Tangled Web UK Review January 2007
The Dinner Club by
Saskia Noort
pbk out January 07
(Bitter Lemon Press)
at £9.99
This is the second title from Dutch freelance journalist, Noort, her first was Back to
the Coast, also published in English by Bitter Lemon. The Dinner Club refers to a
group of Amsterdam escapees who have re-located to the suburbs. The husbands
are in various business deals together while the wives for the most part are in charge
of home and children. Karen (the narrator) and her family are newcomers to the
area, and the dinner club offers a welcome escape from the loneliness she's
experiencing (there's an excellent description of being completely isolated waiting to
pick up children in the school playground). It's a comfortable life until one of the men,
Evert, dies in a fire, apparently a suicide. The friends rally round hoping time will
help them deal with the tragedy. But when another club member is found dead after
a fall from a hotel balcony it looks like there is a killer in their midst. Something rotten
lurks beneath the surface of glossy suburban life, in among the secret affairs and
brooding jealousies. Who can Karen trust? An enticing story, believable in its
depiction of contemporary Dutch life among the chattering classes and very good in
its portrayal of friendship and the merciless effects of status and money on
relationships in a clique.
(
Cath Staincliffe
author of the popular Sal Kilkenny mysteries and the series creator of TV Blue Murder)
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