Freya Sampson's witty, warmhearted fourth novel, The Busybody Book Club, follows an ill-assorted group of avid readers with strong literary opinions who are determined to save their beloved community center--and maybe solve a murder (or two) in the process. Sampson (The Last Chance Library; Nosy Neighbors) paints a quirky, nuanced picture of small-town English life, replete with archetypes who turn out to be much more complex than they first appear.
The motley members of a book club in St. Tredock, Cornwall, are stunned when the newest among them, Michael, sprints out of a meeting and then disappears--along with £10,000 in cash meant to fund the community center's much-needed new roof. But transplanted Londoner Nova, the book club chair, may have left the door to the money unlocked. Already juggling work and wedding plans, she's now blamed for the theft.
When a dead body is discovered at Michael's house, the other club members--retired farmer Arthur, shy Star Wars-loving teenager Ash, and cranky Phyllis, who never goes anywhere without her flatulent bulldog, Craddock--begin investigating. The crew must get to the bottom of the case if they're going to salvage Nova's job (and the community center). As the book club members careen around the countryside, making multiple hilarious blunders in their crime-solving (despite Phyllis's encyclopedic knowledge of Agatha Christie), they gradually begin to trust one another with their secrets.
Packed with a range of book references (Bridgerton, Ursula K. Le Guin, and Shakespeare, to name a few), The Busybody Book Club is a testament to the delights of unexpected community and the power of stories to draw people together. --Katie Noah Gibson, blogger at Cakes, Tea and Dreams