are also a fan of mysteries!

I just didn't mesh well with this book. I think this may have been due to the formatting, which has nothing to do with the author. I was intrigued to find out 'who dunnit' but I felt like I was forcing myself to pick up the book. I also just found most of the characters extremely unlikeable. I think this would be good it it was your first dip into YA mystery, but as someone who has read a few I wasn't overly gripped by it.

I am a massive MASSIVE fan of young adult thrillers. This was no exception. Although I half guessed towards the last third of the story, I could never have imagined the reasons behind it. Twists and turns at every pace and wonderfully written. Whether you’re 16 or 60, this is a thoroughly enjoyable read.

This book was fun. A group of very privileged friends go on a weeklong graduation party to a mansion house on an island to roleplay the 1920’s for a week and then one of them ends up dead. Cue both Izzy, our main character and the detectives brought on the case trying to piece together the movements and secrets of these friends to work out who did it.

It is definately YA and easy to read, it took some getting into and I wasn’t really gripped until the murder happened but after that it was really fast-paced. I appreciated being able to follow the detectives lines of questioning but I’ll be honest I predicted the twists almost straight away. Maybe I have just read too many of these books?

It was fun, nothing groundbreaking but I would recommend it to someone looking for a fun little murder mystery. Perfect for dark academia vibes and the autumn period.

3.5 stars

This book had me hooked from the very start. I loved the setting of the 1920’s mansion with the murder mystery and loved seeing all the characters secret unravel and figuring out who was the killer. The mystery kept me guessing until the very end. Gave me a real Knives Out and Agatha Christie vibes

A solid 4 star for me! I requested this book primarily because the cover gave me ‘gossip girl’ vibes which was an instant request for me!

I loved the scene setting, the mansion and the 1920s film was so intriguing and done so well, it wasn’t boring like some 1920s theme stories can be. I loved the flashback chapters that provided an insight into the secrets everyone is hiding and the possible motives that each teen had for committing murder and made it really fun to try and guess which one it was!

It kept me guessing right until the end, and it wasn’t until the last few chapters that I started to guess what had happened, which is why I’ve given it 4 starts not 5, as I wanted a bit more a shocking twist in regards to the murderer. I was, however, really shocked by the second twist! I wasn’t expecting that from the information that the author had given us throughout the book!

A page turning mystery from start to finish! I loved the 1920 mansion setting and the tension build up as each cast member's secrets were revealed. This story kept me guessing right until the end

Thank you netgalley for providing me with an arc in exchange for an honest review. I really enjoyed this book, and almost all of the aspects, from the characters to how the plot unraveled, and would definitely recommend. 4/5 stars.

A group of mainly rich teenagers celebrate the end of high school by spending a few days at an old house on an island. Amongst all of the partying is some friction between characters and then one of them is found dead.
This is a decent mystery novel . As the story progresses, we get flashbacks to events involving different characters, slowly building up the reasons as to why any of them could be the murderer. Hidden passages in the old house give the main character, Izzy, the opportunity to hear what all the characters are telling the detectives, further filling out motives for the reader.
Unfortunately, the description of the book compares it to Knives Out which meant that I was pretty certain who wasn’t the killer, even though they seemed a strong suspect. There are some elements which stretch credibility, but the author does make an effort to explain why some things do /don’t happen. Worth a read.

SUDDENLY A MURDER is a gripping YA mystery paying homage to the Golden Age of Crime Fiction of the 1920s and 1930s.

The plot is a really fun celebration of all sorts of mystery tropes - the isolated house, the rich socialite guests and the one odd friend out money wise, secret passages, a consulting detective. It was so much fun - and the author clearly had fun bringing them all into the book. Of course, all the characters have their own motives and an absolute excess of drama - relationships, drugs, secrets that could affect their careers.

On top of the tropes, the book then ha the characters role playing into the 20s. There's the clothes and furnished house, the cocktails and the glamour. It was a really nice way to pay homage to it without taking the book back into the 1920s.

In all of this, the book plays a balancing act between "is it Izzy, given she brought the knife and we know went into his room before he died?" and "is it someone else and there's this other secret she's hiding?" I liked that, never quite being sure whether the book was a mystery to be a solved or a thriller to see if Izzy got away with murder.

The book almost but not quite alternates between Izzy's perspective in the present and chapters in the past from all the murder suspects, showing the lead up to the holiday. It helped flash out so many backstories and motives very efficiently, and was stylistically different so it was very easy to immediately know this was not the murder at the isolated house.