(Text Publishing, $37)I started reading a book called The Friday Night Knitting Club but kept putting it down and picking up this one. I suppose it shouldn’t come as a surprise that I would choose dinner over knitting! This is definitely an easy, one-sitting read if you’re in the mood for one, with the added spice of being set in the Netherlands.
When Karen moves with her husband and daughters from the bustle of urban Amsterdam to an upwardly mobile village on its outskirts, she is lonely and isolated before she discovers The Dinner Club: five couples who get together for meals and a few (hundred, quite often) drinks. But all is not as it seems with Karen’s new friends, and one cold winter’s night, Evert and Babette’s house goes up in flames, with them in it.
Babette and her children survive but the Dinner Club is rocked by Evert’s death. And then, at his funeral, Babette’s friend Hanneke wigs out and subsequently disappears. What kind of club is this?
Karen is torn between sticking to her principles and straying from the path as more and more secrets are unearthed … and she has a pretty good one of her own.
Saskia Noort’s psychological thrillers are bestsellers in the Netherlands and although in my opinion she’s not quite up there with Ruth Rendell, she’s not far behind. The Dinner Club especially appeals to me because the Dutch characters are more saucy than those you often find in English or American books. Although in many respects they’re the same as families anywhere else – keeping up appearances and doing whatever they can to defend their happiness and success. The difference here is that at the end of a big night, they all jump on their bikes and cycle home!