The Other Half

When young, beautiful Clemmie turns up dead after a raucous party for a privileged peer, detective Caius Beauchamp has to sort through a tangled web of vanity and vengeance to find her murderer. Somehow all the suspects appear to have both a motive and an alibi. Meanwhile, Clemmie’s friends are more concerned with their own tense love triangle, fueled by desperation and drugs. Her socialite circle clearly has much to hide, from affairs to art smuggling, and soon the body count begins to rise as they struggle to keep their secrets. Vassell makes an intricate and incisive debut with this biting police-procedural parody. Her characters are witty and well developed, and narrators Imogen Wilde and Michael Muyunda give a captivating performance of their many personalities and perspectives. The atmospheric balance of the police gathering evidence with the emotional upper crust creates a compelling listening experience.