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The Guilty Party by Mel McGrath – Book Review

Published 06/03/2019 · Updated 04/03/2023

The Guilty Party

Author – Mel McGrath Publisher – HQ Pages – 384 Released – 7th March 2019 ISBN-13 – 978-0008326166 Format – ebook, paperback, hardcover, audio Reviewer – Stacey Rating – 4 Stars I received a free copy of this book. This post contains affiliate links.

You did nothing. That doesn’t mean you’re innocent.

On a night out, four friends witness a stranger in trouble. They decide to do nothing to help.

Later, a body washes up on the banks of the Thames – and the group realises that ignoring the woman has left blood on their hands.

But why did each of them refuse to step in? Why did none of them want to be noticed that night? Who is really responsible?

And is it possible that the victim was not really a stranger at all?

Sunday 14th August – After leaving a music festival and getting split up from one another, long term friends Cassie, Anna, Bo and Dex all meet up again in the early hours in a church grounds. Not far away they see a woman being assaulted and what looks like being raped. Although Cassie wants to help the other friends all persuade her to do nothing and tell her that it is probably just two people having a ‘good time’. They walk away offering no help.

A few weeks later the four friends go away for the weekend to celebrate Bo’s birthday, staying at a cottage in the Isle of Portland. Whilst there Cassie reads an article in the paper about a woman being pulled out of the River Thames and an image of her earlier in the night. The image of the woman Cassie realises is the same woman she saw being raped.

She speaks to the others but they don’t want to know. They try to convince her it’s not the same woman and that they all have something to lose should they go to the police. With each of them hiding a secret will any of them come clean and admit what they saw and that just maybe they each played a part in the young woman’s death, even if not directly?

From the opening scene I was intrigued and glued to the pages of ‘The Guilty Party’, throughout chapters which move back and forth in time and told from each of the friends but in no particular order, you get to live through the moments leading up to them witnessing the rape and then before and after the event.

The more you read the more you learn how each of them played their own little part in the woman’s death, it would only have taken one of them not to have done what they did or to of helped her when she asked for her death to not of occurred.

You also get to delve into each of their lives a little deeper and see how none of them are leading the perfect life and how each of them has secrets, some they share and some secret they keep from one another – Do they really know each other, even after being friends for all the years they have? Plus they also have their own collective secret ‘The Little Black Book’ which is actually a secret group on Facebook with only the four of them as members. This was really quite weird and creepy.

Whilst I enjoyed the book completely and found it astonishing that four people would witness such an attack and walk away without offering help, not something I could have done. I also did find it weird that four friends who used to be couples and are now in their 30’s, two of them married (to other people) would be as close as they were, going out to festivals together, holidaying together, without their partners or in Anna’s case her child too.

There are plenty of twists and secrets reveals throughout and I did start to wonder where the author could take the ending. This is a book that makes you think about the situation and what you would have done. It also makes you realise how different we all are.

Reviewed by Stacey

Purchase online from:, amazon.co.uk – amazon.com, about the author.

Mel McGrath is an Essex girl, co-founder of Killer Women, and an award-winning writer of fiction and non-fiction. As MJ McGrath she writes the acclaimed Edie Kiglatuk series of Arctic mysteries, which were twice longlisted for the CWA Gold Dagger and Times and Financial Times thrillers of the year.

As Melanie McGrath she wrote the critically acclaimed, bestselling memoir Silvertown. As Mel McGrath she is the author of the bestselling psychological thriller Give Me The Child.

The Guilty Party is her latest novel.

The above links are affiliate links. I receive a very small percentage from each item you purchase via these link, which is at no extra cost to you. If you are thinking about purchasing the book, please think about using one of the links. All money received goes back into the blog and helps to keep it running. Thank you.

Tags: Amazon Audio Author Blog Tour Book Book Blog Book Blogger Book Review ebook Fiction Four Stars hardcover Kindle Mel McGrath Mystery Paperback Review Stacey

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16 Responses

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This looks intense and intriguing

Great review Stacey now I am really itrigued this book looks and sounds like a book that I would absolutely love and enjoy to read. Thank you so much for sharing your awesome post and for putting this book on my radar.

Great review! The cover is interesting!

Thanks, adding to my list. Sounds like “I know what you did last summer” meets “Breakdown”!

I really want to read this one. Thank you for sharing!

Sounds amazing

It is both. It’s also a brilliant read.

Glad you like the review. I hope you get to read it.

Thank you. I love the cover too.

I know the first, never heard of Breakdown though.

Brilliant, I hope you do and enjoy it too.

It really is.

I must read this book. Fantastic review.

Brilliant, I hope you do as it is out today.

Great review! This sounds interesting!

Thanks it’s a fab book.

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Readers lamenting the fact that Mel McGrath has sidelined her Inuit sleuth Edie Kiglatuk for standalones need not fear that the edge has been taken off her diamond-hard talent. The Guilty Party is both a dexterously written thriller and a cogent examination of the nature of guilt and innocence.

The subject is sexual assault; a group of four youthful friends witness the rape of a stranger. When a body is washed up by the Thames, each one of the group is obliged to face the implications of why they declined to intervene — and we are given very disparate Rashomon -style points of view.

