The Other Half
You know how they live. This is how they die.
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3.8 • 79 Ratings
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- £7.49
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- £7.49
Publisher Description
'Brilliantly compulsive . . . I could not stop reading this book.' DENISE MINA
'As sharp, witty and energetic as it is bitingly satirical.' JANICE HALLETT
The night before
Rupert's 30th is a black tie dinner at the Kentish Town McDonald's - catered with cocaine and Veuve Clicquot.
The morning after
His girlfriend Clemmie is found murdered on Hampstead Heath. All the party-goers have alibis. Naturally.
This investigation is going to be about Classics degrees and aristocrats, Instagram influencers and who knows who. Or is it whom? Detective Caius Beauchamp isn't sure. He's sharply dressed, smart, and as into self-improvement as Clemmie - but as he searches for the dark truth beneath the luxury, a wall of staggering wealth threatens to shut down his investigation before it's begun.
Can he see through the tangled set of relationships in which the other half live, and die, before the case is taken out of his hands?
Bitingly funny, full of twists, and all too close to reality, this is a stunning debut from your next favourite crime writer.
'An incredible crime debut.' ERIN KELLY
'Scintillating.' HARRIET TYCE
'Delicious, searing . . . What a great new voice she is in detective fiction!' S. J. BENNETT
WHAT READERS ARE SAYING
'Such a fun, biting take on the thriller genre . . . I loved this book!' 5* review
'A pacy crime novel with plenty of sly wit thrown in.' 5* review
'It was fast paced and twisty and I was on the edge of my seat the whole time. I loved it.' 5* review
'A perfectly horrid cast of over the top characters and an engaging detective. Glorious.' 5* review
APPLE BOOKS REVIEW
The classic fictional detective gets a millennial makeover in this whizzy, witty murder mystery. In the place of ‘70s gruff hardman clichés, we have thirtysomething London copper Caius Beauchamp, who is as well dressed as he is in touch with his feelings, lunches on quinoa salads and always remembers his reusable coffee cup. He’s a delight—less so the cast of assorted over-privileged poshos and feckless would-be masters of the universe he encounters while trying to solve the murder of Instagram influencer, Clemmie, on the day of her awful boyfriend Rupert’s 30th birthday bash. Fans of Anatomy of a Scandal by Sarah Vaughan will enjoy the ‘rich people behaving badly’ vibes; fans of ridiculously impressive debuts will enjoy, well, everything really.
PUBLISHERS WEEKLY
Vassell's crackling debut skewers England's current crop of gilded youth. Rich, handsome Rupert Beauchamp, who's about to inherit a title, throws himself a lavish 30th birthday party in London's buzzy Kentish Town: it's an ironic black-tie affair at the local McDonald's, catered with buckets of champagne and mountains of cocaine. The next morning, while British-Jamaican detective Caius Beauchamp (no relation to Rupert) is out jogging, he happens upon the corpse of Rupert's influencer girlfriend, Clemmie, in Hampstead Heath. Given that all the party attendees have alibis, the obvious suspect is Nell, a beautiful editor at a literary press whom Rupert has long planned to leave Clemmie for. Nell, however, has grown ambivalent about Rupert and his social circle, so Caius pursues other leads as well. His search takes him through a web of overprivileged suspects on whom the detective casts a half-contemptuous, half-envious eye, and eventually delivers him to the doorstep of a murderous, elite conspiracy. Vassell gleefully plunges into the underbelly of 21st-century entitlement, creating vivid sketches of aimless young Londoners gorging on designer clothes and designer drugs—sometimes at the expense of her core mystery. Still, as a diamond-sharp satirical whodunit in the vein of Liane Moriarty, this succeeds.
