Hot Girl Murder Club

I hadn’t read anything by Ashley Winstead before, but I was curious about her newest release, Hot Girl Murder Club. A string of murders points to a singer, of all people, as the most likely suspect, leading to a web of complicated and overlapping stories of abuse in Hollywood… and the vengeance someone is seeking. With its focus on a musician, Scout, trying to prove her innocence and a group of women evidently demanding justice their own way, I was intrigued to see where this mystery would go.

What I Liked:

• Social issues. I was pleasantly surprised at how big of a role political issues play in Hot Girl Murder Club. So much of this feels all too relevant for our time: Rich, predatory men getting away with sexual assault and worse; economic inequality; climate change; the list goes on. This novel tackles important social and political issues and has some very clear allusions to the current leaders in the United States. I commend the author for how she handles these subjects within this novel.
• Feminist lens and tearing down the patriarchy. The so-called “hot girl murder club”—comprised of musicians, actors, models, and more—takes the concept of “girls supporting girls” to a whole new extreme. They aren’t just shoulders to cry on; these woman will threaten the people (mostly men) taking advantage of women, whether financially or through physical violence. Men are shielded from consequences far too often, so these women take matters into their own hands. Empowering!
• Justice and vengeance. Extending from the above two points, this book ultimately comes down to whether the formal justice system is working for us… and if it’s not, serving your own justice. I’m not condoning all the shenanigans going on here, but I can see why the characters feel like this is the only route left to them. They’re taking down men who deserve it, and revenge is sweet.

What Didn’t Work for Me:

• There’s too much going on. Too many characters, too many interweaving murders and cold cases, too much of everything. Normally I’m fine with multiple POV characters, but this was a rare instance where it just felt overwhelming and disjointed. If this book had cut even one plot point, it would have been tighter and more impactful overall.
• Not enough music. Part of what sparked my interest in this book was that it’s about a singer who is allegedly enacting revenge all over Los Angeles. I love books about music and musicians. But those themes were secondary here, and we don’t get to see any artistry from Scout Sage. This book is more about the various rich and famous living in the Hollywood hills, from actors and models to wealthy execs and striving bartenders hoping for their big break.
• Scout remains an enigma. She’s supposed to be this charismatic star, but she always feels out of reach and flat, in part because we never get a chapter from her perspective. As the dissertation writer Frances Vogel describes it, Scout’s entire story is narrated by those around her. She never becomes more than a vengeful façade. I wish she had felt like a more fully fleshed out and dynamic character.

Audiobook:

Brittany Pressley narrates Hot Girl Murder Club. She does well with the story, and she kept me engaged even when parts of the book dragged. However, I think this book would have benefited from multiple narrators. It would have helped to keep the many POV characters straight!

Final Thoughts

Hot Girl Murder Club is an interesting concept with a lot of great themes and social commentary, but in the end it was bogged down by just trying to tackle too much. If it had been more focused, it would have made a stronger impression.

However, this book did pique my interest in music-related thrillers, and there are more coming out soon. We’ll see how those compare to this one!

Special thanks to St. Martin’s Press, Macmillan Audio, and NetGalley for providing me with an ARC of this book!

Get the Book

You can buy Hot Girl Murder Club here – it’s available as a hardcover, ebook, and audiobook.

Hot Girl Murder Club by Ashley Winstead
Audiobook Narrator	Brittany Pressley
Audience	Adult
Genre	Mystery; Thriller
Setting	Los Angeles
Number of Pages	336
Format I Read	Audiobook & Ebook (NetGalley ARCs)
Original Publication Date	July 7, 2026
Publisher	Minotaur Books

Official Summary

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 mattered: 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 LA, 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.