All Dressed Up by Jilly Gagnon is a murder mystery with a 1920s theme, where a real murder might have taken place but is it all part of the game? This novel was hard to get into, and that’s a problem because I love murder mysteries. I think this book has a good mystery in that is buried deep in mediocrity and a bad mystery. We only see glimpses of the real mystery at the end. The climax was not bad and the only highlight of this novel. The dialogue was bad in a lot of spots and hard to tell some characters apart since they sounded so similar. I thought about not finishing more that a few times but powered through this is easily the worst book I have read that was published this year. I hate to give bad review knowing how much time and dedication went into it but this book did not work for me on multiple levels. Thanks to Netgalley and Random House Publishing Group – Ballantine, Bantam for letting me read All Dressed Up by Jilly Gagnon. All Dressed Up is published on September 6 2022.

Plot Summary: Becca is invited to a 1920’s weekend but really it is a murder mystery set in the 1920’s weekend that she doesn’t figure out until she finds the dead body and starts freaking out like its real as her husband and guest laugh. Becca and her husband Blake are having a rough patch since he got caught cheating, and this weekend was a making up for it getaway. They came with Phil and Heather two of Blake’s friends who are a couple in sync in Becca’s mind. The Becca runs into Bethany the who played one of the character’s and who breaks character to have a real conversation but overreacts when her husband is scene talking to her alone. Becca ants to apologize but Bethany is gone, and the other cast announce she has broke her contract and returned to New York. Becca having just talked about living situation knows this can’t be true. Becca on an exploratory mission finds Bethany’s cell phone and clothes and needs to solve this mystery.

What I Liked: The end when we finally get to the mystery within a mystery. I enjoyed the who dun it? and the explanation for it. I did like the characters of Gabby and Drew and there commitment to stay in character while playing the game, the only characters that had interesting dialogue.

What I Disliked: The 1920’s theme was used all that well. I really disliked that Becca couldn’t figure out this was a murder mystery weekend. The dialogue is really bad at times an added nothing to the characters. The pace was way too slow. I was not interested in the murder mystery plot at all which was the main plot with the other mystery beneath the surface. I had a hard time visualizing the description because they were lacking.

Recommendation: Stay away from this book! There are so many great mystery’s out there, this book sadly is not one of those. I rated All Dressed Up by Jilly Gagnon 2 out of 5 stars, it is more like 1.5 stars.