A seemingly ordinary book group holds deadly secrets in this collection of connected stories from Karin Slaughter, Lee Child, B. A. Paris, and more of the world’s leading thriller writers.
Dr. Margaret Richter has it all. She’s rich, thanks to her best-selling self-help books. She has a beautiful home in Cape Cod overlooking the beach. And she has a monthly book club that everyone is dying to get invited to.
Literally.
Because behind the crystal wine glasses, the fine linens and the catered hors d'oeuvres lies a tangled web of secrets, of deceit, of murder. No member of the book club is innocent—and many are guilty.
And the person with the most to hide is Margaret Richter herself.
With an introduction by best-selling author Jennifer Weiner, The Twisted Women’s Book Club was created in partnership with International Thriller Writers. Special thanks to Joseph Finder, Gregg Hurwitz and Kimberley Howe.
Karin Slaughter is one of the world’s most popular storytellers. She is the #1 New York Times bestselling author of more than twenty- five novels, including the Edgar nominated COP TOWN and standalone novels PRETTY GIRLS and FALSE WITNESS. An international bestseller, Slaughter is published in 120 countries with more than 40 million copies sold across the globe. PIECES OF HER, based on her novel, debuted at #1 worldwide on Netflix as an original series in 2022. Her bestselling thriller series, Will Trent, is now a television and streaming sensation in its 4th season. THE GOOD DAUGHTER will soon be a limited series starring Rose Byrne and Meghann Fahy, and further projects are currently in development for film/TV. Karin Slaughter is the founder of the Save the Libraries project—a nonprofit organization established to support libraries and library programming. A native of Georgia, she lives in Atlanta.
Neat idea but very confusing trying to keep all the short stories straight. I wanted to keep the details at top of mind so I could see how they all intertwined but it was too much and confusing.
Only on Audible, a fantastic group of short stories that really felt more like chapters of the same thriller. For me, that's the best way to get through shorts.
A group of women in Cape Cod meet monthly for book club, and this month it's a Karin Slaughter called Twisted. Each short tells the story of the women who will be in attendance and what each agenda is. Because they all have agendas.
People end up dead. These readers of murder mysteries have learned how to kill and get away with it. It's a little warped, perhaps, but lots of fun.
Like most compilations, it was a mixed bag. Not necessarily due to anyone’s talent or lack thereof, but the inherent nature of so many different voices that editors must then try to have harmonize.
The shifts in style made the piece hard to complete, and the required subtle allusion to coinciding worlds rendered me half in and half out of any sense of overall plot.
What dropped my the impression from baseline to two stars, however, was the appearance of Gregg Hurwitz in the Afterword.
After 10 hours of listening to talented women share their characters’ stories, a cis white male popping up out of nowhere was very unexpected, and was made worse by his opening of “I know what you’re thinking-“ (Not even “I know you think I know what you’re thinking.” Come on man, follow the theme!)
I believe this is the first time a man has mansplained something to me that I haven’t even had time to consider. Additionally, I cannot tell if what he added is true or a hoax. I tried researching what he said and cannot find anything other than this book. Perhaps the afterword is the mystery writer version of “there’s a monster at the end of the book” by having a real person say everything was based on a true story; one last mystery to make us feel spooked? Either way, it absolutely destroyed the world they’d just created, replacing it with….nothing.
Either it’s a true story, in which case do the sensible thing and provide information on where to learn more and donate, or just cut this last bit. An abrupt unpolished male voice in the wake of something decidedly the opposite just made it clear that he produced the project and needed to ensure his signature and ego were noted, even if it destroyed the work itself.
In sum: it’s hard to remember if the meal was spectacular if the after dinner mint left a terrible taste in your mouth.
This entire review has been hidden because of spoilers.
* Multiple short stories all interconnected by a central storyline. * Stories written by several of my favorite mystery and thriller authors (Karin Slaughter, Shari Lapena, B.A. Paris, Sarah Pekkanen, Stacy Willingham, Clare Mackintosh, Caroline Keynes, and more). * Only available as an Audible original audiobook. * Tropes/themes: * Short stories * Book club * You never really know someone * A lot of variety amongst the stories, while also sticking to the main storyline pretty seamlessly. * As always with a collection of short stories, some were better than others, but I didn’t find any to be terribly bad. * Definitely on the cheesy side but in an entertaining and humorous way. * If you don’t take it too seriously, it’s a blast. * Content warnings: * Murder/death * Infidelity * Toxic friendship * Toxic relationship
Definitely an interesting collection of short stories by some of my absolutely favorite authors. I enjoyed the different narrations for each short story other than one which was just heavily accented and I could not understand what the person was saying. Overall, I enjoyed the listen and definitely love collaboration efforts like this!
