The Guest List

Interesting premise where you are wondering who the victim is before placing your Poirot hat on. Having said that, I had 3 major problems with this book:

1. There is not much of a mystery until the 70-75% mark, it is way too slow to get to the character motives
2. Why is it just a single murder when quite literally the entire cast could've been axed? Can we get at least one likable character? I honestly cared for none.
3. This is a more general gripe than a shot at this book, but new-age murder mysteries are morphing into “thrillers with additional POVs”. Where are the innovative murder methods? Where are the trails of clues nudging the reader to the ultimate satisfaction of solving the murder? Where are the alibis? the red herrings? A singular victim and a cast of suspects do not equate to a murder mystery. This book and many others I've read recently (cough One by One cough) tend to dramatize the narrative and dilute the actual mystery. With this plot, you could very easily replace the murderer with anyone else on the island and it wouldn't change a thing; no one's motives felt stronger than the other.

Finally, this book had a very abrupt ending, like the author was on a deadline and she had hours to finish the last few pages. A bit more closure would've been nice.