The Book Club: An absolutely gripping psychological thriller with a killer twist

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Honestly, how none of them worked out Alice was turning them against each other is just beyond belief. I mean, someone new enters the friendship circle, gossip is being thrown about and suspicions are being made that were never there before - and yet they didn't think it could have been because of someone new. It literally took over half the book just for Lucy to begin figuring it out, and the only person after that is Tom and that's closer to the end.

The Book Club (Audio Download): C. J. Cooper, Mary Woodvine

The premise is great – Alice seeking revenge on Lucy (for an unknown reason at the start) by driving a wedge between friends. Doing so by creating a book club and choosing specific books to highlight and hopefully reveal their secrets. That part of the book is brilliant, the books chosen and how the group of friends react is spot on. Im usually drawn to a good old fashioned “whodunnit”. This book tells you right away who dunnit, and why. Or does it? Another thing - why Liz? Liz had sort of recognised her, but the way she said it was that she had a vendetta against Liz. It then turns out she doesn't. So why Liz? The story focuses on Lucy and Alice, and the suspense the author builds is tangible, however this ultimately results in a very disappointing conclusion. The ending feels rushed, the “revenge” is pitiful for the vehement hatred Alice supposedly feels, she drugs her and leaves her to burn alive, but doesn’t succeed. It left me with more questions than answers. How could Alice get hold of paralysing drugs and why did she let Lucy go rather than be sure she had succeed with the revenge she had plotted for so long. How on EARTH was Alice allowed to walk free when Tom had so many suspicions about Alice? It just makes no sense. There would have been a trail because the drugs obviously would have been obtained illegally. There isn’t even a passing comment from Alice about having to talk to police, apparently no one suspected anything (even though Lucy was drugged and accelerant was used for the fire) she just moved somewhere new as if nothing happened. Additionally when Lucy opens her eyes at the end I wish there was more of a conclusive ending. I loved this book - tightly plotted, edge-of-seat gripping and likely to make you want to avoid book groups for the foreseeable future! -- Sophie HannahI don’t think I have hated a character so much as I have in this book. It was written perfectly and I just couldn’t believe some of the stuff that was being done in the name of revenge. There is mistrust for all the characters and their secrets as soon as you start the book but you can't help but read it as you need to find out more! Enter Alice, who moves in next door to Lucy, Alice knows exactly who Lucy is and wants revenge...and if she finds out the secrets of the other 3 in the ‘clique’ then the more the merrier and so via a Book Club where she chooses books to match their ‘crimes’ chaos suddenly arrives, and life will never be the same for any of them However some negatives did have me rating this lower as two elements I didn't find realistic, one a friendship based one, the other right near the end but don't want to spoil it for anyone.

Lie to Me: A dark, compulsive thriller about obsession and

I raced through it - edgy, tense and wry with great foreshadowing. No one has ever asked me to join a book club - now I think it's for the best! -- Harriet Tyce Intricately plotted, this gripping thriller is written with great style and has a host of wonderful characters to be loved and hated in equal measure Ever been part of a book club? Or wondered what your seemingly respectable neighbours are really up to behind closed doors? Then C. J. Cooper’s The Book Club is the perfect suspense novel for you . . . Lucy has left her job after an affair with her boss (which she is still somewhat ashamed of), and is living in a village. She has become good friends with the other young people in the village: Maggie, Rebecca and Tom. Into their midst comes Alice, renting one of the cottages. She's the one who suggests the book club of the title. As for Lucy, she's put on edge by Alice, and comes to suspect that Alice is there to get revenge and destroy her life - but what could her motive possibly be?Right away when starting this book I had the feeling of “okay, I know what this book is about, not sure if I’m going to enjoy this.” But a little further in I realized what I thought I knew was actually wrong- and then I had to find out what happened. Unfortunately it’s everything else that falls short with the main reason being that it’s all so unrealistic. Throughout the whole book none of the friends actually talk to each other about their suspicions or the rumours that Alice (someone completely new to the village) has suggested to the other supposed best friends – that would NEVER happen in real life. There are other small and not so small bits like this that just don’t make sense – including something ridiculous at the end (all I can say with no spoilers). I was also disappointed with the motive for revenge too. I found the book quite confusing at times, one chapter was from Lucy’s point of view and then the next was always focused on other character or multiple character’s but always in the third person. Because of this, sometimes I had to reread paragraphs because I was confused who it was about. But once I got used to this style, I really did enjoy the book.

