All Dressed Up

Thanks to Random House & NetGalley for a digital advance reader copy. All comments and opinions are my own.

“Becca loves mysteries. I’ll give her a mystery weekend, she’ll know I love her.” Becca guesses this is what her husband Blake decided as they drove to a remote yet stunning estate for a three-day getaway. And she also thinks it’s an attempt at an apology, as Becca has recently discovered Blake’s affair, which came out of the blue after nearly 10 years of marriage.

So we have a 1920’s murder mystery game hosted at a remote mansion with a few other couples, one of which Becca and Blake already know. Even with the marital issues, Becca decides to make the best of it and go along with the costumes, characters, atmosphere, show more red herrings, and the “murder” of their host. The clues come fast and furious, and everyone must team up to solve the crime, while remembering that any one of them could be the murderer.

This sounded like an intriguing premise, especially when one of the actresses playing the part of the maid disappears. Now we (Becca and I) have more than one mystery to solve. Are characters acting suspiciously because they have connections to the missing maid, or because they’re just acting the part they’ve been given in the game? Since the book is told from Becca’s point of view, I was as confused as she was: “I couldn’t even tell when they were acting, whether their dropped hints and sidelong glances meant anything or whether they were all just part of the game we were playing.”

But to make things more complicated, Becca is an unreliable narrator. Blake’s betrayal has left Becca nearly unhinged, or at least that’s how it seems. She is over-the-top jealous, unable to read normal body language clues, and is often bordering on hysterics. This leads to poor decision making, putting herself in danger as she continues to look for the missing maid (the real mystery of the weekend).

I liked the way Becca justifies her immersion in murder mysteries after learning of her husband’s affair, with “every book or episode ending with a neat resolution, the chaos safely hidden away, order restored…The setting might change, but underneath they were all the same. Something terrible threatened, but every single time there was a solution. Closure. The good were exonerated and the evil was safely tucked away, episode after episode, the unchanging cadence of it pure mental balm.” That’s why I like murder mysteries, too.

We are inside Becca’s head the entire book, which wasn’t a comfortable place to be. She seemed emotionally overwrought and more frantic than necessary, while her husband was so patient and loving and tried to placate her when he could tell she was losing her grip.

I liked the premise a lot, and the climax was satisfyingly nail-biting, but I didn’t like Becca or her angst. So I’m giving this one a 3 out of 5. Still worth reading. show less

Happy Pub Day!
PHENOMENAL! I'm stingy with my stars. I don't give them out freely - but this one completely earned them! It was easy to fall right in to the story and not find my way out until the end.

It's a 1920's theme weekend getaway. Becca and Blake have arrived to try to salvage their marraige. To clarify, I don't read cheating 'oh how can I ever forgive him' stories. I don't like them and always skip. But this one spoke to me. I inhaled the story, laughing along with Jessica and Becca and glaring at Blake the whole time. I rode the frightning, confusing clue trail with Becca as she tried to understand what was real and what was part of the weekend. I shook my head when she was stumped and laughed so much when she joked with show more Jessica and the bartenders. And I held my breath as Becca struggled with communicating and working with Blake again, attempting to forgive him for breaking her heart.

This was everything I needed it to be. The mystery had me hooked, the realistic and easy characters had me loving every word. The ending still has me shaking my head. SO so good, I loved it!

A huge thank you to the author and publisher for providing an e-ARC via Netgalley. This does not affect my opinion regarding the book. show less

Perfect for fans of Agatha Christie, with twists, turns, red herrings and competing agendas. Filled with memorable characters, this book gives readers the chance to solve a mystery within a mystery.

Blake and Becca take a weekend trip to a remote hotel hosting a 1920's murder mystery as part of an attempt to save their marriage. With only four couples attending the mystery, Becca is startled to find Blake's coworkers and perfect couple Heather and Phil at the weekend as well. But as Phil descends into alcoholism, Heather begins to show the cracks in their marriage.

For Becca, the mystery provides a needed distraction from her shifting reality, turning into an obsession. When a young actress who is supposed to play a role in the mystery show more disappears, Becca suspects something has happened to her, but no one's taking her concerns seriously. Becca has to decide who she can trust and what clues are part of the scripted murder mystery and which point to a more sinister crime.

Part ode to classic murder mysteries, part reflection on middle aged marriages, the compromises required, and the power of forgiveness, this book provides a fresh contribution to the who-dun-it genre.

Thanks to NetGalley and the publisher for the advance review copy of this book in exchange for an honest review. show less

Jilly Gagnon’s All Dressed Up uses a murder mystery weekend getaway to analyze how married couples define a successful marriage and how the outside events can impact and reshape that marital view. The guests try to have fun and solve the mystery, but each couple brings a real secret that they may not want to share with the other participants. One of the staff members does not show up for work in the morning, and the other cast members paint her as an unreliable actress who decided to bail on the weekend. Is the answer really that simple, or is a real crime hiding behind the game scenario?

The book’s narrator is Becca Wilson, who is struggling to figure out the state of her marriage after discovering her husband Blake’s infidelity. show more Blake hopes that a 1920’s themed weekend getaway to a Catskills mansion will draw her out of her despondency. Blake’s colleague Phil and his wife Heather are there to celebrate their anniversary. Becca’s upset to see them because she doesn’t want them to see even the slightest crack in the Wilson marriage and reaches for alcohol to numb her pain. Becca stumbles over what she thinks is a dead body, only to discover that Blake surprised her with a murder mystery game. She’s livid and embarrassed, adding further tension to their relationship.

