• Author: Busayo Matuluko
• Series: Standalone
• Genre: Mystery
• Star Rating: 5 stars
• Gifted by Publisher: No

Plot: True-crime-obsessed Lara Oyinlola is heading to Lagos for her favourite cousin, Dérin’s, wedding. It’s going to be a holiday filled with glitzy dress-fittings, glamorous parties and, of course, the star-studded event of the year. But everything isn’t perfect in Dérin’s world. She’s been receiving anonymous threats telling her to cancel the wedding . . . or face dire consequences. This is the moment Lara’s been waiting for: put her sleuthing knowledge to work and solve a real-life mystery. As Lara investigates, what she doesn’t expect to uncover is a web of secrets, malicious crimes, and near‑death encounters which promise to tear the family apart for good …

This was an incredibly engaging, tense and satisfying mystery following a true crime/mystery book lover who tries to solve the mystery of who is threatening her cousin weeks before her big wedding. This book is full of hilarious family chaos, tense moments that have you questioning every character and an ending that genuinely ripped my heart out.

I thoroughly enjoyed this book and loved our main character Lara’s point of view. Her sense of loyalty, dedication and intelligence was engaging to read and I was rooting for her every step of the way. I really enjoyed how layered and interesting the side characters were; while at first it too me a bit of time to understand exactly who of the many characters was who, I found myself hooked in to the complicated exes, the feuding aunties and uncles and the intriguing staff members.

The plot itself packs a punch and Matuluko does not hold back when it comes to content and detail. It felt so satisfying to sink my teeth into a meaty mystery where there is more going on than just the main mystery, where there are multiple plot threads to solve and multiple character motivations to sift through. That last 100 pages were so incredibly gripping and it was the first time I was grateful for slow traffic so I could just zone into this book.

The big message about ending sickle cell stigma and bringing awareness to the illness was incredibly moving and I learnt so much from this book and from the extra information included at the back of the book. It was this inclusion in the book that secured a 5 star rating from me.