About a friendship between two boys growing up, ending in a very dark story with two dramatic events which determine the storyline and tragic outcome. The relationships of Martin/Ben and Martin/Lucy are told in lengthy flashbacks from the points of view of Martin and Lucy. A cleverly built tour of intrigue, THE PARTY reads like a novelistic board game of Clue, taking us through the various half-truths and lies its characters weave, as the past and present collide in a way that its protagonists could never have anticipated.

And as much as I detest jet lag, and detest it I very much do, there’s something about waking up in the (very) early hours of the morning, while all is still silent and dark, that offers the perfect sort of reading conditions in which to finish a book, thus enabling me to finish Elizabeth Day’s fourth book in two short and swift sittings. She is also an award-winning journalist and has written extensively for the Telegraph, The Times, the Guardian, the Observer, the Mail on Sunday, Vogue, Harper's Bazaar and Elle.As subtle as a car wreck, this novel which purports to be about social class in Britain builds to a climax and then fizzles. A partir de aquí Martin y Lucy analizan de forma retrospectiva su relación con los otros dos protagonistas principales, así como los hechos que han ido sucediendo en la fiesta y que han llevado a que todo salte por los aires ¿Qué hay detrás de esa amistad entre Ben y Martin, que parecía indestructible? I think the author was striving for dark and clever in this book but didn't really achieve that goal.

Her acclaimed debut Scissors, Paper, Stone, won a Betty Trask Award and Home Fires was an Observer book of the year.But, on second thought, they may have been predictable cardboard figures most of the time, but, they played their roles chillingly well.

The real problem with this novel of obsession, friendship, power and privilege is that it’s all been done before, and it all felt very derivative. When he wins a scholarship to Burtonbury School, he doesn’t wear the right clothes or speak with the right kind of accent. Another sweltering month in Charlotte, another boatload of mysteries past and present for overworked, overstressed forensic anthropologist Temperance Brennan. Photograph: Sophia Spring/The Observer ‘There is simply no predicting when you might meet a kindred spirit’: Elizabeth Day.I love stories like this and I love protagonists like Martin, but I've been burned by bad pastiches many times, so it's exhilarating to find a novel in which plot and character are pulled off with such breathtaking skill. Beginning with Martin being interviewed by the police concerning an undisclosed incident at Ben's glittering, celebrity laden 40th birthday party, the gradual unfolding of this almost thirty year friendship had me completely engaged. Ben Fitzmaurice - is the confident cool - natural leader type - classmates usually did anything he said - followed his lead. From the very beginning, Martin is smitten by Ben and does everything he can to insinuate himself into his life; both at school and later at Cambridge.