Author: Tess Little
Started: Aug. 10, 2021
Finished: Aug. 19, 2021
Thanks to Netgalley, Tess Little, and Ballantine Books for the chance to read this galley in return for an honest review.
Elspeth Bell is invited to the Hollywood Hills birthday party of her former husband Richard. Once there she is surrounded by a small group of people, some of whom she doesn't know. During the evening, guests are invited to watch a film that Richard made of his pet octopus, Persephone, and how she escapes her tank every night. As the night wears on, the guests become drunker and drunker until they pass out. The next morning, Elspeth finds Richard dead and everyone becomes a suspect when it is determined that there was foul play in his death.
While I appreciated the Agatha Christie influence the author was going for, this book was too long and too slow to enjoy. Then, the author seemed to have an odd fascination with the octopus - eventually, in Elspeth's mind, Persephone became a suspect. I found some of the story repetitive and tedious and just did not enjoy the story overall.