I have no idea what happened, there were so many people, so much drama and interconnecting lives that I just had a hard time understanding what was going on and how each person connected to the others outside of or because of book club. There is also so much killing it kinda got boring listening to each one and the lack of remorse or trauma from taking a life was hard to relate to. This was a fun concept, maybe better in book form, writing was good cuz each voice felt different, just not book for me or maybe my mood was bad. Try it out though if you're interested in it.
I wasn't sure what to expect with this one, but after taking a while to really "get into it", it turned out to be a fun, easy listen for free on audible. Multiple authors, multiple narrators, and multiple short stories that eventually tie together a number of mysteries surrounding women who come together as a book club, each with a past that they carry into this time frame. There's no heavy lifting with this one, but if you enjoy mysteries this might offer a few hours of enjoyment.
Great concept of interconnected stories, but there were too many short stories to keep the main arc in sight. Also, there was very little mystery in the stories. It was more like something drives someone to kill someone and the story is just an exposition on the reason for murder. Some major questions were left unanswered although there was plenty of scope since there were so many stories to scatter the clues in. Almost every story ended in a cliffhanger or a sudden plot twist or revelation which adds nothing to the story itself but simply shocks the reader. All these loose ends left untied made it irksome because there was so much potential for a more complex plot with sub-plots interconnecting as well.
(Revised to fit the limit. Enjoy ✌🏾 Listened on Audible & was just as confused as most readers so here is a full recap.The book is a set of interwoven anthologies that are all written by different authors. Two things to note: Everything beginning and ends with Margaret aka Maggie aka This Bitch AND Cape Cod. Leggo 😉
Ch.1-Margaret, in the Morning Maggie is a dreadful rich bitch who uses people in and around her life as subjects for her self help novels w/o shame or their consent. It’s a common theme throughout. Just like a narcissist with too much money and power she can’t take any hard looks at herself while criticizing others. This story is about her and her male therapist who was once her professor and fuck buddy. She used him in a book but he’s totally not salty at all. He wants her to get a life but she doesn’t want to find she is truly a trash bucket. She lost her daughter some years before, her best friend lives with her after an accident and a reporter is threatening her over a hit and run from 20 yrs ago. On top of making a career out of gossip, she also apparently fucks other women’s husbands (that’s more of a hobby though-do what you love, right) She hosts a monthly elite book club where she does most of her stealing from the women who attend. Her therapist tells her he’s retiring and moving away to which she proceeds to lose her ever loving shit when she finds out his retirement doesn’t include treating her. He’s her constant…her emotional support dick, if you will and the fact that he says he wouldn’t touch her with some other man’s penis as the person she is now she’s still determined to make him stay by any means necessary.
Ch. 2: Twisted Lucy dreamt of being an author but gave up on that years ago. Now, she is the pioneer murder novelist Barbara’s assistant. Barbara is being pushed out in her old age for hot young writers, like some chick named Phoenix. All in the same hotel for a convention Lucy runs into Phoenix and finds her to a regular, shy, and polite person who just lucked up and wrote a good book about murder. When Lucy goes to prep Barbara for her appearance, she finds her dead in the same fashion as the main character of Phoenix’s hit book. (this is all a book they are reading for book club)
Ch. 3: Beachcomer (connection Ch.1) Allison aka Ally was Maggie’s college roommate and frenemy that lives with her in present day. And, seemingly the first person she royally fucked over. Ally was the smart, responsible, loner while Maggie was the slut bucket with no direction and they only have each other. Until Maggie goes on an Eat, Pray, Love trip to India, becomes a side piece to a bunch of married men, gets herpes and comes back home to Ally for comfort and guidance. Always the loyal puppy she is welcomed w/ open arms, footing the full rent and giving her motivational gems that Maggie uses for the book that kicks off her career. Then she bails without a trace the moment the ink on her contact is signed. Ally, who is extremely co-dependent so when her mom is dying she begins “harassing” Maggie begging her to be a friend again, blaming herself for the distance between them. In a NY minute, she loses a boyfriend, her mother, and her mind behind this girl-when surprise surprise another book is released by Maggie the Magnificent cunt. It’s a collection of Allys increasingly desperate attempts for connection via transcribed voicemails, letters, calls and texts that’s sold to the highest bidder. Instead of letting go, Ally tracks her down and sees Maggie is Margaret with a family. The manipulative bitch invites her in and the trap is set. Maggy basically makes it look like Ally kidnapped her daughter when she literally hints at wanting her to take the baby out so she can sleep…before she calls the cops on her and her 3rd book is born. Ally then writes a book of whore stories about Maggie’s trysts as unsatisfying revenge becoming a drunk in the process. This chapter she is at a book club that Maggie’s aunt is hosting becoming increasingly paranoid with each passing minute. Stumbling away drunk on foot inexplicably runs into Maggie and lets her talk her into swimming despite her fear of sharks. It turns out she was right to fear them because one bypasses Maggie and comes straight for her tearing her arm completely off. This is why she lives with Maggie now.
