This audiobook is a great choice if you're tired of the usual Christmas cheer. It's a quick listen with different voices for each character.

I didn't know it was part two of a series. It's okay on its own, but it would be better to start with part one. The story felt too short, and I wanted to know more. I guessed who the party girl and killer were, but the plot was a bit predictable.

It was still enjoyable, though. I definitely need to find part one.

Thanks to Netgallery, the publisher, author, and narrator.

This audiobook is perfect for anyone who needs or wants a riny respite from all those cheesy christmas movies and the assumption we all love christmas. Its a pov story a fast listen with good distinctive change in narration for each character.
When i started listening i was not aware this was part 2 in s series. Whilst this does work as a stand alone story it would be better to do part 1 first as i feel this would then have more impact. It felt over too quickly and i wanted to know more. I did correctly guesse who the party girl and killer was. The plot seemed a bit too predictable for me but it was an enjoyable liaten. Must find part 1.

Thanks netgallery and publisher and author and narrator.

The Party season is a clever portrayal of how life can turn out if justice is not served in the right manner. Disturbing and thoroughly engrossing in equal measures leading you to question the ethos of crime and punishment.

I randomly happened upon this book while browsing NetGalley, I had not heard of it before, but the plot sounded interesting. There is a male and female narrator, the female is Imogen Church- who I really enjoy. It is told from multiple POV’s. SJI Holiday is an author I have not heard of before, but I’ll be sure to check out some of her other books now.

This is a murder mystery, there is a pattern of men turning up dead in hotel rooms. It seems there is a femme fatale on the loose. The book takes place during the holidays, where there are company parties in full effect. If you are nice- it might save your life. If you are naughty, you better watch out!

Thank you NetGalley and Hodder & Stoughton Audio for an audio copy of this book.
Disclosure: I did not download it in time, so I ended up purchasing it on audible- very well worth it!!

This seasonal thriller has great pace, multiple povs and a twisty plot that keeps the reader hooked. I loved the relationship between detectives Carmine and Greene, plenty of humour and an intelligent female character in Greene.

The darkly festive theme makes this a wonderful autumn/winter read and the plot itself is clever. The author writes very believable and compelling characters, I'll certainly be looking to read more of this series.

The Party Season by SJI Holliday
Narrated by Imogen Church; Simon Mattacks was a brilliant audiobook and especially a great read or audiobook for this time of the year......It was the most gripping and twisty Christmas detective thriller for 2023 and once I started to listen to it, it was hard to stop the audiobook. It even went shopping with me!!!! Yes I know - but I was getting fed up with Christmas music in the shops lol. The Party Season is the second book in the Detectives Carmine & Greene series and I didn't even realise it until I was half way through the book - but don't let that put you off.........

Its December and Christmas party season is in full swing, Alcohol, rich food, mistletoe and Christmas crackers abound and especially as It's the dressing up season when the sparkling dresses etc and the glitter have come out.
A beautiful woman is putting on her sequin party dress ready to go out. She looks no different to any other woman who is going out, but she taking men back their hotel rooms to murder.

DI Eddy Carmine and DS Becky Greene are called to the scene and start the investigation.

They need to act quick before the killer kills again......

But the clock is ticking and Christmas is getting closer.......

Brilliant audiobook/book from start ti finish. I loved it

Big thank you to NetGalley and especially to Hodder and Stoughton for the much appreciated arc in return for an honest review.

"The Party Season" audiobook, narrated by Imogen Church and Simon Mattacks, and penned by SJI Holliday, is a gripping tale that adds a chilling twist to the festive season. The story unfolds in a hotel bar, where the atmosphere is filled with holiday cheer, mistletoe, and Christmas merriment. However, what seems like a typical seasonal gathering takes a dark turn when a mysterious woman in a glittering party dress approaches, setting the stage for a gripping psychological thriller.

Imogen Church and Simon Mattacks bring the narrative to life with their excellent narration skills, skillfully capturing the tension and suspense that permeate the storyline. Church's voice adds depth to the enigmatic female character, while Mattacks skillfully conveys the weight of the moral dilemma faced by the protagonist.

The blurb sets the stage for a thought-provoking exploration of morality, posing the question: Are you a good person? The listener is drawn into a web of suspense as they grapple with the uncertainty of the protagonist's fate. The audiobook keeps you on the edge of your seat, wondering what choices will lead to life or death.

SJI Holliday's storytelling is both engaging and clever, weaving a tale that challenges perceptions and keeps listeners guessing until the very end. The combination of a well-crafted narrative and the dynamic performances of Imogen Church and Simon Mattacks make "The Party Season" a must-listen for fans of psychological thrillers.

