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Losers Club #1

Losers Club: A Murder Mystery

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There’s a murderer on the loose on a storm swept island cut off from the Scottish mainland.  It’s down to Losers Club, a quirky weight loss group led by the intrepid Penny Moon, to catch the culprit. 

'Written in such a brilliant way you can hear the accents of the characters as they get up to their shenanigans! We all use the phrase laugh out loud so much nowadays & I often suspect it’s not quite true. In this case however I genuinely laughed out loud on several occasions. I really enjoyed reading this book & recommend it to anyone wanting a light escape from life.'

Set against the backdrop of a storm-swept island off the Scottish mainland, this tale of intrigue and wit follows the unlikely heroes of Losers Club as they embark on a journey to catch a cunning murderer.

Led by the fearless Penny Moon, Losers Club is a group like no other – a quirky weight loss community with heart, humour, and a knack for unravelling mysteries. 

With a recommendation from Mumsnet as a must-read Summer book of 2022 and well over 1000 five-star Amazon reviews, this is a story that has captured the hearts and minds of readers across the world.

Imagine the charm of Local Hero mingling with the delightful camaraderie of the Thursday Murder Club. Losers Club seamlessly weaves together the elements of a classic murder mystery with light-hearted humour, creating an unforgettable reading experience that will keep you guessing at every turn.

The adventure unfolds when Old Archie the postman meets an unexpected end and is deposited in Mrs. Hubbard's ice cream freezer. As shock ripples through the island, it's up to Penny Moon, a woman determined to start anew after a divorce, to lead Losers Club in solving this perplexing puzzle. But with stormy weather cutting off the island from the mainland and the police nowhere in sight, the Losers must rely on their wits and each other to crack the case.

In their pursuit of the truth they stumble upon a dark secret that has been buried for generations. A secret that has now resurfaced, threatening the very fabric of the islanders' lives. With suspense mounting and danger lurking around every corner, Penny and her fellow Losers must race against time to expose the truth before it's too late.

‘A murder mystery that can also make you giggle is one to savour.’

‘Well written, with relatable characters and lashings of humour.‘

‘The story is engaging and keeps you guessing until the end. The description of Scottish weather and life on an island is captured perfectly and takes you right to the wind-blown edges of civilisation!’

‘Just the right balance of humour and mystery, I was kept in suspense all the way through. Loved all the different characters.  An easy and enjoyable read!’

‘A good read. Different, full of colourful language and even more colourful characters. Twists and turns and surprises as the book goes along.'

Are you ready to embark on an unforgettable journey filled with laughter, suspense, and unexpected revelations? Dive into Losers Club today and experience the magic for yourself.

253 pages, Kindle Edition

Published July 1, 2022

1559 people are currently reading
879 people want to read

About the author

Yvonne Vincent

38 books81 followers
As a child, I loved reading. I spent my life with my nose in a book and, when finally forced back into the real world, I wrote poetry and stories. My hero was Pam Ayres and all I wanted to be when I grew up was a librarian, so that I could be around books all the time.

Of course, life takes you on different paths. Somehow, writing poems and stories got lost along the way. I was too busy partying in London through my twenties then being a mum through my thirties and forties. But on an August morning in 2018, at the tender age of forty-eight, I decided to create a blog on Facebook. Ten minutes later, Growing Old Disgracefully was born and the love of writing came flooding back. Encouraged by my lovely readers, I finally got off my lazy behind, put fingers to keyboard and wrote my first book, The Big Blue Jobbie, then another, and another.

Once more, I have a head full of stories and I can’t wait to tell them to you.

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5 stars
1,443 (46%)
4 stars
984 (31%)
3 stars
482 (15%)
2 stars
139 (4%)
1 star
58 (1%)
Displaying 1 - 30 of 206 reviews
Profile Image for Rhona Crouthamel.
86 reviews6 followers
November 9, 2022
Sadly...