Ch. 4: Sandra Finds a Way (connection Ch.3) Crazy, illiterate bitch has been holding some guy she used to date hostage for two months. She broke into his house once so he goes to confront her throwing around words like restraining order which she can spell but knows the meaning off. One crack over the head later she locks him in the basement planning to kill him until she’s invited to book club. Yeah, that sentence is real. He read the books and tells her about them, quizzing her so she remembers details. Until, he gets the idea to trick her giving her the wrong details about a book (big mistake). She’s exposed as illiterate (no one is unkind about it) but she turns full psycho anyway giving herself away as the one that disappeared William (the man in her basement). No one took this well but lucky for her no one seems to have any self preservation what so ever. She manages to kill every single woman there. Not a single one makes it out before she slashed and dashed! Then she comes home to a terrified William and tells him she’s joining another book club and she needs him to read the book for real this time like a well and true psycho.
Ch. 5: Such a Good Girl Kendall is sick of both her parents shit. Mom’s a drunk British slag & Dad is a rich, philandering whore. They have turns their daughter into an emotional support animal giving her detail about their sex life (or lack there of) and making her play trophy wife for events respectively. Each wants the other dead but are too fucking lazy wanting Kendall to do the whacking. Dad gets pills from the nurse he’s fucking & Mom cuts the brakes in his car using a mechanic she’s fucking. In the end, Kendall uses both of their ideas to knock them both off. Sleep tight kids.
Ch. 6: Life’s a Beach Rachel is Special Agent w/the FBI & was stationed in Cape Cod the last 2mo to expose fraud but is pulled by her boss. She doesn’t want to leave bc…of book club (😳) & Chloe, another member. Then National Security calls wanting to use her since she already there to bring down the head of an org. selling American secrets to the highest bidder. Traitor to our country…and it’s Chloe. Rachel knew that yet doth thiu protests too when they order her to take her out within the hour. They think they can sniff out her associates, one of which is Rach here. Like a proper jackass she immediately runs over to Chloe and they bail together spending days moving from country to country. To which I say…bitch you were a member of the FBI! The ppl who JUST told you to wack this chick before you & said woman IMMEDIATELY disappear! But you think they aren’t gonna put that together?! Chile, please. If they're smart they already knew that.
Ch. 7 Knives Edge I’m not gonna lie this one was boring as hell at first. Tawny has shit taste in men (pause so we can agree that’s most of us. Can I get an Amen church?). At 40 she has nothing to show for it. No job, money, education, or prospects. Homegirl is down bad. Then there’s Wade, the bag of dicks that stole money from bad people and had sense enough to mosey leaving her to pick up the pieces. After a particularly scary night visit from said men, Tawny runs to Cape Cod w/ a “borrowed” identity as Sandy, a widow. She makes friends with an older, lonely widow who takes her in even helps her get a job sharpening knives in the market place. Shes been invited by said widow to the infamous book club. But after a long life of petty crimes seeing a cop for her is like being a whore in church. Pete is a sus cop to say the least. Esp. since the last knife sharpener disappeared. O and bc he carries around a consistently sharpened bloody, hunting. Anywho, one afternoon Tawny’s luck runs out as 1 of the money men find her demanding the money that good old Wade told him she had. Pause. Now Mr. Bad Guy, can I call you Dumbass? Thank you, it’s warranted. The man stole from you and ran, yes? What makes you think he grew integrity overnight and would tell you where the money HE stole is?! Of course, he would throw the pussy he broke up w/under the proverbial bus. Hell I’d do it to my ex w/ MUCH less incentive than a snapped neck. She finds the tracker they placed on her and immediately preps to leave in the dead (no pun intended) of night so he won’t hurt her friend. But, it’s too late Mr. Dumbass has a gun to her head as soon as she steps outside. Butttttttt creepy, Pete steps out of the shadows slitting money man’s w/ the very blade Tawny sharpened for him. And looked a little too proud and not enough like he WASNT used to killing folks w/ knives for my liking, but ce la vie. Instead of adding Tawn Tawn to his probably long list of bodies he buried he tells her to…get this…run along to book club! Dude seriously?! We’re both covered in blood and I’m still not sure you’re not gonna spill mine, but yeah let’s worry about me missing out on shit talking this book with a glass of wine and sweaty cheese?! Priorities.