Overall, "The Party Season" audiobook is a captivating and immersive experience that delivers on both suspense and atmosphere, making it a compelling addition to the holiday audiobook lineup.

I really enjoyed my first Susi Holliday book!
It was a fast paced read, with chapters from the investigating detective and the killer he investigates.
I loved the chapters from the POV of The Party Girl. She reminded me of Rhiannon from the Sweetpea series, with her warped justifications for her actions. I enjoyed the police procedural aspect too, as I started to connect the clues and watch how they track down the killer.
The characters fascinated me, and Holliday wrote The Party Girl's chapters with such eerie and chilling persuasion.
I would happily read more books from this author, so I'm off to add her books to my TBR!

Shared to my Facebook page, Curling Up with a Coffee and a Kindle

I would suggest this book to anyone who enjoys thrillers, mysteries, and dramas. It was a captivating and enjoyable read.

Thank you NetGalley for the audio copy in exchange for a honest review. It’s December and Christmas party season. A beautiful woman is putting on her party dress and taking men back to their hotel rooms to murder. DI Eddy Carmine and DS Becky Greene lead the investigation. A brilliant festive thriller with twists and turns.

The narrative unfolds against the backdrop of the Christmas season, with hotel function suites brimming with festive office revelers and the omnipresent, tinny holiday music adding a sense of somewhat lackluster celebration. The author adeptly captures the soullessness of these Christmas office gatherings. In this environment, we meet "The Party Girl," who infiltrates various gatherings, engages with men, and, if they are willing to go to bed with her, meets a deadly end. It becomes evident that she harbors a dark agenda.

Early on, we learn of her mother's presence in a care facility, in a vegetative state, with mysterious funding covering the costs. This facility appears peculiar, operated by a medical sponsor that may be conducting questionable drug trials on its nearly comatose patients. The presence of a cupboard full of easily accessible medications doesn't seem to raise alarm bells, given the patients' lack of consciousness. As the story progresses, readers gain insights into The Party Girl's motivation, rooted in her traumatic childhood, including her father's suicide, her mother's struggle for survival, and the involvement of another man in their family's downfall. Her killings are portrayed as a form of vengeance on behalf of the women of Woodham.

In a parallel storyline, we encounter Harry, who is romantically involved with Heather, a talented scientist with a go-getter attitude. However, Harry's character takes a dark turn, becoming a disturbing parody of an abusive partner. He exhibits signs of stalking behavior, invading Heather's privacy by searching through her belongings without her knowledge and even loitering outside her home since she never invites him in. The narrative hints at his potential for controlling behavior, ultimately revealing him to be a troubling and unstable character.

Throughout the story, the police officers investigating the gruesome hotel deaths also have their own complex backgrounds and personal issues.

In summary, this book provides an entertaining read with the author's signature originality in storytelling. However, there is a significant concern regarding an inappropriate reference to Zyklon B in a McDonald's scene, which is both shocking and offensive. This inclusion is a glaring oversight that should have been rectified during the editing process.

Despite this issue, the book remains engaging, even if it follows somewhat predictable patterns in its narrative.

It is the run up to Christmas and men are dying. All seemingly of natural causes. The book centres on the police trying to catch a killer and the murderer. Why is someone driven to take another's life? This was an audiobook and very easy to follow along with. It was easy to pick up from where you left off.
Many thanks to Netgalley and the publisher for the opportunity to access an ARC

Enjoyed this audio book not a thriller as the story is told from the murderers side but a good detective storyline all the same

I quite enjoyed this storyline, although it's not gripping, nor does it have a massive twist. It is, however, a decent character driven read. But with the killer known from the start, I feel that there is no suspense as to who did it, just the why. Although it was very predictable, I still enjoyed it.

I'm not a big fan of multiple narrators on audiobook, especially when they speak at different speeds. It stops the flow, having to keep adjusting the audiobook settings.

This is a book that is easy to listen to but I admit I found some of the narration of Imogen Church as the party girl grated with me somewhat ... it was just a little OTT and annoyed me somewhat however, the story and plot was intriguing enough for me to continue listening and I'm pleased I did as the ending was great.

Rather than being an all-out thriller, I found this more a character-driven story that was a little slow at times. We find out pretty early on who the killer is so this removes some of the suspense with most of the intrigue being why she was doing what she was doing.