I had truly been looking forward to reading this book, but within the first five pages the conversation consisted of penises, vaginas, crude nicknames for people and multiple uses of the f*bomb.
I am not a prudish person and understand that sometimes a particular character needs to use a degree of foul language because that's what that type of person would do...a mobster, per se. But gratuitous vulgarity... Vulgarity for vulgarities sake, no, I have no time for that.
424 reviews10 followers
February 1, 2024
A funny read, set on a Scottish Island, which is cut off because of a violent storm, and then a murder takes place. Penny Moon, recently divorced, moves back to the island to her parents, setting up a weight loss group unfortunately called the losers. They start to investigate the murder and those trapped on the island. It's very funny lots of innuendo with great characters. I was glad of some Scottish dialect explained by the author at the start of the book, so I'd advise the reader not to skip this explanation. All in all, it's an enjoyable read a fun who dunnit.
Profile Image for Heather Ann McDougall.
2 reviews
October 17, 2021
I loved this book so much that I couldn't put it down, wanting to know what happened next. I felt as though I knew all the characters personally and was sad that I'd miss them when the story was done. But I've noticed that it is book 1. Can't wait for the next one to catch up with them again. 🤗
Profile Image for Jason McCracken.
1,783 reviews31 followers
December 13, 2023
I guess if you like rapid fire mum jokes and really stupid endings this might be for you.
Profile Image for Frannie Miller.
12 reviews
July 8, 2025
What a pile of shite. This was one of the most popular books on the Libby app and with it being based on a Scottish island I was excited to delve in. I spent a lot of time not really knowing any great detail and not sure who was who. The rude jokes and talk of vaginas and willies became very wearing, very quickly. I didn’t find any of it particularly funny either. I’ll not be reaching for book #2.
18 reviews1 follower
September 15, 2023
I only 2 star rated this as the book was faintly silly. The plot had the makings of a great thriller, but was completely spoilt by a gratuitous amount of swearing an innuendo. I am not a prude, but it added nothing to the book. The writing and characterisation were poor, and the story line weak. I will not be reading anymore of these books.
429 reviews1 follower
November 28, 2022
Good

It started off well but I got irritated with the endless dirty jokes, smutty references and toilet humour. I think the author was trying g to break a record for cramming in jokes.
Profile Image for Nicky.
10 reviews1 follower
July 17, 2025
I had high hopes for this book, but I found that I didn’t like the characters nor the style of writing. Everybody has different taste, I guess.
Profile Image for Zuzana Straka.
102 reviews2 followers
June 25, 2025
Děj knihy se odehrává na ostrově Vik u Skotska.

Penny sem přijíždí se svými dětmi – 16letými dvojčaty Edith a Hectorem potom, co se ji rozpadlo manželství se slavným hercem.
Penny se vrací domů k rodičům, k nelibosti dětí. Ty jsou zvyklé na pohádkový život v Londýně. Toho se však musela celá rodina vzdát, protože hlava rodiny způsobila obrovské dluhy na daních a museli vše prodat.

Penny má jasný plán o své kariéře. Chce se věnovat poradenství v zdravém životním stylu, a tak založí klub, který se má původně jmenovat Moonlite (jejich příjmení je Moon – Měsíc), no ale když ji děti pomáhají vytvořit letáky, dojde k nedorozumění a klub nazvou Loser club – klub poražených, ale slovo losers má vícero významů, tak se to dá s dávkou inspirace přeložit třeba jako klub shazovačů kil....

Každopádně, obvykle klidný a nudný ostrov překvapila násilná smrt místního pošťáka, starého Archieho, který pro plnou márnici a špatné počasí, sní svůj věčný sen v mrazáku místního zmrzlinářství mezi Cornettami.

První schůzka klubu nedopadne úplně jak si Penny představila a místo nutričních hodnot a kalorii budou jeho členové nahánět vraha.
Klub tvoří podivná a nesourodá skupina obyvatel ostrova.
Penny vytvoří sledovací dvojici s Jimmem, její středoškolskou krátkou láskou.
A brzy něčemu přijdou na kloub a bude to zajímavé tajemství, které se týka i jich samostných.

Takto. V knize bylo hodně srandy, až jsem přemýšlela nad tím, jestli je tam i někdo normální a seriózní. Penny se s Jimmem popotahovala, měli takové legračně – sexistické slovní přestřelky, někdy už to bylo moc. Si myslím. Toho sexismu tam bylo celkem dost a někdy i dost nechutných věcí, které tam podle mě byt teda nemusely.
Ale teda zápletka zajímavá, i když no.... těžko uvěřitelná.
10 reviews
October 25, 2021
I absolutely loved this book. I frequently laughed out loud and enjoyed the story immensely. An interesting and intriguing plot I hadn’t come across before, and with such colourful characters, written with such humour. A great find and I shall be reading everything from this author I can lay my hands on!
Profile Image for Sara Ennis.
Author 31 books288 followers
August 2, 2024
hilarious contradiction

Most of the time I was literally lagging out loud but then there were a couple of rather intense bits, too. Enjoyed every minute of it. And learned some new swear words!
13 reviews
February 23, 2025
Funny entertaining book

this is the first book I have laughed out loud for 10 minutes. I love the banter between the two old friends reunited to solve the murder. Loser Club refers to a group that got together to lose weight.. Very good.
Profile Image for Cas.
15 reviews1 follower
January 30, 2025
Was funny sometimes. Three stars because all the unnecessary swearing so will not be reading any more in the series.
Profile Image for Bexar Smith.
83 reviews1 follower
July 26, 2025
Great read, at first it was a bit dry but I really got into it. Some great twists and funny too.
1,995 reviews
August 20, 2023
Not the book for me.