McGrath is channelling familiar #MeToo issues here, but she is too nuanced a writer for simple binary apportioning of male guilt in the current incendiary relationship between the sexes. And she delivers the constituent elements of the modern psychological novel with considerable panache, not least through her cast of variously tormented characters.

The Guilty Party , by Mel McGrath, HQ, RRP£12.99, 297 pages

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Mrs B's Book Reviews

Book reviews and recommendations from a self confessed book geek, beauty & lace book review: the guilty party by mel mcgrath.

Title:  The Guilty Party

Published:  March 18th 2019

Publisher:  HQ Fiction

Pages:  384

Genres:   Fiction, Contemporary, Thriller, Suspense

RRP:  $29.99

Rating:  3.5 stars

‘Dark, thrilling, impossible to predict’ Erin Kelly, author of He Said She Said You did nothing. That doesn’t mean you’re innocent. On a night out, four friends witness a stranger in trouble. They decide to do nothing to help.

Later, a body washes up on the banks of the Thames – and the group realises that ignoring the woman has left blood on their hands.

But why did each of them refuse to step in? Why did none of them want to be noticed that night? Who is really responsible?

And is it possible that the victim was not really a stranger at all?

‘I read somewhere that a body turns up every week in the Thames and if every one of the drowned appeared in the news there would be stories all the time. All the same, it hardly seems possible that a young woman can exit this twenty-first century world without leaving any virtual ghost of her former self.’

Toxic friendships, chances are we have been touched by these at some point in our lives. Mel McGrath’s psychological thriller, The Guilty Party takes on unfavourable friendships, moral complexities and the bystander effect. Combined with plenty of secrets from the past, along with some plot twists and turns, The Guilty Party is a book that will leave you reeling from the first to the final page.

Four friends who cemented their friendship during their university years make up  The Guilty Party . The friendship group are out one night together celebrating a birthday when they are separated and they witness an awful crime. A decision is made not to report the crime, or help the victim. Instead, the group decides to ignore what happened, hoping that it will go away. Unfortunately, it doesn’t go away, and before they know it, a body surfaces. The body is identified as the victim they all chose not to help that fateful night. The Guilty Party is a book that looks at social responsibility, our moral compass and it leads us to the question as to why all four of these people chose to stand back and let a woman lose her life.

The Guilty Party is the first book I have read by Mel McGrath, who is perhaps best known for her previous work, writing under the name of MJ McGrath. McGrath’s popular crime and mystery series featuring Edie Kiglatuk has seen her earn awards, television rights and worldwide recognition. The Guilty Party is a standalone psychological thriller that poses more questions than it answers. There are plenty of grey areas in this novel. There were also moments where McGrath made me consider quite deeply how I would feel if I was placed in the same shoes as the characters in the book. A situation that I wasn’t comfortable with at all! The Guilty Party was a difficult one to pin down, it did send me in a spin, it compelled me, but it also disappointed me that people could behave in the way the characters do in this novel.

The Guilty Party is one of those novels where I feel I cannot go into any great depth to discuss, otherwise I would ruin the experience for prospective readers. I will say it is carefully plotted, it contains some well observed characters and it offers a plethora of themes to consider. The writing is slick and filled with tension, but I did tend to dip in and out of this one attention wise. I think at the end of the day this boils down to my pure dislike and disgust at the actions of the characters. Even alternating the points of view of the protagonists did not work in their favour, I disliked them all!

McGrath is quite the master manipulator, her previous work as a crime and mystery based novelist definitely feeds into this novel. There were plenty of plot diversions and unexpected reactions, that all culminate into a thrilling conclusion that I wasn’t able to predict at all. So hats off to Mel McGrath for devising characters I detested, but ultimately I came to appreciate how the whole sordid plot untangled!

At the close of my reading of The Guilty Party , I immediately reached for Give Me the Child , last year’s psychological thriller release from Mel McGrath. I’m keen to get started on this novel after reading The Guilty Party !

The Guilty Party by Mel McGrath was published on 18th March 2019 by HQ Fiction. Details on how to purchase the book can be found  here .

To learn more about the author of The Guilty Party,  Mel McGrath, visit  here .

*Please note that a free copy of this book was provided to me for review purposes through Beauty & Lace and HQ Fiction. To read the original review on the Beauty & Lace website please visit  here .

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2 thoughts on “ beauty & lace book review: the guilty party by mel mcgrath ”.

My daughter and I met Mel McGrath at a local book event recently where she was talking about ‘The Guilty Party’. This isn’t my preferred genre of book but my daughter showed an interest in reading this, so we purchased it and it has been added to our rather large TBR pile.

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Wow, that is amazing that you got to meet Mel McGrath Cathy, what a lucky experience! Great to hear this one caught your interest, especially if it was outside your normal genre preferences.

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Reviews, new releases and more, the guilty party by mel mcgrath [review], title: the guilty party author: mel mcgrath publisher: harpercollins uk.

On a night out, four friends witness a stranger in trouble. They decide to do nothing to help. Later, a body washes up on the banks of the Thames – and the group realises that ignoring the woman has left blood on their hands. But why did each of them refuse to step in? Why did none of them want to be noticed that night? Who is really responsible? And is it possible that the victim was not really a stranger at all?

[My Review]

I absolutely loved this cleverly plotted novel which kept me guessing throughout and featured some memorable – if not hugely likeable – characters! Bound tightly by ‘friendship’ (though author Mel McGrath definitely makes the reader start to wonder quite how much they really care about eachother.