Overall, this is an ok story but not the thriller with twists and turns I was expecting but thank you to the author, Hodder & Stoughton Audio and NetGalley for enabling me to listen to and share my thoughts of The Party Season.

I read this a couple of weeks ago (well, listened) and have only just got around to writing the review. I gave it 3 stars on Goodreads and I know that it was paced well and I enjoyed it at the time. However, I can’t now remember anything if the plot - even after reading the blurb. Thank you to Netgalley and the publishers.

The story is set in the run up to Christmas and the function suites in hotels are full to bursting with office revellers, the tinny festive muzak blares out at every opportunity to add a sense of desultory celebration. The author captures the soulless nature of the Christmas office get-together very well. “The Party Girl” finds her way into the various gatherings, picks up a man and if he is game for going to bed, she kills him. She clearly has an agenda.

We understand that her mother is in a care facility, in a vegetative state and early on we don’t know why. The costs are paid for by a benefactor. It is a strange place, run by a medical sponsor, a company that might just be trying out drugs on its patients. Still, not many are conscious, so a cupboard full of medication that is relatively easily plundered doesn’t seem to cause concern. The reader gradually comes to understand that The Party Girl has her deathly drive as a result of her childhood experience, the death of her father who took his own life and the lengths her mother had to go to in order to survive; there was also the involvement of another man who was behind the family’s demise. She is killing as a favour to the females of Woodham, apparently.

Randomly, Harry is dating Heather, who is a go-getter and bright scientific spark but he morphs into a parody of an abusive partner. He has a “right old rummage through her things” when he has the chance, unbeknown to her, and given she doesn’t invite him to her home, he sometimes takes himself off and sits outside her property. Yes, he has the propensity to be a stalker and he is described as having “weird energy“. Much of what he does to keep her hooked in is text book control, although he would beg to differ. There is even mention of rubber attire when he attends a fancy dress Christmas party without Heather, who has ditched him at that point. No worries, he has found himself another companion…..

And the police investigating the terrible deaths in the hotels predictably have their backstories.

‼️ This was an entertaining enough read. I have read this author’s work before and she always has an original take on a story. BUT, and it is a BIG but. She describes a meeting in a Mcdonald’s between the investigating officers, where she describes the disinfectant smell as reminiscent of Zyklon B. If this noxious gas doesn’t ring any bells, then please look it up, you will be taken aback at its use here. It is a truly shocking aspect to have slipped through the editorial net and I even dialled back on then audiobook to ensure I had heard correctly. We are thankful in this day and age that we don’t know what that might smell like (if you did, you would be dead) and underlines that this is a gratuitous and abhorrent inclusion. I feel strongly that this is an egregious mistake that should have been erased, as it is offensive.

An engaging read if a little predictable.

A chilling tale of revenge, murder and secrets.
Well written plots and characters leading to a murderous spree with quite a few twists, urging you to keep reading with a zealous appetite in order to reach the mind bending conclusion.
A very enjoyable read.

A lightly seasonal thriller with multiple POV chapters, that I think lends itself well to be read all year round. I really enjoyed this, and I found myself rooting for the killer for their motivation, although a little frustrated with their victim choices. There is a particular man with a POV in this book who I CANNOT STAND and definitely deserved a worse fate. I found the POVs did remove some of the tension, but that was fine because I low-key wanted more people to die anyway. The narration was pretty good, although I did find I had to flick between 2-2,5x speed depending on the chapter.

Overall enjoyable, relatively easy read. Tw for sexual assault, rape, drug use, and murder. Thank you to net galley for the arc.

Three stars in this case because I felt so divided about the novel, which contained one narrative I enjoyed - the third person police procedural - and one that, to be frank, I really did not enjoy - the first person perspective of "The Party Girl." As well as removing any "whodunnit" aspect, with which I would have been fine, it was fairly obvious from the outset why she was behaving as she was. The only element of mystery for me was the pharmaceutical one, and although it was interesting to discover what was being used and how, the basic method of drugging was very clear from the start.

I just could not escape the feeling that a straight police procedural could have told the same story with greater impact, and shown the evolution of "The Party Girl" in a more effective way. Self-pity is never a good look in a first person narrator, and unfortunately hearing the dramatic events in her young life that let to her misandry in her own voice made her sound unhinged. The coverage of the same issues in the more matter-of-fact manner within the police procedural element of the book was much more chilling.

Overall, this was a good listen while ill in bed, and I'm grateful to the author, publisher and NetGalley for the opportunity to discover a new-to-me detective team in Becky and Eddie.

Three Word Review: Self-pity Party Season.