Ch. 8 Margaret, in the Afternoon (connects Ch.1, 3) Another chapter about how trash but successful Mags the hag is. Her therapist can’t sell his house now bc one of her boy toys is the towns Building Inspector who trumps up issues to stop the sale. How shocking. What’s REALLY shocking is how many ppl she’s still fucking while having herpes! Her book on grief about her daughter is going nowhere so Mags is returning to the rivers and lakes she’s used to and is about to churn out self help books. This go around her she’s trying to choose between 2 unsuspecting victims to exploit: Andy, an introvert that Maggie calls a pet (what a bitch) for a banger she’s going to call From Mouse to Lion: Release Your Inner Roar (eeeyuuuuuckkk). Constance is a teacher who’s starved for adult, intellectual conversation after spending all day with children and her aloof family. Maggie projects her feelings onto this woman wanting the book to reflect how much of a burden ppl in your life can be even when you sell their stories making millions without getting sued into the ground. Her book will be about purging everyone and being alone calling it Cleaning House: Purging Who and What You No Longer Need. Heavy on the who huh lol. Then, they introduce the prospect of British royalty coming to the next meeting and allude to an article coming out about the old hit and run.
Ch. 9: Memory Lane (connects Ch.1,3,7,8) Victoria Windsor is the British royalty (Dr.) Maggie is excited about due to her obsession with the royal family (pathetic). Well the woman name isn’t actually Victoria or royalty. This is Laura Harris, the 1st wife of Maggie’s ex husband Paul. She looking for a large crowd to watch her put take down the woman who ruined her life more than 10 years ago. Love it love everything. Basically, he was an Expat providing Laura’s with a lavish life (travel, servants, houses, etc)when out of nowhere he decides he wants to go back to UK and settle down. Why? He remembered they have children he never sees. Yup! I laughed out loud when she said she was shocked bche hardly ever considered them at 11 yrs old. Theyre twins, a boy and a girl whose names he pulled out his ass one day to prove a point to Laura about how much he didn’t want to be involved if she got pregnant. He didn’t mind being a father, he just didn’t want to be bothered in any way bc his career comes before ALL ELSE. He says this to her face. Man the bar is in hell. He feeds her and the kids a bunch of BS about how this move means he will be more present and home to support them. The man that probably had to look at their birth certificates to even remember their damn names. The day before the move, throws Laura some dick as what is revealed to be a goodbye fuck.12 hours later, while she’s putting on a brave face FOR HIM and the kids he drops the bomb. He’s not going with her back to the UK. He quit his job the day before AND he met someone else 6mon. ago that he’s now fucking off to the USA to be with. This why he wanted to get a place for Laura next to her mother. So, she could help with the kids and wife he was throwing in the trash. Someone kill him! Where’s Pete from Ch.7 😡?! He thinks soon enough his children will forget about him and within days he sends divorce papers and never contacts them directly again until the twins are grown and famous.
He didn’t come see his son when he was in the hospital with everything broken but his goddamn mouth. The mouth he used to tell his mom he wanted to go live with his dad and blame her for him being a shitty one all these years. God, being a mom is thankless #TeamsFuckThemKids. The little asshole forgot his father didn’t answer any of his calls or letters without her assistance but whatever Giving Tree Kid (iykyk). When they become famous Daddio pops back up wanting to be their manager and bring them to the US…and they go. They drop their mom like a bag of fiery shit for this mofo that didn’t care about them until there was something to profit off of🖕🏾. The only reason she didn’t kill herself was to get revenge. O remember that furniture Laura loved with all her heart from the Netherlands that she wanted to bring to them to the UK that old Paul talked her out of taking? Guess whose living room it’s sitting in? So fast forward 2 months before presenting day, the kids are back with her, Maggie is divorced and Laura is now Victoria ready to confront the bitch. After all…she already took care of Paul earlier that day. (Remember in Tawny’s story when her widow housemate mentioned having locking their front door at night bc a woman had killed her husband, viciously mutilating him in the town nearby? Well… they were SORT OF right 😉)
Ch. 10: That Could Never Happen (connects Ch. 2, 8) Lucy from her mom Constance aren’t close. Constance, is she’s sick of her life and everyone in it: her checked out slob of a husband Bill, her daughter Lucy living at home, working as a barista, and her son Jake who’s in his 6th year of college and still can’t stick to a major. No one’s living in reality but her and she’s tired of everyone’s shit. Book club is HER version of escapism. Tonight, on her way there she is deep in disappointment and resentment missing her turn and hitting a man who was already shot as he runs into the street. Of course, there’s no signal so even if his killer didn’t come out of the woods and shoot him again, he would have died. Only the killer is familiar as she turns the gun on Constance recognizing her as well just as she is about to pull the trigger. LMAO it’s her daughter Lucy!! 🤣 😩 The 23 year old with no direction in life and a pension for murder mysteries is a hired assassin: Avenging Angel 😂😂. They find there’s nothing like disposing of a body together to really bring out the issues between you and bond. Until the fake cop Constance doesn’t listen to Lucy about pulls them over. The one Lucy almost dies trying to save her and her mom from. Lucky for Lucy her mom doesn’t overthink decisions when it comes to her babies. She shoots him and Lucy shoves a needle in his neck to finish him off. Afterward Constance ask Lucy if she can join her and so begins the mother daughter assassin team. Their next assignment, a woman that got away with killing another woman 20 years ago in a hit and run. LOL. It just so happens Constance has a way to get to her.
