Review: The Widows' Club by Amanda Brooke

"When April joins a support group for young widows, she’s looking for answers after her husband’s sudden death. What she finds instead is a group in turmoil.


Set up by well-meaning amateurs, the founders are tussling for control of the group, and everyone’s on edge. Added to that, secret relationships springing up between members and another new member, Nick, seems more than a little bit shady…

But the most dangerous secret of all? Not all members are who they seem to be. And they’ll go to any lengths to hide the truth…"

I picked this up at random while shopping the other day, and felt immediately intrigued by the blurb. Never underestimate the skills of blurb writers, fellow readers. 

It's a very clever premise. In almost a closed set, with minimal other locations throughout the story, Amanda Brooke cleverly weaves together a tale of intrigue and deceit between people who are at their most raw and vulnerable. Throughout the story is a constant guessing game of whether the secrets unfurled are tame or nefarious. More importantly, who are the actors in this group? Some of the supporting characters, such as Steve and Jodie, are easy to guess. But the ones who come to the fore present more interesting conundrums. 

It's a masterclass in showing how well a writer must know their characters in order to proceed with delicate webs such as these. Any false move or step from the characters would mean that the plot would fall apart at worst, or be implausible at best. Plot and character, of course, are important, but readers won't care about the plot if they are not invested in the characters. The people in this story provoke strong emotions, so you get invested in their arcs and desperately race ahead to find their resolutions. 

I stayed up unwisely late three nights to get to the end of this story, still guessing to the very end who deserves my sympathy as the reader, or not. But the beauty of this, no spoilers, is that these people are not black and white at all. It doesn't make things neat, but it makes them real.