The Other Half: You know how they live. This is how they die.

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Caius looked at the dead woman’s face. She had been beautiful and hadn’t yet been dead long enough for her features to become horribly distorted. The press was going to go bonkers for this case. This is Made in Chelsea meets Agatha, it has definite shades of the Queen of Crime with tangled webs, plot twists, red herrings and all that jazz. Maybe Caius will become the 21st-century Poirot! The ending is a good blend of the dramatic with the OTT ridiculous, which is great fun and highly entertaining. Methinks this is a winner and a new talent has emerged on the scene, well played Charlotte Vassell. Applause from the sidelines. A perfectly modern whodunnit.”—Harlan Coben, #1 New York Times bestselling author of I Will Find You

though, the book is so keen to show how loathsome these people are that we never see the supposed magnetic attractiveness that keeps some of the other characters in their orbit. This is especially a problem with the central villain Rupert. If the plott requires characters to be charmed despite it all, we need the Brideshead / Secret History effect to show us why. The Other Half is a deliciously entertaining mystery that channels the best of classic whodunnit ingenuity through a thoroughly modern cast of characters that readers are guaranteed to love and loathe. Detective Caius Beauchamp – a charming hero with an Empire-sized chip on his shoulder – is tasked with solving the murder of London socialite/social media influencer Clemency O’Hara. The investigation takes him deep into the underbelly of London’s millennial elite, with plenty of surprising twists and turns along the way. Who killed Clemmie? Was it the blithe, sociopathic boyfriend? His impossibly wealthy godmother? The gallery owner with whom Clemmie was having an affair? Or was it the result of something else entirely? The story follows the lives of some real upper class twits with excellent names like Rupert and Minty and Hereward. Excellent eye rolling fodder at how the other half lives. However all is not that rosy in paradise as the body of a girl is found mutilated by, of all good fortune, the DI who then takes on the case. I didn't like or connect with a single character and I thought about stopping almost the entire time I was reading it. Never a good sign.

Advance Praise

Thanks also to The Pigeonhole for hosting a group read of this novel allowing for comments to be shared with my fellow Pigeons. Rupert is at the centre of this story; titled and entitled, he is obscenely wealthy, misogynistic, and manipulative. His girlfriend (I use this word loosely, perhaps limpet might be a more apt description) Clemmie, has a token job at an art gallery, and is an 'influencer'. She desperately wants to marry Rupert for the title and the country pile he will inherit when his grandfather dies. Rupert is enamoured with Nell, who is considered 'unsuitable'. Alex also loves Nell, who has just parted ways with Caspar. There are various other double and triple-barreled surnamed characters, and women named Minty and . . . well, you get the picture. Everyone is connected to everyone through schools, blood and godparents. There's no six degrees of separation here.

Murderers can be so inconsiderate towards the police. I’m really looking forward to all the foaming tweets about closing the park for forty-eight hours.’ The Other Half felt predictable to me from the very beginning. The party, the murder, how the body was discovered, and who discovered it. This feeling never changed for me. Harry Bosch and the Lincoln Lawyer team up to exonerate a woman who’s already served five years for killing her ex-husband. I really liked the author’s use of “transcripts” to give us the gist of some of the more brutal parts without going into excessive detail. Very clever. Forget about solving all these crimes; the signal triumph here is (spoiler) the heroine’s survival.I see what you did there,’ Caius said, feigning amusement. His impromptu Paris trip was as dead as the girl whose shoe he had seen. ‘What’s your initial assessment?’ Bitingly funny, full of twists, and all too close to reality, this is a stunning debut from your next favourite crime writer.

As many other reviewers have noted, the opening chapter of The Other Half is a slog! I almost gave up and it is unusual for me to be so disinterested in a book right away. The characters were so pompous and annoying but, more than that, it felt like the author had swallowed a thesaurus! It was a first for me to have to look up so many words in a single chapter and it was tedious! It felt gratuitous as well (triumvirate instead of trio, really???) and some of the words didn’t even seem to be used correctly (haemophilic flowers, I’m sorry, pardon?). But, as I read on, I realised that was maybe the whole point… how the “other half” live, speak, behave. The other half of the title resonates throughout as Caius and Matty wade their way through upper-class entitlement and that is done satirically on point and of course we have the duality of the capital with the haves a lot versus the haves very little. There is a racist element too, it takes a few swipes at Insta self-improvement twaddle (me not necessarily the author!). There’s a very clever literary and Greek mythology element in addition which I thoroughly enjoy. I also mustn’t forget an interesting archaeological and drugs element, which has yet to be fully resolved, hopefully in book 2?? I’ve my fingers crossed. An accomplished crime debut that is part mystery and satire, from a writer to watch.' – Steve Cavanagh Throughout this read I was rooting for Nell, whom I quite liked except for her abysmal taste in men. Alex. And of course for Caius, who is extremely likeable. DISCLOSURE: Thank you to Faber and Faber via Netgalley for providing a digital ARC of The Other Half by Charlotte Vassell for review. All opinions expressed in this review are entirely my own personal opinions.

Charlotte Vassell

The Other Half is a police procedural following Detective Caius Beauchamp. He discovers the body of Clemmie, an influencer who portrays a luxurious life on social media. Caius must work to solve her murder and find her killer, but when he starts to question Clemmie’s friend group, he discovers there is much more than meets the eye.

I have to say Charlotte Vassell has absolutely stunned me with her debut. So often a book gets hyped and I expect so much that it's always a let down but not this time. I read it in 2 sittings, struggling all the time to put it down when tiredness overtook me last night. Faber is set to publish an exciting new crime series from debut author Charlotte Vassell, with the first, The Other Half, coming out in January 2023. Libby Marshall, Commissioning Editor, acquired UK & Commonwealth rights to both titles from Jon Wood at RCW. You might also enjoy Blotto, Twinks and the Ex-King's Daughter by Simon Brett or for something very upper class, try Her Majesty the Queen Investigates: Murder Most Royal by S J Bennett. Overall, I found it an engaging blend of literary and crime fiction with just the right amount of dry humour and satire. Will DI Caius Beauchamp return for another case? I really hope so as he and Matthew were such a fantastic team. Still, following this impressive debut I am looking forward to her future projects whatever their premise.

Caius ignored his question. ‘Barry’s team have just found her bag, so hopefully we can use it to identify our Jane Doe.’ MY THOUGHTS: Clever, complex, and witty, there's nothing not to love about The Other Half, including the characters. Some I loved, some I vacillated about, and others I intensely disliked. I was out for a morning run before I caught my train. Better me than a dog walker. Makes a change from Carol and her diabetic Labrador,’ Caius replied to the shrouded face. Detective, you were the one to find the body. I thought you were in France?’ asked Barry, the masked pathologist looming over the open body bag. Reading this felt like alternating between two separate books, the posh tw*ts part and the police procedural part but, again, maybe that was the intention. Two halves.