This entire review has been hidden because of spoilers.
I have mixed feelings about this book. It took me a while to understand the flow of the book. Once I did, I enjoyed it more- and yet each or at least most, segments left you hanging- thinking okay, it will be resolved in the big reveal at the end- the meeting of the Book Club. There were so many story lines, so many characters to keep track of- listening on Audible it was too unwieldy to go back and reference who was who. I would have enjoyed it better I think in print. And there were some stories, I don’t think were resolved. What happened to Sandra and Will? Overall, I’m not a short story person- I want answers, closure. Having said that, I did enjoy most of the stories, as well as most of the narrators. Entertaining but I felt like it left me hangingllll
A couple of these stories were fun, but the supposed connection between them all was hard to find at some points. The concept of this project is amazing and I actually hope they do something else like this in the future.
It took me about 50% to really get into it. It was fine as background noise while I worked. My favorite story was Sandra’s (I don’t recall who wrote that one).
i loved how every short story in this book was connected. Some were better than others but overall this was amazing. i wish more books like this were published!
Great idea! Lukewarm execution. I was kind of getting invested in some of the earlier "chapters" all written by different authors but the tone, the voice, the pacing is sooo different between chapters I found myself zoning out and frankly not caring how it comes together. I did listen to the whole thing but was spacing off for most of the second half. I did not enjoy this and when I set it to listen I did not know this was a lot of different jumbled together chapters by different authors. Lots of name dropping and lots of, "oh poor me I am so famous no one realizes how hard it is!" Vomit.
3.5* I think that the idea of multiple authors contributing a chapter each to a murder mystery/suspense/thriller book is a clever idea. For me, however, there were too many characters, too many plots, too many crossovers that somewhere beyond halfway through I gave up trying to keep everyone and every situation separate which probably reduced my enjoyment and connection with the common elements amongst them.
DNF. Was not good. The begining totally turned me off. Did not love all of the modern political references and statement either. I want a book to transport me to another world, not remind me how crappy the one I am in can be.
I loved the idea of this book ,and can imagine how difficult it was for the editors to weave so many voices and stories into a cohesive narrative. Unfortunately, they didn't quite succeed. There were so many different stories that the main overreaching story arc got lost. I thought the first few stories were good at setting up the tone and premise, but as the book went on this was watered down. Many of the stories felt random and did not add to the main plot . I went into this thinking every story would eventually circle back around and weave into a cohesive outcome, but the only tie for some of them was a character mentiioning they were going to book club, or belonged to book club, but we never get any resolution. Also, so many people killed that it got predictable and a bit far-fetched. Wellfleet must have been the most dangerous place per capita in the US that summer.
It was still overall a fun read, and many great authors participated. It was like a love letter (albeit campy at times) to thrillers and women thriller writers.
The narration was pretty good overall (the story with Aly had the best narrator-- I loved her voice).
4.5 stars - A collection of short stories by several thriller authors about a book club in Cape Cod, with each story revolving around a single woman from the club. Some stories are standalones, while others connect to the main member of the book club; the host Dr. Margaret Ritcher. What kept me hooked is how each chapter is narrated by a different woman, which made it feel more real and had me feeling like I was right there watching it all go down.
This was so fun to listen to Audible did a good job with this (I might be biased considering I love B.A. Paris and she was in this). I’m not Sure if Twisted by Karen Slaughter is a real book but thanks to the book club I want to read it now.
Only reason I’m dropping half a star is because it got a bit confusing connecting everything together but overall I really loved this!