I had a very good time with the first few Richard Hull books and then went on a spree and bought a couple that was available. Like any other purchase story, the book then sat unattended on a shelf for almost three years. I picked it up a couple of times to admire the paper’s quality and feel (it is pretty great), but I did not get around to reading it.
In part, this was one of the books I had my eye on when I mentioned at the beginning of the year that I wanted to read at least one of the books I own and have not touched every month. That pipe dream did not materialize, but there are still a few months left this year. Maybe I can make up for it at some point.
This is not the best by the author that I have read. It is not the way the story is told or the humour hidden behind the voices but the content itself. The story revolves around a men’s club. This is not something that would draw my attention on any average day, even though there is a lot of fodder for smaller plots. The bulk of the book takes up the running of a club in one form or the other. This seemed a little odd, to say the least!
There are a few annoying members of the club who are recognizable by sight or voice. Each of these people comes with their own brand of annoying features. One drops dead in the beginning and is suspected of having been poisoned (by mistake). Two men bond over that supposed secret until a third person sends an anonymous letter. This letter starts a chain of chaos that troubles almost everyone in the club, from the servers to the management.
There were some amusing moments, but on the whole, it did not total up to something that is comparable to the others I have read by the same author. It is probably not a good place to start for someone who has not read him before, but I am still glad I gave it a shot.
I did laugh aloud at certain scenes which overall felt like time well spent.
Superfluous Reading 