"The Other Half" by Charlotte Vassell

An audio version of a Faber and Faber book.

Rich Rupert (soon to be a Baron) has hired a North London MacDonalds for his 30th birthday. He intends to break up with Clem (an influencer and photographer, who works in a gallery) but she doesn’t turn up. His ex, Nell, comes with Alex. They were all friends at Oxford. Nell leaves early to sleep with Alex (who she last slept with a decade before).

DI Caius, who’s breaking up with Eloise, is into self-improvement (mental and physical). He and Rupert have the same surname, Beauchamp, which causes confusion during the investigation (though they pronounce their names differently). He finds a corpse. Clem. She choked on vomit after being poisoned, then her throat was cut. She’d recently had sex, and was 6 weeks pregnant.

Nell, Clem and and Rupert fell out during a Greek holiday. Clem copied Nell - the books she read, etc.

There are collection boxes for a sham charity in some places Clem frequented. In her gym, her locker has money, a phone, and a EuroRail ticket. She was having an affair with the married gallery boss Ned, who later confesses, knowing the details of the crime, and saying he did it because she was about to expose him. But his wife Fay says she knew about it - they had an open marriage.

Nell (double first) works for a small press (mostly poetry). Rupert had tried to publish a book with them. Her boss is Jonathan, 36. She tells the police that Clem wasn't clever, that she wanted to marry Rupert because of his status. She give Caius "Persuasion" to read.

We learn that the sham charity is a front for upper class recreational drug distribution and have been known about by MI5 for a while.

A male body is found in a flat, dead a week. Strangled, half-heartedly made to look like an accident. A head is in the flat.

A video on Clem's phone shows Rupert raping Nell while clem does nothing. The police ask if Nell wants to press charges.

Rupert's sending Nell presents. She accepts his invitation to a meal. He tells her how he got rid of his girlfriends and her boyfriends by paying them off.

Fay's a classicist. She's Rupert's godmother. She curated a show in athens when the others were in Greece. She's Minty's godmother too. Minty wants to marry Rupert (they sometimes have sex) and she's friends with Nell.

Rupert's always loved Nell. He couldn't get rid of Clem because she knew about his drugs dealings and art smuggling. Ned probably confessed because he thought he was responsible for Clem's death - he'd got her pregnant.

Rupert's covering for Minty?

We're taken back to Rupert's 25th birthday party. Minty was humiliated by being thrown naked into a pond.

There's a showdown. Nell disappears. Minty is found with a blooded knife. She stabs herself and dies. Nell is found in an escape tunnel.

Minty had kidnapped 2 people. Caius blames Rupert for the deaths. At the end Eloise turns up unannounced at Caius's door.