I love the premise – that four friends witness a shocking crime one evening, but all – for reasons yet to be unearthed – unspeakingly decide to turn a blind eye. What follows is an excellently absorbing unpicking of the reasons why each person might not have wanted to draw attention to this occurrence by trying to intervene, or by calling the police. The story switches between characters, letting us delve into their lives and find out just how awful a person they are. And I have to say, these are some really unlikable characters. McGrath doesn’t even try to create much of a likable edge to them, to encourage the reader to warm to them. I’m glad about this – I like an imperfect character much more than someone who is strongly painted as ‘good’ or ‘bad’. Main narrator Cassie definitely has more of a softer edge to her, and she at least seems to care in some way about what’s happened, but she herself is not perfect, and I’m glad about this. Her three friends – Anna, Bo and Rex – well, I’ll leave you to draw your own opinions about them but none of them are people I’d want to admit are my friends! For some, the lack of likability in the main characters might put them off, but I felt it just made the plot more believable than it would be if they were all nicer characters.

The plot is so much fun to work through; it ebbs and flows at times, going from fast paced and shocking as things ‘happen’, to a bit of a slower pace whilst it focuses more on character development. It hops back and forwards in time a lot, so I found that I really needed to pay attention to the date and also the time at the beginning of each chapter (something I usually skim past), and by doing this I didn’t get too confused! If you’re not a fan of books that do this… well, read this anyway as it’s worth it! I was hooked throughout every page!

The different threads that The Guilty Party weaves together as the story continues slowly come together to build a better picture of what really happened in the lead up to the night in question, and left me wishing this novel could go on far longer! Brilliant reading – Mel McGrath is definitely an author I will be closely following, excitedly waiting for any new releases!

[Rating: 5/5]

Many thanks to HarperCollins UK for providing a copy of this book on which I chose to write an honest and unbiased review.

The Guilty Party is out on 7 March.

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I have this one on pre-order so pleased to see how much you enjoyed it!

Seems like a great read… I have been seeing good things about this book. Fab review ????

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The Guilty Party by Mel McGrath (Review by Jillian Tremblay)

Rating: 4/5

The Guilty Party is an intense thriller that challenges the reader to question their own morality with one question: What would you have done?

The story follows the friendship of Cassie, Anna, Bo and Dex; a tight-knit group bound by secrets and friendship for over 15 years as they gather to celebrate the birthday of Bo with a weekend getaway at Chesil Beach.

Author Mel McGrath draws the reader into their twisted friendship as the main voice, Cassie, struggles to make sense of what she has witnessed and what role she has played in the death of a young woman. Over the course of the weekend, the dark secret held between them threatens to be revealed and unravel their friendship.

The book is well paced, and the narrative shifts between each friend in the group, offering their distinct voice and perspective on the events. You will learn about what they saw in the past and what they are struggling with in the present. Keeping in mind that this story follows a group of friends, it can be hard to believe that friends would do these things to one another. But when people are desperate, they can be capable of anything.

The subject matter may be difficult for some readers, I often find it difficult to read graphic stories about violence against women and this one was no different. It can be raw, but the author deals with it sensitively and gives a voice to something that silences so many women.

Some twists seem far-fetched, but overall this is a gripping book that will keep you interested and reading. As a book club selection, it will spur interesting discussions on friendship, morality and a society that enables this type of violence to continue. It’s a good “weekend-read” that I moved through quickly because I was eager to piece together what had happened and who was responsible.

I know what I would have done, do you?

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The Guilty Party, Mel McGrath: Book Review

The Guilty Party  by Mel McGrath  is by all means, my definition of a psychological thriller at its finest.

Laced with manipulation and secrets, making you question your own thoughts and how far someone can be pushed and why, this book is a treat from the start, right down to those last two sentences which will stay with me.

On a night out, four friends lose each other in the crowd – and, separately, they witness a stranger in trouble.

One by one, they each decide to do nothing to help.

Later, a body washes us on the banks of the Thames – and the group knows that ignoring the woman has left blood on their hands. But why did each of them refuse to step in?

You did nothing. That doesn’t mean you’re innocent…

A good read if you’re looking for a book to mess with your head a little

This book isn’t one which will make you gasp (although I did at one part because it was just so unexpected), but one to make you think and play detective along the way. I worked out a couple of the important aspects, but it was interesting to see where it led.

I must give big big props to McGrath  for the writing. Like a lot of thrillers, there are short sentences, but also detailed paragraphs which go deeper into the mind of the character, indirectly pulling you deeper into the book.

I loved how it felt like Cassie, the protagonist, was talking directly to you. I felt like I was just sitting beside her drinking multiple cups of coffee and she was telling me a story, and at some parts, justifying herself.

Although there is a lot of repetition with some parts, and my eyes did glaze over a few times because you’ve read this several times before, it stresses my point further that it felt like Cassie was talking to you, and making you understand what was happening and why. We’re all victims of sometimes zoning out after our friends have gone on for a long time, right? RIGHT?!

The tension between the characters is indescribable – you’d need something a bit bigger than a knife to cut through this. The whole story was very well thought-through and very intriguing. A good read if you’re looking for a book to mess with your head a little.