The Book Club by C. J. Cooper | Hachette UK

She then meets a new neighbour and instantly dislikes her. She can’t pin point why, but she takes an immediate dislike to Alice. The lurb for this nook was intriguing. Tom, Rebecca, Maggie and Lucy are all neighbours and friends. When they invited Alice into their group, they didn't expect to feel uncomfortable around her . Alice is not a likeable character. I fact she's a bit creepy. There is some clever twists but the pace is quite slow. Lucynis the main charactrr in the story. She had not long lived in the village herself before Alice moved there. This is quite and enjoyble read. The story follows Lucy who has moved to a cottage in the Cotswolds after an affair with her boss. She moved for a fresh start and has found her feet with a group of friends who all seem relatively close. That is until a newcomer, Alice, moves in next door to Lucy and turns her world upside down. Lucy always knows there’s something she doesn’t trust about Alice, but she can’t seem to quite put her finger on it. Alice finds out secrets about everyone in the friendship group and, after suggesting a book club for them all, manages to suggest or manipulate other people into suggesting books similar to each of the secrets they have hidden from each other.C. J. Cooper grew up in a small village in south Wales before moving to London as a student. She graduated with a degree in Ancient History and Egyptology and spent seven months as a development worker in Nepal. On her return to Britain she joined the civil service, where she worked for 17 years on topics ranging from housing support to flooding. She hung up her bowler hat when she discovered that she much preferred writing about psychotic killers to ministerial speeches. She lives in London with her husband and two cats. Absolutely love addictive psychological thrillers like Louise Candlish's Those People, Shari Lapena's The Couple Next Door and Fiona Cummins's The Neighbour? Then you will be hooked by this edge-of-your-seat novel about the dark secrets that the neighbours of one street are hiding. We learn that Lucy had an affair with her boss in London and soon other people’s secrets are being hinted at. I had some ups & downs with this, there were parts that were very slow paced & I struggled to get through, & the fact it was from lots Point Of Views without really clearly identifying it for you can be confusing at times (at least for me anyway). It also switched from first person to third often (Lucy's POV is in first, yet everyone else is in third).

The Book Club By C. J. Cooper | Used | 9781472129673 - Wob The Book Club By C. J. Cooper | Used | 9781472129673 - Wob

Smart, sassy . . . Midsomer Murders meets Desperate Housewives. Immensely entertaining, the growing sense of menace - of 'where have I seen you before?' - grips and chills in equal measures. An excellent confident debut! Alice slides her way into Lucy’s friendship group and soon suggests a weekly book club for the group. Overall a wonderful thriller, with a nice pace throughout; a perfect read especially for this time of year. Lucy has not long moved away from London to her quiet little cottage in a small Cotswold village with her small group of friends spending their time with coffee mornings, homemade biscuits and pub lunches where she is trying to start fresh and forget what happened to her. Shortly after Lucy has moved in, moves Alice next door to her. She weaves her way into Lucy’s group and suggests they start a book club. Lucy knows she can't be trusted but she doesn't know why. Alice knows who Lucy is and will stop at nothing to expose her secret. Can Lucy find out who Alice is before someone gets hurt? The writing itself was decent, but I found the changing perspectives and the jumping between past and present with no timestamps or clear indication of whose perspective we were getting unnecessarily confusing. None of the characters were particularly likeable, and I found myself not really caring about what happened to any of them. For a group of friends, they were nasty to each other, and they never communicated!Thank you to Beth @ Constable/Little Brown Book Group for my gifted ebook via NetGalley. All opinions are honest and my own. There were some times at the beginning of the story where I found it difficult to figure out who’s storyline we were reading but after a while I got to know the characters and the way the chapters were written around them. Lucy moved in the village in the Cotswolds some months earlier and is starting to feel she has made friends, with Tom, Maggie, and Rebecca. Then a newcomer moves into the house next door to Lucy. Though she seems pleasant enough there is something about the newcomer Alice that just seems a bit off. But Lucy’s other friends all think she’s fine. Then Alice comes up with the idea of a book club. But each book chosen seems to be relevant in a specific way to one of the members. As they read each book, secrets of people’s lives come to light. Lucy becomes more wary around Alice as time goes on. But what could Alice’s plan be and why? Lucy moves away from London after being made redundant and is getting to know a new group of friends. Each of the character’s secrets were interesting, and it was easy to see that they didn’t trust their friends completely as they mostly dealt with the secrets they were keeping by themselves. It was also interesting to see just how easy the odd comment from an outsider caused a rift in the friendships and it made me wonder were they really that close in the first place?