The House on Buzzards Bay

Praise

A Town & Country Must-Read Book of Summer 2025
A Lit Hub Most Anticipated Book of 2025

“Gothic chill wafts like ocean mist throughout this tale of college friends reuniting at an old house one them has inherited.”
—Maureen Corrigan, NPR’s Fresh Air

“Murphy’s evocative novel is a noir thriller filtered through the prism of middle-aged friends dealing with the emotional weight of adulthood.”
—The Washington Post

“[The House on Buzzards Bay] inserts a David Lynchian dreaminess into a whodunit about a tight group of college friends reuniting on Cape Cod.”
—The Chicago Tribune

“Dwyer Murphy expertly crafts a sense of dread in this psychological thriller, and the last pages will have you shocked.”
—Town & Country

“[A] masterful psychological thriller. . . . Murphy takes time to flesh out each of his main characters before executing a series of dizzying rug pulls. It’s a devilish twist on the traditional locked-room mystery.”
—Publishers Weekly, starred review

“[The House on Buzzards Bay] is extremely well-crafted—it’s not just the superb writing but also the structure of the story, which grabs the reader from the opening paragraphs and keeps them constantly on their toes, trying to figure out what’s going on, and becoming increasingly concerned for the safety of these beautifully constructed characters. Murphy outdoes himself here, spectacularly.”
—Booklist

“The sly, subversive way Murphy undercuts Agatha Christie and Big Chill tropes keeps the reader on edge. . . . Another top-notch effort by Murphy, one of the most distinctive of young crime-oriented novelists.”
—Kirkus Reviews

“A classic New England literary mystery pitched somewhere between The Secret History, If We Were Villains, and L’Avventura, with all of Dwyer’s economy and wit. I loved it.” —Adrian McKinty, New York Times bestselling author of The Island

“A delicious, brooding heart-stopper of a book.” —Téa Obreht, New York Times bestselling author of Inland