The Deadly Book Club by Lynn Liao Butler is a thriller in which one of the members of a virtual book club is murdered while the club is meeting online, and the rest of the members are left wondering if they are all at risk, or if one of them is the killer.
Told in first person from multiple points of view, we see the inner thoughts of each of the book club members. All of the women are somewhat rich, either by birth, marriage, or have built their own successful business, and somehow also became somewhat famous book influencers, and several of them have dark secrets that no one else knows. I’ll be honest, I think that I would have cared more about these women if they hadn’t all been rich from other sources, but were struggling a bit to make it as book influencers. One of the women in particular, was so self involved and entitled that it was hard to feel any empathy for her.
The premise of the mystery was interesting, unfortunately I guessed the killer and her plan right off the bat, so although I was interested enough to continue reading to see how the rest of the story played out, it did somewhat ruin the book for me.
Overall, this was just an average thriller for me. I loved that it included a book club, I wasn’t thrilled about the characters or how predictable it was, but I think some readers will enjoy it.
I received an advance review copy for free, and I am leaving this review voluntarily.
The Deadly Book Club will be available on October 21 2025.
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