The Couple at the Table

A Novel

By: Sophie Hannah

Narrated by: Julie Maisey

Length: 11 hrs and 27 mins

Publisher's summary

Honeymooners at a posh resort receive an ominous warning with deadly consequences in the latest gripping, twisty psychological thriller from New York Times bestselling author Sophie Hannah.

Jane and William are enjoying their honeymoon at an exclusive couples-only resort…

…until Jane receives a chilling note warning her to “Beware of the couple at the table nearest to yours.” At dinner that night, five other couples are present, and none of their tables is any nearer or farther away than any of the others. It’s almost as if someone has set the scene in order to make the warning note meaningless—but why would anyone do that?

Jane has no idea.

But someone in this dining room will be dead before breakfast, and all the evidence will suggest that no one there that night could have possibly committed the crime.

©2022 Sophie Hannah (P)2022 HarperCollins Publishers

Builds To a Great (Almost Locked Room) Mystery

Slow start, took me awhile to get the characters in my head then I was hooked. I had a bit of trouble with the time sequences at the wrap-up- seemed that a lot of activity took place in what seemed like a short time period. I had to just go with the flow that time was expanding and contracting in a way I was not picturing when I was hearing the narrative. I was not able to guess the ending but I was suspecting an almost Murder on the Orient Express solution.

Not her best work

I love her Hercule Poirot stories. This was different. Very slow moving especially at the beginning. Lots of unnecessary f-bombs. Not her best work.

A LOT of filler. A LOT

Because this book has several strong reviews I tried to hang with it. I had to listen to the first two chapters twice to try to get into it. That definitely helped and got me more into the story. It also took me a bit to realize that the book was going back-and-forth between the time frames of when the murder happened, and six months later. That wasn’t really clear Until I realize saw the chapters have 2019 in the title and others have 2020. I gave it another shot and really enjoyed it. However at the end it’s completely unrealistic. The detective gathers every one of the suspects from the hotel into a room and takes an inordinate amount of time telling them the story of what happened and why and pulling out of them who did what, which he already knows. Seriously?. This would never happen and was completely ridiculous. So ridiculous that since that was the last thing you heard I knocked off a full star because of it in my rating.

Superb!

Beautifully written whodunit! With a bit of a slow but steady start this book had be hooked. The storyline is complex but not overly so. The mystery of the crime and each character unfolds at a perfect pace.

If you like this type of read, I highly recommend!

Wish I could listen w/o cursing

I love to be share my mysteries with my Mother. Like her, I abhor the cussing, which is why I stick to early turn of century when I can. I like Sophia Hannah writing and was first introduced to her via the Poirot series.

Again my on dissatisfaction is the cursing. I wish audible had a version that was cleaned up.

Pretty boring…

I received this title as a gift. I got through 5 chapters and was really kind of bored by it. I contacted audible to return it for a credit, but they said no way. Pretty slow moving and I didn’t care about any of the characters. The narrator was fine.

Not the Sophie Hannah I remember

Hannah turns Waterhouse into Agatha Christie, and it doesn’t work. It takes away from Hannah’s own style, which was excellent

Not her best work

Characters felt undeveloped and more like fairy tale villains. The set up made plot boring and slow

I can’t get this time back

Surely it will start to make sense! No! So all the time is gone forever.

What was that ending?

I love Sophie Hannah, and I usually love her characters, even though they are consistently maddening. It can depend on who is narrating, but I liked this narrator. I just had to backtrack so many times to remind myself who was talking and why it mattered, and that was the writing, not the narration. I listened to the ending three separate times, and I still cannot remember it. Overall, not a terrible experience of a book, just very meh in the end.