Review: The Club

The Club by Ellery Lloyd
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

I received an ARC of this book.
I am rounding up from a 3.5. This was an interesting mystery. I am not quite sure how to rate it because it did have its issues, even though the story was great and I enjoyed reading it.
The book begins with what appears to be a murder at the opening of Island Home, an incredibly exclusive getaway for the incredibly rich and famous. The island is the newest addition to the Home Group: world-wide members-only resorts for the creme-de-la-creme of celebrities. The celebrities--all paying members of the Home Group--vied for highly coveted invitations to the jaw-dropping opening weekend in order to be pampered in absolute luxury. However something quite sinister is happening at Island Home. And the question then becomes what exactly is wrong with Home? Who knows what secrets are being kept, and how far will people go to keep--or reveal--those secrets? When people disappear and then dead bodies begin to pile up, it becomes obvious that it is the people who have the most who will do the most to keep themselves safe.
This was a very twisty, well-thought out mystery. The reader is never really quite sure, especially at the beginning, who has died and who might be responsible for those deaths. Tidbits are slowly revealed that shed light on what exactly happened on that fateful weekend, and what events led up to making that weekend a flashpoint for murder, vengeance, and desperation.
The big issue with the fact that tidbits are slowly revealed is that very small tidbits are incredibly slowly revealed, while buried in pages and pages of inner monologs. Characters ruminate on why they don't like other characters, or how they dealt with serious events and tragic setbacks in their life, or how they ended up in the positions they are in now...and it got a bit boring. These interludes do shine a light on how exactly everything leads up to multiple deaths on Island Home and make each circumstance very impactful, but things also could have been trimmed. A great deal of time was spent in unnecessarily detailed descriptions and ruminations on what happened in the past. If these sections had been tightened up it would have created a greater sense of suspense and urgency and would have made the book that much better. I also would have liked a little more from Ned. He was such a huge part of the story that it would have been nice to perhaps see things from his point of view or get a larger sense of who he was. Most of what the reader sees of him are interactions with other characters when he is incensed or irate or enraged. Therefor he didn't come across as a three-dimensional character until towards the very end of the book. Fleshing him out a bit would have really added some depth to the story.
I did enjoy the book and would recommend it, despite of the issues I had with it. The ending was great and I loved it. If you enjoy a slow-burn twisty mystery, then you should check this one out.

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