Book Review: The Bachelorette Party by Camilla Sten

I received a review copy from the publisher. This does not affect the contents of my review and all opinions are my own.

The Bachelorette Party by Camilla Sten

Mogsy’s Rating: 3 of 5 stars

Genre: Mystery, Thriller

Series: Stand Alone

Publisher: Minotaur Books (June 10, 2025)

Length: 304 pages

Author Information: Website

I’ll kick this off by saying I’ve previously read two of Camilla Sten’s books and was looking forward to her take on a locked-room mystery in The Bachelorette, but for whatever reason, I just didn’t love this one. While I get that the genre comes with certain stylistic conventions, I felt the story lost a lot of that eerie, spine-tingling magic I’d come to associate with and love about the author’s work.

That said, the premise certainly grabs your attention. Ten years ago, four childhood friends vanished without a trace after their annual girls-getaway to a secluded island nestled off the coast of Sweden. Later, it was determined that the women must have met their ends in a tragic boating accident after a night of drinking and partying, their bodies lost to the sea. However, not everyone was convinced by the official story. For some, the unanswered questions, lack of evidence, and suspicious silence surrounding the incident felt just a little bit too tidy.

One of these individuals is Tessa, a former true crime podcaster whose career was recently derailed by a scandal. Desperate to get her life back on track, she seizes upon the opportunity to solve the decade-old mystery when her best friend Anneliese invites her to her bachelorette party. As luck would have it, the celebration is taking place at a slick new yoga retreat on the very same island from where the four women disappeared. Even more fortuitously, the retreat is run by the sister of one of the missing women, giving Tessa potential access to someone with intimate knowledge of the case. But things don’t go quite as planned. One of the rules for this spiritual weekend is a strict no-phones policy, cutting the party off from the outside world. What was meant to be a peaceful escape quickly turns into a claustrophobic nightmare as one of the guests turns up dead, and it becomes clear that the tragedy from ten years ago might not have been an accident after all. It seems history could be on the verge of repeating itself, and Tessa needs to find out why.

The Bachelorette Party had its moments, but where it felt weaker to me was in the execution of the plot twists and the overall structure of the novel itself. While using dual timelines by flipping between past and present to tell a story isn’t uncommon to see in the genre these days, there was something off about it here that made me think it was more unnecessary. The past thread was almost too bland and when the time came to tie it to Tessa and her friends in the present, I was left with an underwhelming “that’s it?” In particular, the ending was lacking the impact I was hoping for. As they say, go big or go home, and to be honest, something more outrageous or an over-the-top reveal might have been a better fit for the tone the book had been building toward.

I also had a tough time connecting with most of the characters. Tessa was the only one who stood out, owing to the fact she is one of our main POVs who had an actual backstory. But beyond her, I’d be hard pressed to remember many of the names of the rest of the group, who pretty much faded into the background like set dressing. Sure, group dynamics were present, but instead of an authentic circle of friends, they felt more like a scripted version of how our media culture thinks women behave at a bachelorette party. In fact, the whole situation felt oddly detached from the setting, as these characters could have easily been plucked from any reality TV show or soap opera. With so little to the characters, it was hard to care when things started going wrong.

That said, there were a few highlights. The island setting was perfectly atmospheric and struck a nice balance between eerie isolation and quiet natural beauty. The book was also well-paced without getting too bogged down in unnecessary exposition. Even the red herrings and side plots were engaging in their own right and kept me interested even when they later turned out to have little to do with the main mystery. It might not have been as thrilling as I’d hoped, but it was a decent page-turner that was still entertaining.

Overall, The Bachelorette Party is a fast read and would make for a pretty solid pick for the beach. It’s light, binge-worthy, and not too demanding on a brain that’s on vacation mode. Though it’s not as clever or unique as I’ve come to expect from Camilla Sten’s previous work, it’s at least full of tension and great drama when it’s at its best. Fans of locked-room mysteries might still find it enjoyable, if you don’t mind a bit of predictability.