I’ve read a lot of thrillers, as you all probably know, but I would put this high up on my list for psychological thrillers. This is one of the first books I’ve come away from with a totally different view point from when I first started reading it. McGrath  has done such an incredible job making the reader involved through the language, that it really drags you in and makes you part of the story.

The last two sentences really stumped me and made me question everything. It’s not a plot twist, but really one which ties the whole story together and leaves the reader (for me, anyway), a bit dazed and saying ‘oh er’.

The only downside for me, and it is minor , but the voices weren’t distinct enough for me. Cassie’s shone through and I am thoroughly impressed with the writing, and Anna’s was different, showing her personality, but Bo’s and Dex’s were just too alike. I’m not sure whether it’s because you don’t have as many dedicated chapters to them, but I would’ve liked slightly more on both characters and a bit of difference. But then again, me and my bestie say the exact same phrases and say what the other is thinking all the time, so maybe McGrath  was trying to signify the closeness of the two and the ‘Group’ as a whole.

Also, I would’ve liked an epilogue, but that’s just because I’m greedy.

I’d be interested to see what The Guilty Party  is like on a re-read, and see how my views differ, but for now, I’ve got McGrath ’s other psychological thriller on my list.

The Guilty Party, Mel McGrath, RRP £12.99 (hardback);  Book Depository  

Publisher: HQ Publishers

Genre: Psychological Thriller

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The Guilty Party Paperback – March 7 2019

Purchase options and add-ons.

On a night out, four friends lose each other in the crowd – and each witness a stranger in trouble.

One by one, they each decide to do nothing to help.

Later, a body washes up on the banks of the Thames – and the group realises that ignoring the victim has left blood on their hands.

But why did each of them refuse to step in? Why did none of them want to be noticed that night? Who is really responsible?

And is it possible the victim was not really a stranger at all?

• Print length 384 pages
• Language English
• Publisher HQ
• Publication date March 7 2019
• Dimensions 15.3 x 2.9 x 23.4 cm
• ISBN-10 0008217076
• ISBN-13 978-0008217075
• See all details

Product description

Praise for Give me the Child

‘Dark, clever, terrifying’ Paula Hawkins

‘You won’t want to eat, sleep or blink’ Tammy Cohen

‘A triumph. A mesmerisingly written examination of desperation and evil’ Financial Times

‘Taut and compelling’ Good Housekeeping

‘Gripping and moving’ Erin Kelly

'A beautifully written and very unsettling read.' Ann Cleeves

‘Hugely addictive and highly recommended’ Sarah Hilary

‘Completely unputdownable’ Lisa Hall

‘Utterly terrifying – it plays on every mother’s deepest fear’ Annabel Kantaria

‘Among my favourite books of the year. I loved it’ Mark Hill

‘Prepare to whizz through this addictive read… edge-of-your-seat stuff’ The Sun

‘A stimulating, powerful, entirely captivating and deliciously entertaining read’ Liz Robinson, Lovereading

‘I was totally blown away’ Crime Book Junkie

‘I actually thought within the first few chapters, that I had it sussed and knew exactly who did what and why – I was wrong’ A Cornish Mum

‘I was addicted’ Mumsnet

About the Author

Mel McGrath is an Essex girl, the author of the critically acclaimed and bestselling family memoir Silvertown. She won the John Llewellyn-Rhys/Mil on Sunday award for Best Writer Under 35 for her first book, Motel Nirvana. She has published three Arctic mysteries featuring the Inuit detective Edie Kiglatuk under the name MJ McGrath, the first of which, The Boy in the Snow, was shortlisted for a CWA Gold Dagger.

In the last year she has been one of the founders and moving lights of the website Killer Women, which has rapidly established itself as one of the key forums for crime writing in the UK.

Product details

• Publisher ‏ : ‎ HQ (March 7 2019)
• Language ‏ : ‎ English
• Paperback ‏ : ‎ 384 pages
• ISBN-10 ‏ : ‎ 0008217076
• ISBN-13 ‏ : ‎ 978-0008217075
• Item weight ‏ : ‎ 470 g
• Dimensions ‏ : ‎ 15.3 x 2.9 x 23.4 cm

About the author

Mel mcgrath.

Melanie McGrath is an award-winning, bestselling writer of fiction and narrative nonfiction. She has written numerous works of narrative social history on topics as varied as the early internet, the Arctic and the East End of London and is the author of the Edie Kiglatuk series of Arctic mysteries and several stand alone psychological thrillers, including Two Wrongs, The Guilty Party and Give Me The Child. Mel has been shortlisted for the Historical Writers ‘Association Gold Crown, the Andre Simon Food Book Award, the Fortnum and Mason Food Book award, the Crime Writers’ Association Gold Dagger and the James Tait Black Award for Biography. Her crime novels have been voted Best Crime Novel of the Year in The Guardian, The Times and The Financial Times. She is the recipient of the John Llewelyn Rhys Award for Best British and Commonwealth Writer under 35.

Her books are translated into 20 languages and have been bestsellers in the USA, Canada, Australia, France, Scandinavia and the UK. Additionally, she has written for The Wall Street Journal, The National Post, The Times, The Guardian, The Observer, Conde Nast Traveller and Aeon, among others. She was a presenter of Trailblazers, an adventure travel series for The Discovery Channel. Her Arctic mysteries are currently in development for TV in Canada/USA.

