The Alibi Club — Carrie Talick
Title: The Alibi Club
Author: Carrie Talick
Genre: Contemporary Fiction | Mystery | Romance | Heist Fiction
Format: eARC
Publisher: Alcove Press
Publication Date: September 29, 2026
Rating: ⭐⭐⭐⭐ — 4/5
Synopsis
Jamie Frisco is forty-one, single, and perfectly capable of remaining that way.
Her mother, unfortunately, has other plans.
With another wedding approaching, Jamie receives an ultimatum: bring a suitable date or risk losing her inheritance. After the horrors of online dating prove less than promising, Jamie finds herself invited to Dinner for Six, an exclusive matchmaking experience organized by the successful Lorna Gray.
Meanwhile, Cliff Weston has recently been released from prison and is determined to leave his career as a talented thief behind. He wants to build a legitimate security business using his rather unique expertise to identify weaknesses in homes and businesses.
After briefly crossing paths with Jamie, Cliff is separately recruited for the same Dinner for Six.
Six singles gather for what should be an unusual but relatively straightforward matchmaking dinner.
Instead, explosions rock the town, the restaurant descends into chaos, everyone is trapped together, and one of the biggest heists in Manhattan Beach history is unfolding somewhere beyond their disastrous dinner.
And someone at the table might know considerably more than they're admitting.
My Thoughts
I have absolutely no logical explanation for this, but somewhere during The Alibi Club, my brain started playing "Thé à la Menthe" from Ocean's Twelve and...
That became the soundtrack.
Jamie is 41, single and perfectly capable of continuing to be single, thank you very much.
Unfortunately, her mother, who is getting remarried and is, from the little we see of her, absolutely delightful...
Cough.
...has other ideas.
Jamie needs to bring a suitable date to the wedding or she can basically wave goodbye to her inheritance.
So Jamie tries dating apps.
They go about as wonderfully as you would expect, until she gets roped into something considerably more exclusive: a private matchmaking dinner for six singles, organized by a woman with quite the reputation for successfully pairing people.
Then we have Cliff, who has just been released from prison.
He's a VERY talented thief who is determined to stay on the legal side of things this time and start his own security business.
His idea is actually pretty clever: break into homes and businesses, with permission, find the weaknesses in their security and then tell the owners exactly what needs fixing.
Jamie and Cliff cross paths a couple of times before the dinner but never manage to exchange much more than five words.
Then, through completely separate circumstances, Cliff also gets recruited for Dinner for Six.
Six singles.
One fancy dinner.
What could possibly go wrong?
Apparently...
EVERYTHING.
Dinner for Six Goes Horribly, Horribly Wrong
Because while our six unsuspecting singles are trying to determine whether they've found love, or at least someone they can tolerate for the duration of dinner, something considerably bigger is happening elsewhere in town.
And then the restaurant itself descends into absolute CHAOS.
There's an explosion.
A food critic rather inconveniently...
stops reviewing things permanently.
Everyone is trapped together.
People start arguing.
Potential couples start bickering.
Secrets come out.
Meanwhile, somewhere beyond this increasingly disastrous matchmaking experiment, one hell of a heist is unfolding.
And this was where I had the most fun with the book.
The Heist
I really enjoyed discovering how the heist worked and gradually seeing why certain people were there and what role everyone had to play.
There was a purpose behind so many seemingly random things, and watching everything eventually come together was incredibly entertaining.
This is also where that completely unsolicited Ocean's Twelve soundtrack in my head became increasingly appropriate. 😂
The more pieces that fell into place, the more fun I had seeing how everything connected.
Well...
Almost everyone had a purpose.
You know who you are!!!
I'm saying NOTHING ELSE because that was hilarious and I refuse to ruin it.
Jamie & Cliff
I also enjoyed Jamie and Cliff's romance.
Their earlier little encounters made it even more fun when they finally ended up at the same dinner, and I liked watching their relationship develop in the middle of what may possibly be the worst first-date environment imaginable.
I mean...
Explosion.
Lockdown.
Death.
Massive criminal activity.
Potentially suspicious dinner companions.
Nothing says romance quite like it.
My main frustration was Jamie's tendency to jump the gun whenever something suspicious happened.
I completely understand why Cliff's history would make her cautious. The man is literally a convicted thief and they're caught in the middle of some extremely suspicious circumstances.
I would be giving him some serious side-eye too. But there were a few times when it felt like Jamie went from:
Hmm... that's suspicious.
to
IT MUST BE CLIFF.
...a little too quickly.
I wanted her to give him slightly more benefit of the doubt, particularly as they got to know each other better.
Final Thoughts
Overall, though, I had a really good time with The Alibi Club.
The matchmaking premise was fun, the restaurant was an absolute disaster in the best possible way, Jamie and Cliff's romance worked for me, and I especially enjoyed seeing the different pieces of the heist gradually fall into place.
There are a lot of moving parts, and discovering how seemingly unrelated details connected was easily my favorite part of the story.
And now, unfortunately, whenever I think about this book, my brain is probably going to go:
Thé à la Menthe...
...while imagining an elaborate robbery happening somewhere off-page.
Thanks, brain.
4⭐
ARC Disclaimer
Thank you to Alcove Press and NetGalley for the opportunity to read and review this ARC. All opinions are my own.
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