As the game unfolds, the guests end up divulging secrets about the state of their own marriages and how they respond to these outside forces. Becca is distracted when she learns the actress playing the maid has vanished. Becca had a conversation with the actress the night before and is concerned about her safety, while the others dismiss her as flighty and unreliable. By the end of the book, the major storylines have been tied up, including Becca’s decision about what’s next for Blake and her.

Since I’ve played one of those murder games before, I could easily follow and appreciate the game. Readers who have never played one can easily get swept up into the game because it is so clearly defined and presented. Having a potential missing person’s case tangled up in the game offers a fun twist, since it’s not easy to figure out which conversations and evidence are about the game, the actor’s disappearance, or are just red herrings.

The marriage issues and different standards of each person keep the book from dissolving into insignificance. Those issues push the game itself in a less prominent position, which gives the plotline and characterizations needed weight. The book includes plenty of locked-room mystery tropes, such as red herrings and the criminal’s arrogant monologue. Hindsight is 20/20, because the evidence was strewn throughout the book that pointed to the criminal. The evidence was subtle enough to make the criminal’s unmasking and reasons made sense while leading to facepalms for the number of clues missed while reading.

I thoroughly enjoyed All Dressed Up for its story and for provoking thoughtful questions about marriage that lingered after the book. It did not overshadow the lightness of a solid cozy mystery but added questions that a reader would ponder after reading.

Thanks to NetGalley and Penguin Random House for a review copy of the book. Opinions expressed here are my own. show less

Review of Advance Reader’s Copy eBook

Rebecca and Blake Wilson are off on a weekend getaway at a glamorous manor hotel where they will participate in a 1920s Murder Mystery role-playing game.

It isn’t long before Becca discovers the “body” of speakeasy singer Ida Crooner. Who could be responsible for her death? Is it Becca, now playing the role of Miss Debbie Taunte, an ingénue trying to keep her enigmatic past a secret? Or Blake, playing the role of Reid A, Daily, an heir to a newspaper fortune? Or was it one of the other six guests?

Whoever did the dastardly deed, it’s up to the eight amateur sleuths to reveal the murderer’s identity.

But the next morning, the actress playing the maid, Miss Terry Yuss, fails to appear, and show more it isn’t long before Becca is sure there is something more to the story than offhandedly describing the young woman as “flaky.” Becca decides to find out more. Eventually, her investigation will put her in a difficult position.

A pretend murder, a case for the guests to solve. And a real murder. Could one of the guests be responsible for the young woman’s death? And what possible reason could anyone have for murdering the young actress?

=========

Despite an intriguing premise, the narrative suffers from the continual whining of Becca; her continual mean-spiritedness makes it impossible for readers to empathize with her. Yes, her husband is guilty of an indiscretion, but he’s trying to make amends. But Becca is so busy being angry and feeling sorry for herself to make an effort to move past Blake’s betrayal.

An interesting effort to reveal the masks people wear as they interact with others offers some interesting insights, but does little to develop the characters. In addition, it tends to take the characters away from what is purported to be the purpose of the weekend: solving the “murder.”

While none of the characters are particularly likable, Becca, with her continual harping at [and whining about] her husband, fails to pull readers into the telling of the tale. They are not likely to feel any sympathy for her. In fact, readers are more likely to sympathize with Blake because of Becca’s behavior.

The narrative would benefit from spending less time dissecting the couples’ infidelity and other marital issues. The Clue-like moments in the telling of the tale were bright spots in an otherwise frustrating story.

I received a free copy of this eBook from Random House Publishing Group – Ballantine, Bantam and NetGalley
#AllDressedUp #NetGalley show less

This was sadly a DNF for me at nearly 60%. I wanted to stop after only about 15%, but I kept hoping that I would finally enjoy, if I persevered. At the risk of missing a really great ending, I finally had to conclude that struggling through a few pages a day probably meant that the book was not a good fit for me. The prose caught me off guard right from the start (I did not enjoy). The murder mystery weekend theme was cute, but the different names for characters who were anyway not memorable, was confusing instead of cutesy. I lost track of who's who and what exactly was going on; I could not warm to any of the characters, and; I thoroughly disliked the main character, Becca, and her weasel of a husband.

Thank you NetGalley and Random show more House Publishing Group - Ballantine, Bantam, for the opportunity to read an ARC of this book in exchange for my honest review. show less

✰✰✰.75
Jilly Gagnon has concocted an amusingly clever murder mystery, set at a remote hotel with a 1920s theme. It sounded like a hoot so I was eager to read this one. The author definitely kept me entertained and surprised. My only objection was the distraction of so much drama between Becca and Blake. They could have been such a super fun couple that added zest instead of drama! Separately, they were. This fun story had plenty of potential. A little change in the script could reveal new possibilities!

“Welcome to the Crooner Estate
We know your stay will be deadly fun.”

Each guest is provided a dossier and cast as a “player” in the game. I did have a bit of trouble keeping track of all the characters, especially when show more everyone was using two personas.

A schedule breaks the weekend down into several rounds. Clues and information is collected by the players and shared at the end of each round. In the final round, each guest names their murder suspect. The murderer could be you! How fun!

“One of you is guilty of a murder . . . but who? The only way to find out is to work with your fellow guests (and suspects) to solve the mystery.”

“You’ll need to keep a close eye on your fellow guests if you want to find the killer . . .”

Follow the clues and watch everyone!

Thank you to Ballantine Books and Jilly Gagnon for providing this gifted ARC through NetGalley. I’d also like to thank Yewon Son of Random House Publishing for reaching out to introduce me to this book! All opinions are my own.

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