Key Details:
TITLE – A Killer Guest List
AUTHOR – Sarah Bonner
GENRE – Crime, Dark Thriller
YEAR PUBLISHED – 2026
PAGE COUNT – 392
MY RATING – 4 of 5
RATED ON GOODREADS – 3.79 of 5
Blurb:
Sadie has attended ‘Murder on the Moors’, at a luxury country house hotel in Dartmoor, for the past fifty years. This time, she’s bringing her goddaughter. But what the girl doesn’t know is that the game is merely a cover for Sadie’s darker predilections…
Cassie’s weekend at the hotel is more of a work trip for her wife, though she’s looking forward to relaxing in the swanky surroundings, plus a little fun detective work. She doesn’t realise that the game is about to reveal some shocking truths…
Because this year, someone new has taken over the murder mystery event. Someone who knows exactly who Sadie is, and who has compiled a dossier of crimes committed by the other guests. Someone with a hit list.
The only chance of staying one step ahead – and not being murdered for real – is to slay together…
Review:
This one ended up being a solid 4-star read for me, but I’ll be honest, it took a little while to get there.
For the first 30–40%, I wasn’t completely hooked. I was intrigued, but not gripped. There’s a lot of scene-setting, character dynamics, and simmering tension building beneath the surface, and I kept waiting for that moment.
And then it came.
Around the 40% mark, the story hit me with a full-on WTF twist that completely shifted how I was reading it. From that point on, I was locked in. Everything felt sharper, more urgent, and far more sinister than it had initially appeared.
What works really well here is the claustrophobic atmosphere and the uneasy sense that no one is entirely who they claim to be. The guest list is packed with secrets, shifting loyalties, and buried resentments, and once the layers start peeling back, it’s addictive.
It’s twisty without being chaotic, and the payoff definitely makes the slower start worthwhile. If you enjoy domestic thrillers where the tension creeps before it detonates, this one is worth sticking with.
The Blonde Chapter 