McGrath has lived in Germany, Nicaragua and the US and is currently based in London, where she is part way through her certification to qualify as an integrative psychotherapist.

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After the Party review – one of the greatest performances in any TV show in years

Robyn Malcolm is incredible in this morally complex drama, as a woman who believes she saw her ex-husband sexually assault a minor

S ome fraught and morally complex spaces are entered in the six-part New Zealand drama After the Party, which is executed with a white-knuckle intensity that almost pushes it into the realm of a thriller. The show is led by an expertly layered performance from Robyn Malcolm as Penny Wilding, a high school teacher who believes she caught her ex-husband, Phil (Peter Mullan), engaged in a sex crime with an intoxicated minor during his birthday party. The easy choice would have been not to show it but, like her, we see the moment around which the show pivots.

Penny is convinced she is right about what she saw and she’s not the kind of person to let things go. At first I found her character thoroughly likable; one early scene depicts her in a classroom explaining pornography to young male students straightforwardly and empathetically: she’s clearly a teacher who thinks outside the box, though not in the extravagant stand-on-the-desk, Oh Captain My Captain sort of way.

But then I began to feel the show – co-created by Malcolm and Dianne Taylor, and directed by Peter Salmon – challenging my initial assumptions and nudging us towards the possibility that Penny is potentially an unreliable witness. After the Party isn’t really about whether she is right or wrong – although eventually it arrives at quite precise conclusions, which for me were its least interesting aspects. Far more intriguing are the dramas created by Penny’s assumptions and dogged advocacy.

Phil returns to Wellington after living in Scotland for five years and moves in with their daughter Grace (Tara Canton). This sparks a renewed desire in Penny to see him punished, or at least for her impression of events to be vindicated. But not a single other person at the titular party – including Grace and the alleged victim, Ollie (Ian Blackburn) – agree with her interpretation.

Part of the show’s appeal is that people are likely to see different things and ponder different questions. Is it ethical to pursue allegations that deeply traumatise an alleged victim, even when they’re adamant that nothing untoward took place? Is it about being wrong for the right reasons … or right for the wrong ones?

I was swept away by this drama, feeling almost corporally immersed in this world. But I wondered if there was something missing from the script: an additional event from the past, for instance, that might help contextualise Penny’s perspective. On the other hand, being coy about aspects of the characters’ pasts and remaining more or less in the moment – notwithstanding intermittent flashbacks to the night in question – gives the writers (Taylor, Martha Hardy-Ward, Emily Perkins and Samuel E Shore) another opportunity to play with us. Again, certain questions beckon. For instance: does Penny know something we’re not being told?

I smashed through all six episodes in a day and, while I won’t go into detail, I was in two minds about its conclusion, which reaches for the kind of denouements so shrewdly avoided until that point, minimising some of the elements that distinguish this series from more conventional offerings. But it’s rousing throughout and admittedly the writers faced various challenges, including the conundrum of delivering finality versus open-endedness.

Stylistically, After the Party is fashioned by Salmon to not draw attention to itself. The colours are a little washed out, but not too much. It’s cut in naturalistic ways, embracing editing as “the invisible art”. The idea being that the best kind of editing goes unnoticed, leaving the viewer to sink into the narrative and forget they’re watching a mediated experience. We see that logic reflected elsewhere: in the gently handheld camerawork, and in performances that feel intensely lived-in, as if the actors have occupied these characters for decades.

No one impresses more than Malcolm, who really gets under your skin and pinches you from the inside. The anguish she feels for being alone in her beliefs makes her increasingly desperate; watching Malcolm illustrate her reach and reach and reach is exhilaratingly painful. It’s no overstatement to say that this great performance ranks among the best television portrayals in years, from anywhere in the world.

After the Party is screening on the ABC and is available to view on ABC iView

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• Women's Literary Fiction

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The Guilty Party: Dive into a dark, gripping and shocking psychological thriller from bestselling author Mel McGrath Hardcover – 7 Mar. 2019

‘MASTERFUL’ Guardian ‘IMPOSSIBLE TO PREDICT’ Erin Kelly ‘UTTERLY COMPELLING’ Crime Monthly ‘5*’ Heat ’WELL-CRAFTED AND CHILLING’ Woman ‘MCGRATH IS A DIAMOND-HARD TALENT’ Financial Times

On a night out, four friends witness a stranger in trouble. They decide to do nothing to help.

Later, a body washes up on the banks of the Thames – and the group realises that ignoring the woman has left blood on their hands.

But why did each of them refuse to step in? Why did none of them want to be noticed that night? Who is really responsible?

And is it possible that the victim was not really a stranger at all?

Praise for mel mcgrath:.

‘This roller-coaster read will have you hooked ’ Closer

‘This well-crafted, chilling tale of guilt and innocence has a compelling moral anchor’ Woman

‘ Lots of twists and turns in this toxic thriller.’ Hello!

