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A review by cj_mo_2222
The Book Club Murders by Leslie Nagel
3.0
Charley Carpenter loves running her own clothing store, Old Hat Vintage Fashions, and she loves reading mysteries. She decides to join the Agathas Book Club to network among the wealthy residents of her town and hopefully have fun discussing various books along the way. The meetings aren’t as fun as she had hoped since most of the women are not friendly to those they consider outside small circle of friends, but Charley keeps with it for the sake of her business. Then, a murderer strikes and Charley figures out the crime have been committed in ways that have been described in two of the books on the club’s reading list. Soon, Charley finds herself assisting her nemesis Detective Marcus Trenault to solve the murders.
I love the premise of the book and found the tie-in between the crimes and the reading list books to be well-done. However, knowing a reading group was at the center of the book, I had expected a group of friends getting together to discuss books, socialize, and maybe do some crime-solving on the side. I wasn’t prepared that Charley didn’t care for most of the members and with a couple of exceptions, the other women didn’t like Charley, who was considered an outsider, or each other! Some of the woman were so pretentious and judgmental, it was hard to enjoy the exchanges between these catty women. Once the investigations of the murders began, the book get much better.
Charley’s relationship with Marc starts out as contentious and their interactions immature, but things improve once the two are able to put past grievances aside. In fact, there are a couple difference scenes between the two that were very romantic. Charley’s best friends Frankie and Dmitri are also likeable and help make up for the unappealing Agathas. There was a twist at the end that I actually saw coming. I was disappointed that Charley, an avid mystery reader and fan of Agatha Christie ended up in a dangerous situation because she overlooked an important clue that should have been obvious to her. Nevertheless, once I made it through the slow-starting beginning, I did become invested in the story and interesting to find out what would happen next. Overall, the book is light, entertaining read for mystery fans. (3.5 stars)
I received this book from NetGalley, through the courtesy of Alibi. The book was provided to me in exchange for an honest review.
I love the premise of the book and found the tie-in between the crimes and the reading list books to be well-done. However, knowing a reading group was at the center of the book, I had expected a group of friends getting together to discuss books, socialize, and maybe do some crime-solving on the side. I wasn’t prepared that Charley didn’t care for most of the members and with a couple of exceptions, the other women didn’t like Charley, who was considered an outsider, or each other! Some of the woman were so pretentious and judgmental, it was hard to enjoy the exchanges between these catty women. Once the investigations of the murders began, the book get much better.
Charley’s relationship with Marc starts out as contentious and their interactions immature, but things improve once the two are able to put past grievances aside. In fact, there are a couple difference scenes between the two that were very romantic. Charley’s best friends Frankie and Dmitri are also likeable and help make up for the unappealing Agathas. There was a twist at the end that I actually saw coming. I was disappointed that Charley, an avid mystery reader and fan of Agatha Christie ended up in a dangerous situation because she overlooked an important clue that should have been obvious to her. Nevertheless, once I made it through the slow-starting beginning, I did become invested in the story and interesting to find out what would happen next. Overall, the book is light, entertaining read for mystery fans. (3.5 stars)
I received this book from NetGalley, through the courtesy of Alibi. The book was provided to me in exchange for an honest review.