Amazon synopsis:
When Old Archie the postman is shot and ends up in Mrs Hubbard's ice cream freezer, the whole island is aghast. Especially Mr Hubbard, who objects strongly to having to move all the ice lollies into the other freezer.

Newly divorced and desperate to make a life for herself and her teenage children, Penny Moon arrives on Vik just in the nick of time, before the island is cut off by a storm.

Her weight loss business doesn't have the best of starts, when a series of blunders leads to it being called Losers Club. However, it does have the best of people - a decent, disparate bunch who decide that, with the police unlikely to arrive any time soon and a murderer on the loose, it is down to Losers Club to investigate.

As they dig deeper into the mystery, they uncover a dark secret, kept by the older islanders for almost half a century. A secret that has come back to haunt them and threatens their very existence.
25 reviews1 follower
July 12, 2022
Slightly disgraceful laughs!

It takes all KINDS, and this author seems to have gathered together and put them in the middle of a Scotish storm. The bodies piling up in the ice lollies; ox just made me laugh aloud! Looking forward to her latest book coming out this month. We all NEED something make us laugh!
Profile Image for Barb.
1,992 reviews
April 30, 2023
3.5 stars, rounded down

I need books to fit Y spots in spelling challenges, and this book is available through Kindle Unlimited, so I decided to give it a shot. While I enjoyed it, I didn’t think it was as good as the average GR rating would indicate.

Penny, the MC, annoyed me with her parenting style – no, I’ve never dealt with teenaged twins, and no, I have never dealt with the aftermath of a celebrity marriage that’s broken up, but she’s the *parent. Allowing the kids to get away with rude behavior, slamming doors and so much more, especially with all the chaos in their lives, is not the way to go.

I did like some of the other primary characters, but only in small doses, at least until the backstory of some of them came out, then it was a bit easier to understand why they behaved the way they did. The island setting, during a storm no less, essentially turned the book into a locked room story, which made it more appealing than it might otherwise have been.

There were plenty of suspects involved, and plenty of red herrings as well, so it was hard to figure out the motive and the killer’s identity, but in the end, it all made sense. That aspect makes it more likely that I will read at least one more book from the series to see what happens next.
6 reviews1 follower
December 11, 2024
Truly Hilarious!

When I see “hilarious” or “couldn’t stop laughing” it usually, to me, means nothing funny at all and generally quite pathetic. However, very refreshingly, this did not disappoint and had me literally howling with laughter in places. The story is like a shockingly bad whodunnit cross between a parody of Midsomer Murders and Death in Paradise, which I am sure is quite intentional. The hero and heroine aka the incredibly unlikely lovers to be in the forthcoming series have a hilarious banter going on which makes the book an irresistible read. The popping the bubble wrap episode started the full belly laughs and it continued from there with the camel toe episode being the cherry on the cake. I am very much looking forward to the rest of this series! I have already recommended to my bestie who is going to read this weekend and I know will enjoy this as much as I did.
100 reviews
September 14, 2025
Oh goody! a new series to read! I ordered the 2nd book already. Clever, funny, a mystery embedded in it, "The Losers Club", about a group of people from an island off Scotland who want to lose weight but who end up trying to solve a murder mystery, was very good. Penny, newly divorced mom has come home to her family home on the Island of St. Vik to live with her teenage twins who are NOT happy about the situation. Soon after, the death of the elderly town postman due to being shot becomes an obsession of many townspeople. A storm buffets the island for over a week and no one can come to or leave the island. A group of people was brought to the island just before all this happened. The backstory of Penny and her family was quite unusual but believable. Her meeting up with an old junior high boyfriend adds humor and sweetness. I am looking forward to reading the next book.
Profile Image for BethFishReads.
683 reviews63 followers
December 1, 2025
I really wanted to like this cozy mystery set on a small Scottish island and featuring characters who are middle to older aged. Unfortunately, it just didn't work for me.

Penny returns to her small hometown after a very public divorce and decides to put her education to use by starting a weight loss/nutrition business. On the first day, though, her clients--childhood friends and acquaintances--hear of a local murder and decide to investigate.

Their investigation reveals the island's long-buried secrets.

While mystery itself was okay and the backstory had a few interesting elements, the humor was juvenile, and I don't want to listen to the rest of the books in the series. A couple of sexual puns and innuendos are fun, but there were way too many of them, and I quickly became tired of them.

The audiobook was performed by Agela Ness, who did an okay job differentiating among the characters. She handled the humor well.

This audiobook is in my personal collection.
283 reviews
March 30, 2023
A laugh out loud book with a fantastic story line.