‘A dextrously written thriller and examination of guilt and innocence… [McGrath is] a diamond-hard talent ’ Financial Times

‘McGrath excels in creating believably flawed characters, and her masterful control of suspense and pacing make for a psychological thriller that is both perceptive and disturbing’ Guardian

‘Unsettling, disturbing and vital. 5* ’ Heat

‘Exploring guilt and innocence through several dark distinct perspectives, Cassie becomes a compelling moral anchor in this well-crafted and chilling tale’ Woman’s Own

‘ Easily the best [of the subgenre]…psychologically acute and deeply satisfying ’ Telegraph

‘ Perceptive …McGrath is a thoughtful writer’ Daily Mail

‘ Utterly compelling right from the start …a deeply unsettling look at modern sexual behaviour and bystander culture’ Crime Monthly

‘Chilling, fiendishly plotted and surprising, this stayed with me long after reading ’ Woman & Home

‘ Absorbing … McGrath asks: should it be a crime to witness a violent event, and say nothing?’ The Times

‘Brimming with trust issues and deceit, this will make you question whether we ever know who our friends really are ’ Prima

‘ A clever, nuanced exploration of toxic friendship and the ties that bind people together’ Red

‘ Dark, thrilling, impossible to predict ’ Erin Kelly, author of He Said She Said

‘A scorching , clever thriller’ Tammy Cohen, author of They All Fall Down

‘A dark and immersive journey into the heart of a toxic friendship group. I loved it .’ Harriet Tyce, author of Blood Orange

• Print length 384 pages
• Language English
• Publisher HQ
• Publication date 7 Mar. 2019
• Dimensions 15.9 x 3.4 x 24 cm
• ISBN-10 0008326169
• ISBN-13 978-0008326166
• See all details

From the Publisher

Product description

Book description.

Dive into a dark, gripping and shocking psychological thriller from bestselling author Mel McGrath

About the Author

Mel McGrath is an Essex girl, co-founder of Killer Women, and an award-winning writer of fiction and non-fiction. As MJ McGrath she writes the acclaimed Edie Kiglatuk series of Arctic mysteries. As Melanie McGrath she wrote the critically acclaimed, bestselling memoir Silvertown . As Mel McGrath she is the author of the bestselling psychological thrillers Give Me the Child , The Guilty Party and Two Wrongs .

Product details

• Publisher ‏ : ‎ HQ (7 Mar. 2019)
• Language ‏ : ‎ English
• Hardcover ‏ : ‎ 384 pages
• ISBN-10 ‏ : ‎ 0008326169
• ISBN-13 ‏ : ‎ 978-0008326166
• Dimensions ‏ : ‎ 15.9 x 3.4 x 24 cm
• 9,341 in Women's Literary Fiction (Books)
• 13,187 in Psychological Fiction (Books)
• 18,407 in Psychological Thrillers (Books)

About the author

Mel mcgrath.

Melanie McGrath is an award-winning, bestselling writer of fiction and narrative nonfiction. She has written numerous works of narrative social history on topics as varied as the early internet, the Arctic and the East End of London and is the author of the Edie Kiglatuk series of Arctic mysteries and several stand alone psychological thrillers, including Two Wrongs, The Guilty Party and Give Me The Child. Mel has been shortlisted for the Historical Writers ‘Association Gold Crown, the Andre Simon Food Book Award, the Fortnum and Mason Food Book award, the Crime Writers’ Association Gold Dagger and the James Tait Black Award for Biography. Her crime novels have been voted Best Crime Novel of the Year in The Guardian, The Times and The Financial Times. She is the recipient of the John Llewelyn Rhys Award for Best British and Commonwealth Writer under 35.

Her books are translated into 20 languages and have been bestsellers in the USA, Canada, Australia, France, Scandinavia and the UK. Additionally, she has written for The Wall Street Journal, The National Post, The Times, The Guardian, The Observer, Conde Nast Traveller and Aeon, among others. She was a presenter of Trailblazers, an adventure travel series for The Discovery Channel. Her Arctic mysteries are currently in development for TV in Canada/USA.

McGrath has lived in Germany, Nicaragua and the US and is currently based in London, where she is part way through her certification to qualify as an integrative psychotherapist.

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Democrats, political figures dogpile onto Trump VP hopeful after story of animal killings

It doesn’t matter if you’re a Republican or Democrat, liberal or conservative — a growing number of elected officials and political groups all suddenly want you to know: they love their dogs.

The outpouring of animal love from political social media is all in response to South Dakota Gov. Kristi L. Noem (R) — who is believed to be in the running to be Donald Trump’s running mate — admitting in her forthcoming book that she killed a family dog and goat in a gravel pit with a gun on the same day.

According to an excerpt of the book obtained by the Guardian in advance of its publication next month, Noem, a farmer and rancher, said she shot and killed her 14-month-old wirehair pointer, Cricket, because she was “untrainable” and aggressive.

Noem described how Cricket was overexcited on a hunt and wrote that she attacked another family’s chickens like “a trained assassin.” The governor also said Cricket had tried to bite her during the incident, later writing that she “hated that dog.”

After killing Cricket, Noem wrote that she then decided to kill a family goat that was “nasty and mean” and which “loved to chase” Noem’s children.

Democrats, including President Biden ’s reelection campaign, had some fun with it — along with some spirited politicking.

The Democratic National Committee, responding to Noem’s book excerpt, issued a statement on behalf of “the dogs of the DNC, aka the Dogmocratic Party.”

“As DNC’s canine companions, we’ve heard a lot from our owners about just how extreme and dangerous Donald Trump and his far-right MAGA allies are — but nothing could prepare us for the truly disturbing and horrifying passages Kristi L. Noem willingly chose to put in her new book,” the statement said.

