Prompt: A book featuring a book club

There’s loads of books you can choose for this prompt. As I’m not going to finish the challenge this year I pick something shortish that sounds good, Murder at the Book Club by Betty Reavley.

What it’s about:

Imagine nine women meeting. Tea and cake are on the coffee table. They’ve come together to share their love of books. They are friends. They trust each other. It’s a happy gathering. What could be more harmless?

Then scratch the surface and look closer.

One is lonely. One is desperate and one of them is a killer.

When the body of a woman is discovered on a Cambridge common, DCI Barrett and DI Palmer are called in to investigate. But the motive behind the crime isn’t clear… And it all leads back to a book club.

As the lies, volatile friendships and tension among the group rise to the surface, DCI Barrett and DI Palmer must work out the motive and track down a cold-blooded killer. But just when they think they are on the right track, a twist in the case throws them off course…

What I think:

Oh my. These women are all so unlikeable – even the ones who I think were meant to be sympathetic were just horrible.

And they didn’t even like each other! How this book club was continuing I do not know! The idea of the book club bringing different women with a common interest together is great but surely there would need to be some genuine friendship for it to work.

As different parts of the story were revealed the women were interesting and complex, ambitious and vengeful.

There seemed to be a lot of unnecessarily detailed descriptions of addresses in Cambridge everytime another book club member was interviewed.

Overall I was disappointed as the blurb sounded great and it just didn’t live up to my expectations. I think the comparisons to Agatha Christie are over stated but other readers have really enjoyed it.

Discover Murder at the Book Club from:

Waterstones: click here

Hive: click here