Psychological Thriller Review: The Engagement Party | Darby Kane

Trapped on an island with a group of college friends (and two guests) who are hiding dark secrets from their past, someone seems to know those secrets and be enacting revenge one-by-one… Darby Kane’s latest psychological thriller, The Engagement Party is a tense, gripping mystery that will have you on the edge of your seat.

About the Book | The Engagement Party

Twelve years ago

A group of college students on the cusp of graduation have their lives shattered when one of their own is murdered. Emily Hunt was found dead on graduation weekend. Beautiful, popular, and wealthy—the nation became obsessed with the tragic death of this woman with her whole life ahead of her. But the Emily in real life wasn’t so perfect. She played games, especially with men, leading to a number of suspects at the college and even in her own friend group. Another student became the prime suspect in the murder, despite some discrepencies in the case against him. His suicide not long after the police question him seems to confirm that he must have murdered Emily. Her five closest friends—Will, Jake, Cassie, Alex, and Mitch—bonded in the wake of the tragedy where the two students lost their lives, but do they know more than they are saying?

Now

Will and his fiancé Ruthie have invited his closest friends to a private island to celebrate their engagement. Alex and Cassie are now married and a power couple, both having excelled in law school and beyond. Jake doesn’t come—he’s walked away from the group and the terrible memories and secrets they are keeping from so long ago. Mitch has started a successful business with a woman named Sierra who is in love with him. He brings Sierra with to the engagement party for support.

But not long after the six people arrive on the island, things begin to go awry. An alarm alerts them to go to the garage where a vehicle is parked with a dead body in the trunk. None of them admits to doing this, but it has to be one of them. Unless someone else is on the island? Cut off from the mainland in a storm with no cell service, this isn’t the first dead body that will surface. And as the tension mounts, secrets are revealed. Someone knows what happened to Emily all of those years ago and has brought them to this island for revenge. But who?

Review | The Engagement Party

The Engagement Party felt very different from Darby Kane’s previous thrillers, but not in a bad way. Her previous books tend to largely told from one or two perspectives and explore troubling events surrounding the characters that culminate in a twist. I’d describe her previous books as closer to domestic suspense novels that pack a big punch towards the end. This book differed; it featured many narrators plus information from a set of book notes about Emily’s case. Who wrote those? You’ll find out towards the end of the book. This book is also a locked room style mystery with I Know What You Did Last Summer vibes to it. Fresh and different from Kane’s prior work, but no less gripping.

Short chapters and changing perspectives kept the pace moving quickly. Kane expertly drops twists and reveals throughout to keep the story tense and engaging. Inserted between chapters are excerpts from book notes about Emily and the investigation into her murder. Emily wasn’t as perfect as the media would like her to seem. Emily was alluring but flawed, and often played around with men in her life who she knew she could manipulate. Her death looms over the story, though there are more secrets to be revealed and other mysteries to unveil. By the end, the plot was pulled taut it felt it could snap at any moment (and indeed it does!)

The mystery of who was behind what is happening on the island had me in a chokehold. We learn at the beginning of the book that Ruthie (Will’s fiancé who has an unknown interest in this group of friends) intentionally brought the group to this island with some agenda. But soon it becomes clear that Ruthie doesn’t know what is going on. The weekend has spiraled out of her control, and she realizes that someone else has an agenda. Dead bodies continue to crop up. I wondered who from the group may be behind this. Sierra seems to be the only character we can trust. With quickly changing narrators, the characters are keeping their own secrets from the group and the reader.

Tense, gripping, and atmospheric! This book had vibes of classic locked room mysteries and thrillers about long-buried secret pacts. The ending packs a good twist that I didn’t see coming, and the whodunnit kept me guessing start to finish. A quick and engaging psychological thriller that will have you gripping the book a bit too tightly as you race to the final reveal!

Thank you to William Morrow for my copy. Opinions are my own.

About the Author | Darby Kane

Darby Kane is a former trial attorney and #1 international bestseller of domestic suspense. Her first two thrillers, Pretty Little Wife and The Replacement Wife, have been optioned for television and featured in numerous venues, including The New York Times Book Review, The Washington Post, The Toronto Star, The New York Post, Popsugar, Refinery29, Goodreads, The Skimm, and The Huffington Post.

Darby Kane wasn’t always Darby Kane the thriller writer. She started her career publishing under her real name: HelenKay Dimon, author of contemporary romance and romantic suspense. She’s also been an avid reader for her entire life — thriller, mystery, and suspense novels were the books that filled her mom’s bookshelves growing up, and young HelenKay read them all. 

Synopsis | Goodreads

And Then There Were None meets I Know What You Did Last Summer in #1 international bestseller Darby Kane’s latest gripping and twisty thriller set on a private island in Maine where secrets piled upon secrets and lies upon lies are all revealed in one fateful weekend.

Emily Hunt went missing from her affluent liberal arts school on graduation weekend. Her body was found floating in a river, and a quiet loner who most people on campus really didn’t know committed suicide. A tenuous link—one text—bound the two dead students together and was enough for law enforcement to close the case. But they got it wrong and now someone is determined to set it right.

Twelve years later, college friends gather to celebrate an engagement over a long overdue getaway on a swanky private island in Maine—with only one way in and one way out. Sierra Prescott, invited as a guest and unconnected to past events, is the only person who soon senses not all is what it seems.

The tension in the air is ignited when they find a dead man in the trunk of a car with a note: time to tell the truth. And things only get worse. As a torrential storm strands them together, the group’s buried stories begin to surface and secrets are bartered. To survive this deadly party, they’ll need to stop a killer before they become prey.