“Our message is plain and simple: If you want elected officials who don’t brag about brutally killing their pets as part of their self-promotional book tour, then listen to our owners — and vote Democrat,” the statement added.

After Noem’s excerpt went public, the Biden campaign’s rapid response team shared pictures on X of Vice President Harris holding a puppy and President Biden walking his German shepherd, Commander , at the White House (although Commander was removed from the White House last year after he bit several staffers and Secret Service officers).

Democratic Gov. Tim Walz (Minn.) shared a photo on X of him feeding his dog a treat, writing the caption, “Post a picture with your dog that doesn’t involve shooting them and throwing them in a gravel pit. I’ll start.” The post garnered responses from Gov. Gretchen Whitmer (D-Mich.) and Gov. Phil Murphy (D-N.J.) with their furry companions.

Post a picture with your dog that doesn’t involve shooting them and throwing them in a gravel pit. I’ll start. https://t.co/VA3O0lcHtJ pic.twitter.com/gICODi9YD5 — Governor Tim Walz (@GovTimWalz) April 26, 2024

The Lincoln Project, a political organization founded by moderate conservatives who oppose Trump, published a tongue-in-cheek video that seemed to nod at Sarah McLachlan’s earworm ads for the American Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals.

“You have options,” a narrator says in the video. “Shooting your dog in the face should not be one of them. And if you do happen to shoot your dog in the face, please don’t write about it in your autobiography.”

The organization also subsequently said that Trump and Noem’s “disregard for animals reflects their disregard for everything else. Cruelty is the point.”

Other Republicans who do not support Trump, including former Trump aides Alyssa Farah Griffin and Sarah Matthews , as well as Meghan McCain , similarly expressed shock over Noem’s story.

And Laura Loomer, a right-wing activist and Trump ally, wrote on X, “You can’t shoot your dog and then be VP.”

Post a picture with your dog that doesn’t involve shooting them and throwing them in a gravel pit. https://t.co/TJzQXsguNE pic.twitter.com/uJd0DdwI0Y — Governor Phil Murphy (@GovMurphy) April 27, 2024

Noem’s actions have been blasted by animal advocacy organizations. Colleen O’Brien, senior vice president of media relations at People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals, said in a statement that the excerpt reveals the governor “obviously fails to understand the vital political concepts of education, cooperation, compromise, and compassion.”

Sara Amundson, president of the Humane Society Legislative Fund — the lobbying arm of the Humane Society of the United States — said in a statement that “there is no redeeming takeaway from a story about the ending of these animals’ lives, including a juvenile dog who was the family pet.”

The organization noted that the 86 million American homes “have at least one beloved pet and value our relationship with them. There are so many effective and humane ways to deal with canine behavioral issues that don’t resort to such means.”

Noem appeared to verify the details of the excerpt published by the Guardian, writing on X Friday morning, “We love animals, but tough decisions like this happen all the time on a farm. Sadly, we just had to put down 3 horses a few weeks ago that had been in our family for 25 years.”

The governor, in her post, then urged her followers to preorder “ No Going Back ,” her forthcoming book, “if you want more real, honest, and politically INcorrect stories that’ll have the media gasping.”

Amy B Wang contributed to this report.

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The Guilty Party Paperback – April 23, 2019

• Print length 384 pages
• Language English
• Publisher HQ
• Publication date April 23, 2019
• Dimensions 6.02 x 0.94 x 9.21 inches
• ISBN-10 0008334439
• ISBN-13 978-0008334437
• See all details

Product details

• Publisher ‏ : ‎ HQ (April 23, 2019)
• Language ‏ : ‎ English
• Paperback ‏ : ‎ 384 pages
• ISBN-10 ‏ : ‎ 0008334439
• ISBN-13 ‏ : ‎ 978-0008334437
• Item Weight ‏ : ‎ 1 pounds
• Dimensions ‏ : ‎ 6.02 x 0.94 x 9.21 inches

About the author

Mel mcgrath.

Melanie McGrath is an award-winning, bestselling writer of fiction and narrative nonfiction. She has written numerous works of narrative social history on topics as varied as the early internet, the Arctic and the East End of London and is the author of the Edie Kiglatuk series of Arctic mysteries and several stand alone psychological thrillers, including Two Wrongs, The Guilty Party and Give Me The Child. Mel has been shortlisted for the Historical Writers ‘Association Gold Crown, the Andre Simon Food Book Award, the Fortnum and Mason Food Book award, the Crime Writers’ Association Gold Dagger and the James Tait Black Award for Biography. Her crime novels have been voted Best Crime Novel of the Year in The Guardian, The Times and The Financial Times. She is the recipient of the John Llewelyn Rhys Award for Best British and Commonwealth Writer under 35.

Her books are translated into 20 languages and have been bestsellers in the USA, Canada, Australia, France, Scandinavia and the UK. Additionally, she has written for The Wall Street Journal, The National Post, The Times, The Guardian, The Observer, Conde Nast Traveller and Aeon, among others. She was a presenter of Trailblazers, an adventure travel series for The Discovery Channel. Her Arctic mysteries are currently in development for TV in Canada/USA.

