Hot Girl Murder Club

This book was a bit of a rollercoaster of a reading experience for me.

It started out strong and when I was about 1/4 into the book I described it to a coworker as 'if Taylor Swift's posse went rogue and started killing people who wronged them'. The description wasn't far off.

Initially, I was pulled into the story and liked the emerging themes, but before the halfway mark things got too convoluted and overly complicated. There are two timelines (current and 10 years prior) and approximately eleventy-million characters. The two main characters - Scout and Detective Grey - were interesting, but we had so many other POVs that theirs got lost in the shuffle.  

The earlier timeline - centres on Scout Sage, a young singer whose sister is murdered at a celebrity party. This event haunts Scout who wants to find the murderer. Scout soon makes it BIG as a singer, drawing the attention of a nefarious person who leaves Scout's song lyrics at the sites of murder scenes, putting a bullseye on Scout. 

Current timeline - Grey is a police detective (who moonlights as a bottle girl in a club) whose sister was also murdered. She is investigating the murders Scout is being blamed for. Many other characters are brought into the Scout posse.

Yup. There's a lot going on. Too much, to be honest.

I loved the themes of female empowerment, women coming together to stand up to society's limited views of women and saying F-you to the patriarchy. But the story became far too convoluted, drawn out and my interest waned in the last half of the book. 

For me, this was a case of great premise but a bit too busy in the execution. But that's just my 2 cents so if you're looking for a vigilante popcorn thriller with a Hollywood vibe and an exciting over-the-top feel, then pick this book up!

Disclaimer: Thank you to Minotaur Books for the gifted digital advanced copy of this book. All opinions are my own. 

My Rating: 3 stars

Author: Ashley Winstead

Genre: Suspense

Type and Source: ebook from publisher via NetGalley

Publisher: Minotaur Books (SMP)

First Published: July 14, 2026

Read: July 5-11, 2026

Book Description from GoodReads: From national bestselling author Ashley Winstead comes a buzzy, bloody new thriller about success, sisterhood, and demanding justice…by any means necessary.

What’s a girl got to do to get some fame, a few million record sales, and justice for murder?

Ten years ago, aspiring singer-actress Scout Sage lost the only thing that her sister, Georgia. Ever since Georgia’s mysterious death at a Hollywood party, Scout’s done her best to honor her memory, clawing her way through the industry and collecting a network of climbers along the way, fellow hot girls in stilettos with cutthroat ambition, a new Hollywood order.

But when a slew of targeted murders makes headlines across L.A., all pointing to Scout as the killer, she turns overnight from a mid-tier pop star into the world’s most famous (alleged) murderer. Now everything she’s worked to build—including the justice she wants for Georgia—will fall apart unless Scout can prove she’s not guilty.

Meanwhile, the young and unusual detective assigned to her case, herself no stranger to tragedy, begins to unearth secrets not even Scout knows, let alone her millions of new fans. Particularly about the ways Georgia’s death connects to an even older pattern of crimes long hushed over in Hollywood—an old reign of terror that, if brought to light, could be the fuel that ignites a reckoning the world over.