Hot Girl Murder Club by Ashley Winsted #hotgirlmurderclub @ashleywinsteadbooks @headofzeus #bookreview

 

From INTERNATIONAL BESTSELLING author Ashley Winstead comes a buzzy, bloody new thriller about success, sisterhood, and demanding justice. by any means necessary.

Wronged women always want revenge. But how far is too far?

When powerful men begin turning up dead across Los Angeles, suspicion falls on emerging pop star Scout Sage. Still haunted by her sister's mysterious death, Scout faces the collapse of her career, her reputation, and her tenuous belief in justice.

Assigned to the case is Detective Grey Holloway, whose own history sharpens every judgement. As Grey digs deeper, she uncovers whispers of the so-called Hot Girl Murder Club - a covert sisterhood of ambitious women rising through Hollywood. Women who are done waiting for the men in charge to deliver what's right, bent instead on taking it for themselves.

But are they correcting a broken system - or creating a far more dangerous one?

Would you join the Hot Girl Murder Club?

Hot Girl Murder Club by Ashley Winstead was published on 16 July 2026 by Aries / Head of Zeus. My thanks to the publisher who sent my copy for review. 

This is my first read by this author and I am told that she is never afraid to tackle difficult subjects. Hot Girl Murder Club is a provocative thriller that mixes up mystery with an excellent examination of power, privilege and justice. I found it to be an addictive read from the very first page, it is packed with tension and the premise is intriguing.

The story opens with a series of powerful men being murdered in Los Angeles, and the suspicion is on rising pop star Scout Sage. Scout is living in the shadow of her sister's tragic death years earlier, she finds herself caught up between public scrutiny and a determined detective who is convinced the answers lie somewhere within Hollywood. At the heart of the novel is the mysterious Hot Girl Murder Club, a secretive network of women who refuse to accept that the system will ever deliver justice for the women it has failed.

The story is told through many voices and timelines, and this allows the mystery to unfold bit by bit. It is a clever approach and it creates tension throughout. Although there are plenty of characters to keep track of, each has their own role within the main story, and the changing viewpoints continually add fresh layers to the narrative.

The novel explores the imbalance of power within the entertainment industry and creates difficult questions about revenge, accountability and what happens when traditional systems fail the very people they are supposed to protect. These themes are woven naturally into the story without ever slowing its pace.

Dark, entertaining and quite unpredictable, Hot Girl Murder Club is an absorbing thriller with plenty to think about long after the final page. It is both an intelligent mystery and an engrossing character driven novel. Recommended by me. 

Ashley Winstead is the author of In My Dreams I Hold a Knife, The Last Housewife, Midnight is the Darkest Hour, This Book Will Bury Me, Fool Me Once, The Boyfriend Candidate and The Future Saints. 

Her books have been translated into over a dozen languages worldwide and optioned for film/television. 

Ashley holds a Ph.D. in contemporary American literature and lives in Houston. 

You can find her at www.ashleywinstead.com.