McGrath has lived in Germany, Nicaragua and the US and is currently based in London, where she is part way through her certification to qualify as an integrative psychotherapist.

Customer reviews

Customer Reviews, including Product Star Ratings help customers to learn more about the product and decide whether it is the right product for them.

To calculate the overall star rating and percentage breakdown by star, we don’t use a simple average. Instead, our system considers things like how recent a review is and if the reviewer bought the item on Amazon. It also analyzed reviews to verify trustworthiness.

• Sort reviews by Top reviews Most recent Top reviews

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‘Guilt’ Review: When the Lights Go Out in Edinburgh

The final season of Scotland’s most notable TV drama, on PBS’s “Masterpiece,” is a suitably twisty and sardonic send-off for the battling McCall brothers.

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By Mike Hale

Contains spoilers for Seasons 1 and 2 of “Guilt.”

“Guilt,” a pioneering series in Scottish television — it was the first drama commissioned by the newly formed BBC Scotland channel in 2019 — has built an audience well beyond its borders. A melancholy tale of family dysfunction presented as a complicated crime thriller, it combines British regionalism with peak TV-style poker-faced comedy in a way that has made it a critical darling around the world.

Created and written by Neil Forsyth, “Guilt” has arrived in dense, lively four-episode bursts; the third and final season has its American premiere on PBS’s “Masterpiece” beginning Sunday. Each installment has been organized around a psycho-philosophical theme: first guilt, then revenge in Season 2, and now, as Forsyth described it in a BBC interview, redemption.

But the pleasure of the show does not come from diagraming its moral lessons (unless that’s your thing), or from unwinding Forsyth’s sometimes maddeningly convoluted plots, which entangle sons and daughters of Edinburgh’s rough-and-tumble Leith district with the city’s gangsters, cops and politicians.

What makes “Guilt” worthwhile is Forsyth’s knack for creating characters who work their way into our affections, less by their actions than by their unconscious, soul-deep responses to life in the grim confines of Leith and the promise of something better in Edinburgh’s more comfortable precincts.

At the center of the web are Max and Jake McCall (Mark Bonnar and the marvelous Jamie Sives), brothers with very little use for each other who become bound in a seemingly endless cycle of lies, danger and recrimination. It begins in the opening minutes of Season 1 when Jake, with Max in the car’s passenger seat, accidentally runs into an old man, killing him. Jake, a gentle soul with an encyclopedic knowledge of pop music (he could have wandered in from a Nick Hornby novel), wants to call the police; Max, a rapacious lawyer with a near-sociopathic lack of empathy, says no.

This is the original sin for which the brothers are still paying. Covering up their hit-and-run homicide embroils them with the Lynches, a married pair of quietly vicious gangsters whom Max and Jake are both on the run from, and scheming to take down, across the show’s three seasons. While the brothers work together for survival, they are also at each other’s throats, taking turns ruefully betraying each other, leading to imprisonment, exile and worse.

Sives brings a natural soulfulness to Jake while also making his cold double crosses of his brother believable; Bonnar is just as capable given the inverse challenge, conveying Max’s venality, vanity and desperation for success (pegged to being abandoned as a child) while also making credible his rare flashes of sympathy.

But even more crucial to the show’s effect are the amusingly vivid characters who surround the brothers: Kenny (Emun Elliott), the formerly alcoholic, surprisingly capable investigator who serves as the show’s wobbly moral center; Stevie (Henry Pettigrew), the hilariously jumpy corrupt cop; Teddy (Greg McHugh), who fully communicates his ability to dispense extreme violence while rarely actually dispensing it; Sheila (Ellie Haddington), the deadpan black widow; and Maggie Lynch, the show’s motherly, ruthless big bad, with Phyllis Logan of “Downton Abbey” playing wonderfully against type.

(Even incidental characters have distinctive moments. In the new season, Anita Vettesse, as the girlfriend of a man who gets thrown from a great height, gets to deliver this memorable couplet: “There’s nobody better at keeping their head down than me. It’s probably my biggest talent, if I’m honest with you.”)

The first season of “Guilt” was a self-contained triumph. It offered a cleverly satirical structure — as Jake and Max’s cover-up rippled out, one character after another found his lot improved, or his aspirations stoked, in confounding ways — and a satisfying ending that sent Jake out of the country and Max, accepting that he had been sold out by his brother, off to prison.

The second season, in which Max was released and pursued his improbable campaign of revenge against the Lynches, was over-plotted and overwritten, full of action-halting speeches about life and Leith. And it suffered from the absence of Jake for more than half the season — Max’s fervor was not nearly as moving or entertaining without his brother there to react to it.

The brothers are together from the start of Season 3, which puts them at the lowest, most perilous point they have reached so far. And it is largely a return to form, a suitable send-off for the battling McCalls. Kenny, Teddy, Stevie and Sheila all return, and join Max, Jake, an honest cop (Isaura Barbé-Brown) and Kenny’s no-nonsense niece (Amelia Isaac Jones), in a coalition of the somewhat willing, to take on Maggie Lynch one last time. Forsyth has fully assimilated the lessons of the Coen brothers and the history of the caper film, and with an ending that lets in more sentiment than the show has previously allowed, he gives Jake and Max slivers of their Scottish dreams.

Mike Hale is a television critic for The Times. He also writes about online video, film and media. More about Mike Hale

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