I listened to this book, and book 2 in 1.5 days. The characters were unique with individual quirks that makes their interaction with each other even funnier to me. The plot of each story was not something that I could see coming but when it played out it all made sense.

I can’t wait for the next Audiobook installment to be released. I don’t have time to read from the actual book so rely on Audible. But honestly, the accent of the narrator gives the story more authenticity for me as I have never been to Scotland and wouldn’t have been able to hear the dialect in my own mind.

Well done Yvonne Vincent, well done.
I’ll be promoting these books any chance I get with my fellow readers.
Profile Image for Hannah Denwood.
17 reviews
March 8, 2025
My mum recommended me this book as she loved it so much that I’d hear about it every time I came home. I gave it a read, and will be very happy to tell her that I enjoyed it nearly as much as she was convinced that I would.

The characters are lots of fun, the plot is actually pretty fantastic and well contrived with lots of payoff for early moments that weren’t overly predictable, and I ran through it in two days very cheerfully. Any criticism is that the writing style is a bit sex-mad, and I think you couldn’t really go a page without there being a reference to a cock or tit or an arsehole which got pretty old like ten pages in. Saying that, I thought it was cleverly constructed and paced and I’d totally recommend— my mum will be delighted.
Profile Image for Kelly Ferrett.
287 reviews9 followers
May 12, 2023
Losers Club. A Murder Mystery (book 1). by Yvonne Vincent.
⛔️WARNING!⛔️ If you don’t like swearing (not a lot really) don’t read it!
I had no idea what I was going to get myself into when I started this book … I enjoyed it a lot .. laughed at some of the things that they would be saying to each other!
A murder happens on a island … and because of the inclement weather the police can’t get there to investigate … so a group of people .. The Losers Club .. A weight lose group … decide to investigate and find the killer … the things they do and find will keep you intrigued throughout the book …
Great read!
Profile Image for Janine.
48 reviews3 followers
August 28, 2023
Wow! I would not be surprised if I saw that they had made this into a Hallmark or Britbox movie. There are so many funny scenes in this book and these characters are top notch. Penny and Jim and their prickly kinda probably gonna be love. Her parents who have a stripper pole...the crotchety old people. Every character is real (maybe exaggerated for comic effect but not by much!) and distinct from the other characters. Lots of physical humor that my mom would have loved and that would play perfect onscreen.

The author doesn't Americanize it or try to make it plain for all. There was slang in here that I had never heard before and that was okay-that was another part of the fun of it. I had to look up "wee clootie dumpling" and it looks tasty. Enjoy!
Profile Image for fred jones.
1,785 reviews11 followers
April 15, 2025
This book is nuts. A laugh out loud murder mystery with wonderful dialogue, a cast of brilliantly weird characters and a great story. Penny, divorced, broke and with teenage twins moved back to her parents home on the island of Vik, where the postman has just been shot and the police force is stuck on the mainland because of the storm, so if course her new slimming group The Losers club (don't ask but it's the twins fault) decide to investigate. Long kept secrets The best book I have listened to this year. Angela Ness is the perfect narrator for this series. I have already bought the next one. Just brilliant.
Profile Image for Jaki.
193 reviews2 followers
September 25, 2025
A very strange little book that was not at all what I was led to believe it was. The premise sets up a murder in a quaint little village on a far northern island off the coast of Scotland, and the search to discover what happened. Then it takes a sharp left turn and goes into a whole other direction to uncover secrets that affect everyone.

I did not like the twist of where this book went, especially as I was not sold that type of book. It was well written, though, and I have dreams of the horrible, wet, rainy and foggy weather that is almost its own character in this book because it is described so well and frequently.

Not a series I will continue reading.
3 stars
59 reviews
April 16, 2023
funny with curses!

Warning: a very humorous read, but loaded with cursing and sexual innuendo! Lots of delightful characters, mostly boomers with a past. The heart of the mystery and deaths is due to the forgotten, but not gone 60’s cult, which would now be called a terrorist cult. Everyone, kids to grandparents to spies and curmudgeons had a hand in solving the crimes. Good read if you can ignore or put up with all the cursing and innuendos. (Some of them are darned funny.)
Profile Image for Sharon Lance.
197 reviews5 followers
May 9, 2024
Absolutely bloody brilliant!

I know the author from her fabulous Facebook page as the lady who is Growing Old Disgracefully which meant that I already had an idea of her personality and humour..both of which shines throughout this book!
I was a big fan of Enid Blyton's Famous Five and Secret Seven as a kid and this book is like an adult version of them.
Great characters, lots of laughs, an utterly marvellous story all tied up together very nicely. I'm looking forward to the next book in the series now. Go Losers! 😁😁❤
Displaying 1 - 30 of 206 reviews

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