The Dinner Club by
Saskia Noort
pbk out January 07
(Bitter Lemon Press)
at £9.99
Let nothing detract from the remarkable success that is Saskia Noort's second
Netherlands best-seller, the first by a native writer to outsell those
international names in crime and thriller writing that normally dominate her
home market. Nor does her book have much in common (praise be) with
many of those competitors. But it is difficult to see, from this side of the North
Sea, precisely why this book has so clearly tapped into the Dutch zeitgeist.
Perhaps it has something to do with its central narrative which concerns the
events that befall a group of thirty-something urban sophisticates, some with
families, fleeing the big city (Amsterdam) in search of rural quiet and security
– and finding none. Indeed it is a theme that may well find some disquieting
parallels in the UK.
Those events start with a mysterious fire that leaves one of the families
fatherless. Suicide is the theory but before long alternative explanations are
the gossip of the dinner club of the title, a loose association of the wives of the
group. Then one of the wives falls from a hotel balcony. Lead sleuth is
narrator Karen, and the glancing satire of the first few chapters gives way to
an earnest investigation of the hidden dynamics of the group, emotional and
financial. The unveiling of the culprit lacks any real
tension and, finally, surprise.
Quite a lot, then, of Desperate Housewives, as the blurb has it (including
Karen's lustful affair with one of the husbands, the "breathtaking" Simon) but
very little of the promised Patricia Highsmith.
I would not be surprised to learn however that the book's success owes most
to its female readers. Noort is particularly good on the relationships,
vulnerabilities and insecurities of her largely female characters. Perhaps it is
this aspect of the book that has struck such a chord over the water. Check out
a female reviewer without delay!
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The Dinner Club by
Saskia Noort
