This e-book has been topped the Winner of the Edgar Award for Best Novel 2025. Set towards the polished, but toxic backdrop of London’s excessive society, the e-book blends the razor-sharp puzzle-making of basic whodunnits with the shiny, backstabbing world of recent elite tradition the place “Agatha Christie meets Made in Chelsea.” Charlotte Vassell’s second novel set in excessive society London, The In Crowd, was first revealed in April 2024 and is described as an “electrifying, whip-smart whodunit about the dastardly misbehaviour of London’s high society—where being ‘in’ or ‘out’ can be a life-and-death matter.”
The novel as soon as once more follows Detective Inspector Caius Beauchamp, who finds himself navigating the harmful and darkish undercurrents of London’s wealthiest circles. At daybreak, a males’s rowing group spots a physique drifting within the Thames, a discovery that revives a chilly case involving a vanished government and a lacking fortune.
That identical night, Beauchamp’s quiet evening on the theatre is disrupted when one other physique is discovered simply seats away from the place he finds himself, this time linked to the mysterious disappearance of a fourteen-year-old boarding faculty pupil twenty years earlier.
With two dormant instances immediately roaring again to life, Beauchamp and his group, Matt Cheung and Amy Noakes, are thrust right into a world the place privilege shields the responsible and fact is a luxurious the highly effective hardly ever afford.
Vassell peels again the well mannered façade of London’s higher class, exposing rivalries, entitlement, and the unusual hierarchies that govern the rich.
Within this polished society, reputations are fragile, alliances shift rapidly, and being excluded will be extra harmful than anybody lets on.
Readers and critics have highlighted Vassell’s capability to stability sharp humour with real emotional weight, crafting a thriller that is as trendy as it’s gripping.
Janice Hallett, an award-winning journalist and British author wrote: “As sharp, witty and energetic as it is bitingly satirical.”
One particular person wrote concerning the e-book: “The book is unputdownable (just like the last). I am just annoyed at myself at how quickly I read it!”
Another reader mentioned: ” WOW . . . Fabulously plotted, excellent characters and what a twist at the end.”
Someone else wrote in an Amazon assessment: “WOW wish that I could give it more then five stars. What a truly fantastic read. Fabulously plotted excellent characters and what a twist at the end. I need book three and would love to see it on TV. Favourite book of the year.”
You can completely dive into this e-book with out having learn The Other Half, it stands by itself rather well, however readers of the primary novel will catch additional layers: returning characters, intelligent callbacks, and a deeper understanding of the spiky dynamic between Beauchamp and a sure privileged younger troublemaker, which hints at massive issues forward for Caius.
https://www.express.co.uk/entertainment/books/2143894/best-mystery-novel-2025-unputdownable