Everyone in the group chat dies / L.M. Chilton (2025)
What it is: hip murder mystery
Did I like it: it was okay
This book falls into what I call the “hip murder mystery” category: a story that contains a lot of current cultural references, chat/text messages and slang. There’s a fine line between this all being used right or wrong: too much of any of it risks the book not aging well and or alienating readers. Books that do this well however, are easy and fast to read, and tend to be a lot of fun even if there is a high body count involved.
For me, this book skirted the line and it just made it to the safe side.
The story is about Kirby who has escaped Britain and is not living the dream in Spain where she is cleaning up the pool area of a hotel full of 18-to-30-year-olds in party mode, while she desperately tries to forget the past year, and the fact that at thirty-one she’s too old to join the party. An incoming text message in an old group chat makes everything even worse: Miss me?
It’s not so much about the question but more that it was sent by Esme, who died a year ago.
Da-da-da-dum.
The story keeps switching between last year and now to explain why the message has Kirby in a tailspin.
The Kirby of a year ago is living in a shared flat in Crowhurst back in England. The flatmates call themselves The Deadbeats because they’re all pushing thirty yet cannot afford to live on their own due to their terrible career tracks and the fact that they’re all stuck in a rut.
Then one day Esme arrives at the flat. Esme is a social media content maker and in town “to catch a serial killer”. Esme is very Gen Z and the Millennial Deadbeats are confused by her career and behaviour while Esme in return does not understand the cultural references the Deadbeats throw around.
Esme plays Sherlock on ShowMe (“the edgy version of TikTok”), and she digs into murders and disappearances that have gone cold. (And yes, her followers are called Watsons.)
Crowhurst is a boring and in-decline kind of town and the only thing noteworthy that ever happened there was a killing spree at the local fair in the nineties during which five teenagers were killed. The killer was killed as well though, so the Deadbeats are confused by Esme’s declaration that there is news to discover.
Da-da-da-dum.
This book did what it was supposed to do: it was easy and fast to read and it had a decent mystery. However, about half-way through the fun started to disappear a bit and it became more angsty and just an updated version of I know what you did last summer. By the last quarter it was definitely more serious than (dark) fun and I got a bit annoyed by Kirby.
While I happily kept picking up this book to continue reading I’m afraid I will have forgotten all about it in a few months as it really was just an average breezy read.
I recommend this for people who want something light and breezy with a mystery to solve.
I do not recommend this for people who want something original.
Bookworm in the City 